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IN MICROFICHE FACSIMILE
Volume 1
medieval & renaissance texts & studies
Binghamton New York
199
Sharing Experiences Towards the Possibility of an Electroacoustic Ecology
Get PDFAs I write this article, I am crossing Canada by train. Here I am even more aware than usual of my dependence on technology in order to do my work. I search through the cars for electrical outlets, and watch my battery level dwindling. Yesterday, while charging up the minidisk in the lounge car to do some more soundscape recording, I heard a group of urban twenty-somethings talking about the isolation they felt from their daily lives on this trip. They spoke of the comfort of a Walkman to avoid boredom and assert a connection to home through music, and wished that VIA Rail provided music inthe bar car. Then the conversation turned to the problem of musical choice, and how one person’s preferences might dominate the sound environment.
As an acoustic ecologist, I am concerned about the way mainstream popular music blankets almost all acoustic environments. One of my joys of the last day has been scanning the radio dial, and hearing mostly snow or white noise, like the snow that surrounds the northern Ontario track we travel on. This is one place that is not dominated by an American top forty sensibility, and like Murray Schafer, I am glad of the predominance of snow in this environment
Listening Underwater
Get PDFWithin the earth’s environments of air and water we have two radically different media for the propagation of sound. Entering the underwater environment we find ourselves in a three-dimensional space where the need to breathe becomes regulated and the buoyancy of water acts against the pull of gravity. The creatures that live in the water have responded to these pressures, developing an array of perceptual and physiological adaptations. This brings us into a world that both mirrors our understanding of sound and challenges us to investigate new definitions and relationships
Sounds From Dangerous Places: An Interview With Peter Cusack
Get PDFPeter Cusack is a sound artist/recordist and musician with special interests in environmental sound and acoustic ecology. He is particularly interested in global patterns of sonic change created by migrations of people who make and create them and by new technologies. In 1998 he initiated the on-going ‘Your Favourite London Sound’ project, which aims to find out what Londoners find positive in their city’s soundscape..
Machine Listening to Soundscapes: Playful Discovery of Sound Languages
Get PDFThis article looks into the possible repercussions of massive availability of data in Soundscape research and creation. The problem posed by large amounts of sound data is that it becomes no longer possible to review the entire sound collection of a project manually, due to practical time limits. Machine listening techniques can help to search through large sound databases, and to identify those parts of the sounds which have desired properties, or categorize sound segments into groups that share certain characteristics. However, introducing the machine as a quasi-active component in the perception, understanding and manipulation of sound requires a fundamental re-thinking of the way in which sound is perceived. The article traces some of the implications of machine listening from a general philosophical and culture-theoretical view. It identifies concepts, practices and thought movements that foreshadow the idea of machine listening, such as the concept of navigation as a fundamental component of the understanding, interpreting, and constructing of both real and virtual environ- ments. The discussion traces existing connections between pre-historic concepts such as the labyrinth and ideas that appear in the history of technology, leading to the digital computer. It is suggested that examining these ideas in relation to machine listening and contemporary soundscape practices can help both in the understanding and creative application of machine listening techniques
Sonic Ecologies: Exploring the Agency of Soundscapes in Ecological Crisis
Get PDFIn John Cage’s pivotal 1937 talk titled “The Future of Music: Credo,” he said, “I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard” (Cage 1937, 3). In 2013, Cage’s visionary genius is clearly evident with a musical world of infinite possibilities aided by technology. The dramatic advancement of technology has truly cultivated a paradigm shift in how artists interact in both physical and virtual worlds. These changes have evolved and expanded our tools of expression but most importantly they have opened the ability to communicate at a higher level in an interdisciplinary context.
In a recent edition of “Musicworks,” Joel Chadabe stated that the current artistic practices of electroacoustic composers are rooted in the idea that new technologies, unlike traditional musical instruments, can produce sounds used to communicate core messages, including information about the state of our environment. He claims that we are all participating in the emergence of a new type of music accessible to anyone, which can be used to communicate ideas that relate more closely to life than those communicated through traditional musical forms. He believes we need to think of ourselves as “leaders in a magnificent revolution rather than the defenders of an isolated and besieged avant-garde” (Chadabe 2011)
Tackling Demotivation in STEM Fields: A Student’s Perspective
Get PDFThe fields of STEM/STEAM are ones in which curiosity and creativity meet a very high level of rigor. When navigating such a field, staying motivated and maintaining belief in oneself and one’s intelligence can prove difficult. Self-doubt and discouragement quickly creep in for many students, as they did for me at times. In this piece, I give an account of my STEM journey, from high school chemistry to science fairs, the challenges and disheartening moments that I faced, and the growth and inspiration that came out of them that I take with me as I begin to pursue a career in STEM
Secret Reception
Get PDFSecret Reception combines art and bioacoustics to creatively engage the public in questions about sound reception in more-than-human worlds. This sonic art installation offers new paradigms for hearing through the design of haptic objects and tactile interfaces that use vibration to transmit sonic information. Drawing on scientific research that examines how insects detect sound through body parts, we transpose insect hearing to the human listening experience using sonic impulses that emulate the way insects receive them
The Frequent Listener
Get PDF“The Frequent Listener” is a live performance with grand piano and recorded soundscape composition in the Joan James Harris Theater at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. The fixed composition for 2-channel stereo output, was composed by Eric Leonardson, a 10-minute, 12-second duration of the audio track. With student assistants from Stetson University, Professor Chaz Underminer provided sound reinforcement operational production support. Leonardson directed two artists and conference participants, Alex Braidwood and Lisa Schonberg to perform in rather than on the piano in real time, improvising their accompaniment to the fixed “media soundscape.” 
A Soundscape of Sea Waves and Collaborative Action Research: The Case of the Nami-kozo Folktale of the Enshu-nada Sea, Japan
Get PDF This study examined rumbling emitted by the Enshu-nada Sea, with a focus on region-specific listening culture. Sea rumbling propagates over long distances in this area, where locals used its direction to predict the weather. Moreover, the connection between people and the sea is symbolized through a regionally transmitted folktale. We clarified the physical and sociocultural characteristics of sea rumbling through collaborative action research, thus demonstrating the significance of this approach in preserving and/or recovering local knowledge