Paper short abstract:

This research explores new perspectives in acoustic ecology and investigates the role of sound in achieving connection to place. The presentation highlights the future possibilities of mobile technologies in understanding and interrogating our relationship with places and communities through sound.

Paper long abstract:

Sound has a profound ability to make us feel present and connected to our surrounding environment. Recent years have seen a proliferation of site-specific audio works exploring the possibilities of mobile technologies and locative media in place. This means at any given moment in an urban environment, we could be moving through a sound field of voices, music, memories and sonic art dispersed invisibly throughout the places we inhabit. The advancement of new technologies and the accessibility of mobile devices mean this field presents new opportunities for exploring our social, cultural and ecological environments through sound.

As locative media and augmented reality audio shifts into mainstream culture, this presentation traces creative explorations with locative sound and acoustic ecology stretching across a decade of practice. The projects facilitate new ways of listening to the environment and novel forms of experiencing, documenting and understanding acoustic ecology through embodied surround sound technologies. This research expands acoustic ecology through social engagement and ideas adopted from cultural geography, anthropology, systems thinking, aurality, phenomenology and conservation biology.

These creative projects draw on sound walking, mobile technologies and locative media to investigate the role of sound in achieving presence and connection to place and communities. The presentation highlights the future possibilities of mobile technologies in understanding and interrogating our relationship with places and communities through sound.