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- Convenors:
-
Raffaella Fryer-Moreira
(University College London (UCL))
Sidali Sid (University College London (UCL))
Caragh Murphy-Collinson (UCL)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
How can sound contribute towards new approaches to global conservation? This panel aims to diversify current conservation discourse via multi-disciplinary sonic engagements with ecology, deconstructing barriers between indigenous forms of ecological knowledge and scientific conservation models.
Long Abstract:
As the planet faces imminent ecocide, it is becoming increasingly apparent that global conservation models are unable to address current environmental challenges. The exclusion of indigenous knowledge systems from current conservation thinking reinforces the colonial hegemony that has shaped how human-ecology relationships are understood, and the exclusion of these knowledge systems limits the ways in which these relationships can be rethought. Contemporary conversations surrounding the Anthropocene concept (Stoermer & Crutzen 2000, Chakrabarty 2009, Moore 2012, Haraway 2015) have shown how multiple perspectives on human and more-than-human entanglements are key to understanding contemporary environmental crises and developing effective ecological management strategies. Among these perspectives, new methodologies have emerged as a source of ecological knowledge, and sonic ways of knowing have taken an increasingly prominent role (Feld 2003, 2004). Sound is often an important form ecological knowledge for indigenous communities, and data sonification is an emerging form of presenting data in Western science.
This panel seeks to rethink existing concepts of conservation through the medium of sound, drawing on methodological approaches such as deep listening, field recording, data sonification, sonic ecologies, soundscaping, ambisonics, and the investigation and presentation of ecological data through sonic installations. We invite papers which draw on sound as both an object and medium of analysis, exploring the role sound can play in the production of ecological knowledge and in the development of innovative conversation strategies. We particularly welcome presentations which include a sonic component either as part of the research methodology or as a core research output.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 October, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
‘Following the Flight of the Monarchs’ is an acoustic ecology project connecting with ecosystems and communities along the migration routes of monarch butterflies as they journey between Mexico and Canada each year. Soundscapes are being livestreamed for ecosystem monitoring and use in artworks.
Paper long abstract:
Following the Flight of the Monarchs, is an interdisciplinary acoustic ecology project led by Rob Mackay, bringing together artists and scientists, connecting with ecosystems and communities along the migration routes of monarch butterflies as they travel the 3,000 mile journey between Mexico and Canada each year. The project connects with the international BIOM project which maps the changing soundscapes of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves through art, science and technology.
Streamboxes are being installed in 5 locations along the monarch butterfly migration routes between Canada and Mexico. These will livestream the soundscapes of these different ecosystems 24/7 via the Locus Sonus Soundmap (http://locusonus.org/soundmap/051/). The first of the boxes was successfully installed in the Cerro Pelón UNESCO reserve in Mexico in 2018. The streams are being used for ecosystem monitoring as well as integrating into artworks which are raising awareness of the environmental issues the monarchs face, whose numbers have declined by nearly 90% over the past two decades.
The presentation will start with a short telematic performance from musicians Rob Mackay (in the UK) and David Blink (in California), with poet Rolando Rodríguez (in Mexico) incorporating live audio streams of soundscapes and video footage from monarch butterfly reserves and video mixed live and streamed by Jessica Rodríguez from Canada.
Artefacts produced so far include a touring installation (presented at the Eden Project, and various international conferences and festivals; a networked telematic performance; and a radio programme for BBC Radio 3 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qyhz).
The project website is available here: https://followingtheflightofthemonarchs.com/
Paper short abstract:
This paper charts a series of experiments, combining an animal tracking methodology with sonic field recording as a method for ethnographic capture, whilst working with mole catchers in rural North Yorkshire.
Paper long abstract:
“Tracking means following worldly entanglements”, writes Anna Tsing. This paper charts a series of experiments, combining an animal tracking methodology with sonic field recording as a method for ethnographic capture, whilst working with mole catchers in rural North Yorkshire.
When seeking to capture an elusive wild animal such as the mole, pest control trappers are tasked to employ their full range of senses in order to engage with the behaviours, perceptions and affordances that define that animal’s world. Moles themselves navigate using a language of vibrations, reading the movements of earthworms through sensitive hairs on their bodies, and using the architectural acoustics of their tunnels to channel infrasonic sound. In order to bridge this perceptual distance, mole catchers use a variety of tools and techniques that sensitise their own human bodies, extending their reach into the vibratory umwelt of the mole. What equivalent tools and techniques might an ethnographer need to reach into the mole-catcher’s world?
This paper documents my own attempts to ‘tap in’ to this realm of human-mole communication using sonic media. Whilst anthropology’s historical tendency has been to contrast the study of ‘tacic’ (lit. silently) embodied knowledge with linguistic comprehension (Ingold 2021), I argue that a quieting of our own conscious monologue whilst engaging in the field can draw us into a deeper state of awareness and attunement with a more-than-human landscape of attention. From here, as any animal tracker will tell you, the moles, worms, soil, stones and wind have much to say.
Paper short abstract:
SONATAS is a multidisciplinary projects aiming to understand how communities perceive their ecosystems (and envisage adaptation) through their sonic environments in a context of sociological and environnemental changes, and what sounds tell us about the state of ecosystems and our societies.
Paper long abstract:
Soundscapes are now emerging as a tool to give voice to socio-environmental changes in rapidly changing territories and can feed local-scale engagement projects. Our research project Sonatas (Listening to the SOunds of NAture to undersTAnd global environmental changeS - funded by the LabEx DynamiTe and the LabEx Driihm 2018-2022) aims to understand how local communities hear, respond and adapt to changes in their territories in Arizona in the United States. These territories are subject to multiple sociological and environmental changes - global warming, water scarcity, uncontrolled urbanization, mining projects with heavy environmental consequences. Through acoustic recordings of soundscapes conducted near existing mining sites, we seek to document the impacts of mining operations on ecosystems and biodiversity. The mining territories are also places of strong mobilizations of local communities facing this exploitation of the territory which divides the inhabitants, between the will to exploit and survive economically and the need to preserve the environment. This causes many tensions within the local societies. We met with these citizens during dedicated interviews or participant observations in order to understand their perceptions (auditory but not only) of the changes and to understand the multiple actions carried out collectively to accompany or face them. Some citizens are organizing themselves to try to minimize the impact of extractions on the environment, creating more or less institutionalized groups promoting protection measures on the territories. Through Sonatas, we wish to show how, in these situations, soundscapes can be a tool for action on a local scale.