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The Absent Listener - Composing from Continuous Soundscape Recordings
Get PDFThe Absent Listener is a series of pieces derived exclusively from continuous soundscape recordings made at the author’s home in Northern Ontario Canada.
The recordings are made continuously and unsupervised. The recording process is done in this way so that the presence of the recordist has as little influence as possible on the behaviour of people, animals and insects while the recordings are taking place.
Pieces made in the series are discussed. They include two long-form soundscape works for fixed media, an online installation that generates fixed media compositions according to listener specifications and a new fixed media composition that compresses dawn recordings made over an entire year at the project location
A Sound Map of the Cache la Poudre River
Get PDFFlowing with the Cache la Poudre River, from the Continental Divide high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, cascading through diverse biomes and soundscapes and emptying into the South Platte River in the Eastern Plains of Colorado, this sonic archive of the river was recorded in 2020 and debuted as a live sound installation at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) Conference in 2023 at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Along this journey through water, we are guided by the voices of Northern Arapaho leaders, whose ancestors were stewards and listeners of the Cache la Poudre River Valley before being forced to the Wind River Reservation in 1878 by government militia. This Sound Map is dedicated to honoring those indigenous leaders, who maintain a deep relationship to the land, and a spiritual bond to the water.
You too are invited to reignite your own spiritual connection to water. Listening deeply to the natural elements, you may become more aware that they are the same elements that make up your own body. By reconnecting with your true nature, your edges may begin to soften as you glimpse your vibrant interconnectedness to the water around you, and your ancient streams within the Earth.
The voices of Northern Arapaho Leaders– Crawford White Eagle, Mark Soldier Wolf, and William Hubert Friday– are interwoven with the water soundscapes throughout. These interviews were recorded in 2018, and graciously provided by the Poudre Heritage Alliance.
With special thanks to Annea Lockwood, whose river sound maps were the original inspiration for this piece; and to Stephan Moore, whose guidance was essential to the piece’s creation.
Thank you for listening
When We Hug, I Hear Your Ear
Get PDFWith sound as a poetics in my art practice, over time I have found a permeable space from which desires and concepts can flow out of imagination into the material world. I don’t set out to make works to sound a specific way, rather I make them and then listen. This creates a more open, conceptual frame in which to work. Considering how an objector assemblage is sounding/could sound or has sounded allows space for silence, for suggestion, for becoming. This poetics, sound as a kind of skeleton key, opens an alchemical space in my practice where surprise awaits me in the studio
Embodied Listening Practices and Ruderal Ecologies
Get PDFWe propose embodied multisensory listening as a methodology of engaging with, and listening to, the complex multispecies relations of ruderal ecologies via our collaborative project in which we followed the path of the Line 3 petroleum oil sands pipeline from Edmonton, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin in August 2022, enacting close engagement with the ruderal plant species that grow atop the overturned earth of this intercontinental site of colonial extractive infrastructure. Ruderal ecologies refer to the more-than-human constellations of life that form in human modified environments that are not purely conditional to any form of human action: even as certain human groups affect change to the earth both geologically and climatically through networked systems of extraction and exchange that span the Earth through colonialism and capitalism. Working from Nigerian feminist theorist Oyeronke Oyewumi proposal of the term “world-sense,” xwélmexw artist, curator and writer Dylan Robinson’s calls for multi-sensory listening, and Hsuan Hsu’s work on of olfactory art to confront us materially with the realities of environmental risk, we consider, can a methodology of embodied listening allow us to confront the living legacies of the ongoing colonial project of extractivism and imagine shared ruderal futures from a position of listening
Spaces with Ears: Acoustic Ecology Beyond the Body
Get PDFSpaces with Ears is an ongoing project that examines the ambiguity between the speaker and the listener in the current age. Today, ownership of body and self is day by day sieged by ultra-sensitive spaces designed to perceive what we are unaware of, creating a feedback loop of redefining reality. This article explores intelligent systems that are made to listen, in which the only sound one hearsis a learnt response of the sound one produced, and through which no transfer of energy nor content is initiated except for that which feeds back into itself. Re-examining the processes, function, and meaning of sound in the present age, this paper seeks to discuss a form of acoustic ecology that's closely interfaced with today's complex sonic reality, which often exists in transgressive terms far beyond the boundaries of the body. In recursive processes, the ears invert out as the only sounding instrument and the vocal cord implodes in the attempt of speaking; within the infinite noise of feedback, we become the body without organs of Deleuze and Guatarri's fable. Along with soundscapes of urban and cyberspace reforms, the source and focal point of these longstanding vibrations are analyzed, as well as ways in which we can listen with a better understanding of our sonic agency and the ears in the room
(under)scoring the commons; Troubling the acoustics of urban renewal
Get PDFSince the 1990s, working-class regions in Australia’s major cities have undergone urban and socioeconomic development in the form of gentrifying processes that have induced negative social implications such as housing scarcity, rising living costs, and the displacement of low-socioeconomic residents. Informed by broader artistic, activist, and research practices concerned with the sonics of gentrification, ‘(under)scoring the commons’ is a creative research project I established in 2020 that aims to poetically and aurally understand how the changing soundscapes of urban environments, associated with working-class histories and memories, can index shifting social attitudes, perspectives and socialities. UTC’s main output comprises a sonic counter-archive informed by a socially-engaged compositional approach predicated on conversation and collaboration with community-ensembles and residents – alongside adequately contextualised field-recordings. With a focus on a recent iteration entitled UTC:2250 (concerned with Gosford, a low-socioeconomic area in NSW) this paper will discuss the ethical implications and creative outcomes of ‘working’ with sound in a socially situated way - framed by a critical reading of acoustic ecology
Critically Analyzing Restitution and Restorative Justice Through an Ethics of Care Lens
Get PDFIn chapter five of “The Problem of Punishment,” David Boonin (2008) describes a moral problem with punishment. He proposes relying more heavily on victim restitution within our current criminal justice system. Similarly, Jon'a Meyer (1998) explores the restorative justice framework rooted in Indigenous traditions in her article "History Repeats Itself: Restorative Justice in Native American Communities." Both make convincing arguments for alternatives to our punishment system. However, their claims are controversial because many believe that punishment is vital for a society to function (Boonin, 2008, p. 214). I will introduce the ethics of care perspective to bolster Boonin and Meyer's ideas that support restitution and restorative justice over punishment. I will argue that we should incorporate restitution and restorative justice as a gentler approach to altering our existing criminal justice system
A Defense and Evaluation of Spinoza’s Ontological Argument
Get PDFProofs for the existence of God have undergone many forms, but the tradition surrounding the Ontological Argument is highly unique in that it is typified by the search for a purely a priori method of arriving at God's necessary existence. Spinoza's Ontological Argument is well worth the attention given its uniqueness with respect to the typical Anselmian variations. Moreover, within the greater context of Spinoza's "Ethics", the argument is used to advance a wholly foreign notion of a self-contained pantheistic God. In this paper, I shall simplify Spinoza's Ontological Argument and evaluate its integrity against the many critiques that were raised against it
The Role of the Media and Civil Society in Intelligence Accountability: The Cases of Spain and Brazil
Get PDFThis article analyses the accountability of intelligence agencies in Spain and Brazil. Drawing from critical intelligence studies, this article will argue that the goal of accountability is to expand legitimacy by incorporating the civil society. This requires redeveloping the scope of intelligence and its audience beyond legal norms and traditional decision-makers. To do so, the article will consider the following actors: 1) the media; 2) whistleblowers and leaks; 3) scholars; and 4) fiction writers. These actors may complement intelligence by gathering information or acting as knowledge advisory groups. Moreover, they can also challenge intelligence by promoting deeper scrutiny and transparency, while constructing archetypes that represent secret agencies. The conclusion will summarize the strengths and limitations deriving from these actors to promote accountability. It will also claim that, through a critical approach, exploring new accountability forms are necessary to expand the social legitimacy of intelligence policies.
Received: 2022-10-07Revised: 2022-01-0