Acoustic Ecology Research Articles

Selling Nature to Save It: Approaching self-critical environmental sonic art

With similarities to the emergence in fifteenth-century landscape paintings, to poems by the Transcendentalists and to the more recent 1960s land art movement, environmental sonic art is always context-based and conjointly performs as environmental activism with aims to break down the nature/culture dualism. Nature, however, is both a material object and a socially constructed metaphor that is infinitely interpretable and ideologically malleable based on one’s values and biases. Does the environmental sonic artist acknowledge this? The theoretical framework of this article extends acoustic ecology, first theorised by R. Murray Schafer, to include environmental history and cultural theory – ultimately problematising definitions of ‘nature’ and ‘natural.’ Through this framework, the author critiques the way composer John Luther Adams represents his environmental sonic art. This analysis will illuminate a dialogue that asks, ‘What is self-critical environmental sonic art?’

Negotiated Moments: Improvisation, Sound, and Subjectivity ed. by Gillian Siddall and Ellen Waterman

Reviewed by: Negotiated Moments: Improvisation, Sound, and Subjectivity ed. by Gillian Siddall and Ellen Waterman Joel V. Hunt Negotiated Moments: Improvisation, Sound, and Subjectivity. Edited by Gillian Siddall and Ellen Waterman. (Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice.) Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016. [ISBN 9780822360827 (cloth), $104.95; ISBN 9780822360964 (paperback), $27.95; ISBN 9780822374497 (e-book), varies.] Illustrations, discography, bibliography, notes on contributors, index. Negotiated Moments: Improvisation, Sound, and Subjectivity contributes to a growing body of multidisciplinary research that resonates within the sphere of critical improvisation studies, a burgeoning field that seeks to "examine improvisation's effects, interrogate its discourses, interpret narratives and histories related to it, discover implications of those narratives and histories, and uncover its ideologies" (The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, ed. George E. Lewis and Benjamin Piekut, 2 vols. [New York: Oxford University Press, 2016], 1:3). From creative practices in music, art, dance, theater, and literature to everyday human activities, scholars of this field apply research methods from an expanding range of disciplines—musicology, ethnomusicology, [End Page 306] anthropology, psychology, cultural studies, gender studies, literary theory, and more—to engage with diverse improvisational paradigms. By virtue of its longer-standing association with improvisation, however, at present the vast majority of studies in this field center on or emanate from music scholarship and practice. Negotiated Moments is the fourth coauthored and coedited volume in Im prov i sation, Community, and Social Prac tice, a series from the International Institute for Critical Studies in Im prov isation that aims to "advocate musical improvisation as a crucial model for political, cultural, and ethical dialogue and action" (http://www.improvcommunity.ca/publications/books [accessed 6 June 2018]). Within this framework, the editors of Negotiated Moments, Gillian Siddall and Ellen Waterman, sought to "reveal the intricacies of improvisational relationships through agency and interagency, body and bodies, self and selves, sounding and (other means of) sensing" (p. 17). They argue that musical improvisation is "ineluctably embodied," and "its creative and political force is manifested through sounds and gestures that are the traces of experience" (p. 1). The sixteen essays in this collection explore intersections of music, technology, embodiment, and identity. The contributing authors discuss sound-walks and soundscapes, interactive electroacoustic music and audio art installations, multisite networked performances, free jazz, and taiko drumming. Although music is the primary focus, some contributors explore music-adjacent topics such as political street theater, kinesthetic group improvisation, and literary representations of improvisation. Despite an overwhelming North American slant, the contributors represent a diverse range of perspectives, including early-, mid-, and senior-level scholars and scholar-practitioners in music performance, composition, musicology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, gender studies, American studies, and interdisciplinary art. Their collective insights touch on a number of themes that cut to the core of critical improvisation studies. The role of listening in music improvisation emerges as an important theme. Andra McCartney (chap. 2) draws on ideas from acoustic ecology and feminist theory in describing the listening processes that inform her approach to soundwalking (walks with focus on listening to the environment). McCartney argues that participants in a curated soundwalk can play a creative, improvisatory role by remaining open to the variable possibilities of the experience. Soundwalkers have the ability to plot new pathways through a space, redirect listening attention to foreground or background sounds in the moment, and audition different listening perspectives (i.e., they can attune to the musical, historical, political, social, evocative, or sensual aspects of the sonic environment) (p. 44). McCartney also encourages soundwalkers to consider the power of "intimate listening" (from Luce Irigaray's theorizing on love)—"listening to the sound environment as if it were a dear friend or lover"—to elevate aural awareness and emphasize difference (p. 40). For readers familiar with the work of Pauline Oliveros—namely, her concept of deep listening—it will come as no surprise that her contribution also focuses on listening, as well as the embodied and cognitive processes operative in her practice as an improviser (chap. 4). Referencing neurophysiologist Benjamin Libet's work on sensory input and consciousness, Oliveros draws a parallel between the time delay that occurs in her live sampling improvisations (i.e., the initial recording of a...

Usłyszeć antropocen. O dźwiękowych reprezentacjach zmiany klimatu

To hear the Anthropocene: On sound representations of climate changeTaking up the problem of climate change, Nicholas Mirzoef, in his book How to See the World, argued that we should make it less abstract and that we need a new mode of visual thinking, adequate to the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene can also be heard and the anthropogenic impacts can have an audible dimension as well. This article provides reasons for using sounds as a medium communicating the ongoing changes and lays out different kinds of sound representations of the anthropocene demonstrated by practitioners and theoreticians of acoustic ecology and sound artists B. Krause, D. Dunn. Recordings of the environment and works by sound artists are given consideration with respect to their affective potential, their ability to influence us and our emotions, to shape a more responsible attitude to the environment that we inhabit together with the nonhuman agents.

Sound production patterns of big-clawed snapping shrimp (Alpheus spp.) are influenced by time-of-day and social context.

Snapping shrimp are perhaps the most pervasive sources of biological sound in the ocean. The snapping sounds of cryptic shrimp colonies in shallow coastal habitats worldwide create a near-continuous crackling with high spatiotemporal variability, yet the underlying acoustic ecology is not well understood. This study investigated sound production rates and acoustic behavior of snapping shrimp species common in the Western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico (Alpheus heterochaelis and Alpheus angulosus). Snap rates were measured in a controlled laboratory setting under natural light, temperature, and substrate conditions for shrimp held individually, in pairs, and in a ten-shrimp mesocosm, to test hypotheses that acoustic activity varies with time-of-day and social context. Spontaneous snapping was observed for 81 out of 84 solitary shrimp monitored. Time-of-day influenced snap output for individuals and same-sex pairs-higher rates occurred during dusk and night, compared to daylight hours, but this pattern was inconsistent for opposite-sex pairs and a mixed-sex group. These laboratory results provide insight into behavioral rhythms that may influence snapping patterns in natural populations, and underscore the limited understanding of a major sound source in marine environments.

Species Richness (of Insects) Drives the Use of Acoustic Space in the Tropics

Acoustic ecology, or ecoacoustics, is a growing field that uses sound as a tool to evaluate animal communities. In this manuscript, we evaluate recordings from eight tropical forest sites that vary in species richness, from a relatively low diversity Caribbean forest to a megadiverse Amazonian forest, with the goal of understanding the relationship between acoustic space use (ASU) and species diversity across different taxonomic groups. For each site, we determined the acoustic morphospecies richness and composition of the biophony, and we used a global biodiversity dataset to estimate the regional richness of birds. Here, we demonstrate how detailed information on activity patterns of the acoustic community (<22 kHz) can easily be visualized and ASU determined by aggregating recordings collected over relatively short periods (4–13 days). We show a strong positive relationship between ASU and regional and acoustic morphospecies richness. Premontane forest sites had the highest ASU and the highest species richness, while dry forest and montane sites had lower ASU and lower species richness. Furthermore, we show that insect richness was the best predictor of variation in total ASU, and that insect richness was proportionally greater at high-diversity sites. In addition, insects used a broad range of frequencies, including high frequencies (>8000 Hz), which contributed to greater ASU. This novel approach for analyzing the presence and acoustic activity of multiple taxonomic groups contributes to our understanding of ecological community dynamics and provides a useful tool for monitoring species in the context of restoration ecology, climate change and conservation biology.

Scientific Ideas Included in the Concepts of Bioacoustics, Acoustic Ecology, Ecoacoustics, Soundscape Ecology, and Vibroacoustics

AbstractThe paper discusses the research areas which are placed in the modern science on the borderline between ecology and acoustics. It is explained what ideas are included in the concepts of bioacoustics, acoustic ecology, ecoacoustics, and soundscape ecology. The results obtained in these domains are compared with those received in vibroacoustic research presented at the Polish WIBROTECH conference cycle. The paper suggests an inventory of research topics connected with acoustics and ecology. In the second part of the paper the author presents the possibilities of ambisonic technology of recording and listening to sounds for the analysis in bioacoustic research.

River Listening: Acoustic Ecology and Aquatic Bioacoustics in Global River Systems

River Listening is an interdisciplinary research project exploring the cultural and biological diversity of global river systems through sound. The project examines the creative possibilities of accessible and noninvasive recording technologies to monitor river health and engage local communities in the conservation of global river systems. River Listening combines emerging fields of science with acoustic ecology, creativity and digital technology to further the understanding of aquatic biodiversity and inspire action at a time when the conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems is a critical priority.

The Art and Science of Recording the Environment

The recent emergence of the interdisciplinary fields of ecoacoustics and sound studies has resulted in a dramatic increase in both artists and scientists engaged in the practice of audio field recording for a diversity of purposes. The recording techniques used vary substantially reflecting differing loci of interest. We argue that both fields could benefit from greater cross-fertilization, and enhanced discussion of existing field recording practices. We suggest acoustic ecology as a field provides a natural home for such interdisciplinary exchanges, and discuss our application of Acoustic Ecology in the Biosphere Soundscapes project.

(Re)educating the senses to multicultural communities: prospective teachers using digital media and sonic cartography to listen for culture

Attuning to the acoustic ecologies of multicultural education, this critical qualitative project interrogated how elementary prospective teachers (PST) used digital media to write community through and with sound. Examining PST produced soundscapes and the practice of sonic cartography, this study inquired how hearing difference and listening to community re-educated the senses towards issues of difference, belonging, and multiculturalism. Findings illuminate three ways in which PSTs maintained a ‘proper distance’ – a proximal, reflexive, and reciprocal stance – through digitally composing their cartographic creations and reflections. Developing materials that hear and sustain community, this study has implications for how English educators can attune to the frequencies and rhythms of culture while designing towards more equitable landscapes for learning.

Marine bioacoustics

The marine environment is the planet's largest, yet in many respects the least accessible. Our human sensory repertoire, with its emphasis on vision and air-adapted hearing, does not serve us well underwater. Underwater vision is often limited and as divers we find hearing of little, or no, use. Yet we know from the physics that underwater sound has properties well suited to serve as sensory and communication channels for suitably-adapted marine animals. The rapidly developing area of marine bioacoustics seeks to characterise underwater sound in relation to the acoustic capability of particular species (acoustic habitat), and discover the role of acoustics in the lives of marine animals (acoustic ecology) (Clarke et al., 2011).

Aural simulacra: The signal’s path to metamorphosis

Abstract Hyper-reality has often been described as the inability of perception to identify and distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. Modern thinkers and scholars such as Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard have elaborated extensively on the subject and the effect of simulations within a variety of aspects of modern life. When it comes to auditory arts and research, even though the influence of simulations may be evident, it seems to have been overlooked. With this article, I intend to scrutinize ‘aural simulacra’. During the last two centuries, the audio signal has passed through various stages of transformation; it has mutated following the rhythm of an era marked by technological advancement and a globalized plethora of ideas. For example, the phenomenon of schizophonia has rendered possible the detachment of sounds from their original source and reproducing them within a variety of different contexts. Reproductive media in their turn have evolved from carved discs to magnetic tapes and from optical means to digital abyssal clouds, matrixes of ones and zeroes promoting endless expressive possibilities. In addition, innovative diffusion methods are being introduced and virtual reality technologies have started to populate the scene. Despite the debate on whether the medium may or may not be the message, it adds to it; it acts as a catalyst to an evolutionary reaction. But what happens to the signal itself? Is it transcending to a different dimension of existence? Treating the signal as a sign, together with practice-based research, may delineate the importance of its conceptual metamorphosis and the ramifications it has for creative processes and the audience’s engagement with the sound artwork. With this article, I intend to examine the sign orders in relation to auditory reality and authenticity, the signal’s change as it may belong to the sacramental order, the order of maleficence, the order of sorcery or find itself outside of the orders of the heard as pure simulacrum. The acknowledgement of the aural simulacrum and the study of the signal’s path towards it may affect our understanding of sonic arts practice, the mediumship of the listener and related areas of research. More specifically subjects such as acoustic ecology, composition but also historical auditory research are scholarly fields that are expected to be influenced, initiating further dialogue, critical analysis and providing the foundation for further interdisciplinary research and new creative processes.

Acoustic Ecology 2.0

In this article, I argue for a reassertion of the practice of acoustic ecology. I present an argument for the rejection of the term soundscape in favour of the notion of an acoustic ecology; along the way, I show how the concept of ecology is a powerful tool in re-imaging the role of sound awareness in the society. I argue, however, that acoustic ecology as defined by Luc Ferrari and Murray Schaeffer needs refocusing or revitalizing. I suggest a framework that prioritizes community engagement, exploration, and experience of the sounding world, driven by a desire to build stewardship and agency for change management in the community. The proposed model draws on the sensibilities of acoustic ecology to drive design solutions to anthropocentric sound challenges. This kind of work provides for the development of tools that quantify environmental psychoacoustic metrics and can be used to design and manage acoustic ecologies that contribute to well-being, social cohesion, and quality of life.

Relational Listening: A Politics of Perception

Over the past half century, the practice of field recording has shifted from an ethnographic to sonic arts pursuit. This transition reflects a variety of factors including changes in access to technologies, developments in the social sciences, acoustic ecology, and understandings of how sonic phenomena can be manifest and applied beyond research applications. As an artistic practice though, field recording, and its creative root in listening, remains largely under theorized. In this article, I outline a critical approach to listening as it pertains to the practice of field recording. Placing itself within several historical and social movements, it explores the role of field recording in relation to sound phenomena, place, and listening in order to address the experiential elements of the practice. I engage with three theoretical domains: sound, place, and listening. I propose a new theoretical approach titled ‘relational listening’.

Listening to Communities and Environments

Biosphere Soundscapes is a large-scale interdisciplinary project working with local communities to explore the value of acoustic ecology in understanding rapidly changing environments. The project is delivered through immersive residencies with artists and scientists, research laboratories, and a diversity of creative projects spanning four continents in UNESCO biosphere reserves. Biosphere Soundscapes is grounded in the critical importance of community engagement in climate change mitigation and adaptation. This project explores the possibilities of emerging mobile technologies in environmental awareness and examines the importance of listening to communities and environments. In this article, I outline a series of projects that informed the development of Biosphere Soundscapes and reflects on the influence of Sonic Ecologies, an acoustic ecology framework that focuses on community engagement.

Against Listening

The practice of listening has been put forth as a corrective to humanity’s ecological insensitivity, and the artistic use of recording technology has allowed us to experience nonhuman soundscapes. Yet such acoustic ecology warrants further critical attention. In this essay, I turn to Giorgio Agamben’s notion of the sacred to show how the valorization of the listening subject can actually run contrary to ecological aims. In part, this has to do with an unresolved material politics that risks reifying old human/nature divides. To the extent that ‘listening’ has become a buzzword, I endeavour to hold on to the sonic ways of knowing implied by the term while calling for greater attention to the conditions of its practice.

Characterizing soundscapes and larval fish settlement in tropical seagrass and mangrove habitats

Recent evidence suggests soundscapes of coral reefs may provide acoustic cues that larval reef fish utilize during settlement. Seagrass and mangrove habitats are further important refuges for larvae and juveniles of many fishes; however, compared to reefs, less is known about the characteristics of tropical seagrass and mangrove soundscapes and their potential as settlement cues. We deployed light traps to assess fish larvae settlement and passive acoustic recorders to study the “ecoacoustics” at mangrove, seagrass, and coral reef sites around two bays in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Light traps were deployed nightly around the third quarter and new moon, and 24 h periods of acoustic recordings were taken during the same time. Fish larvae were counted and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Focusing on biotic soundscape components, diel trends in metrics such as sound pressure level, power spectral density, and snap counts of snapping shrimp were assessed. Although what role mangrove and seagrass soundscapes may play in fish settlement remains unclear, these soundscape and larval settlement data provide foundations for deeper investigations of the relationship between acoustic and larval ecology in these essential nursery habitats.

Seasonal acoustic ecology of beluga and bowhead whale core-use areas in the Pacific Arctic

The acoustic ecology of Arctic marine mammals is driven by anthropogenic, biotic, and abiotic factors each of which may influence the behavioral ecology of each species. The acoustic environment of bowhead (Balaena mysticetus) and beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) whales in three core-use regions of the Pacific Arctic was examined during the months in which both species occur in these regions. The Anadyr Strait region in winter was dominated by the signals of bowhead whales, walrus and bearded seals. In Bering Strait in late fall and winter, wind noise predominated in November but once the region was ice-covered, bowhead and walrus were the main sources of noise. Barrow Canyon in late summer and fall was the only region in which anthropogenic sources overlapped with both whale species. Overall, ambient noise levels were low in the Pacific Arctic when compared to other ocean basins in which anthropogenic noise dominates low frequencies. However, climate change-driven increases in open water are leading to rising noise levels from increased human use of the Arctic, increased storminess, and increased presence of vocal subarctic whales. These “new” sources of sound may be altering the underwater soundscape and possibly influencing the acoustic ecology of Pacific Arctic cetaceans.

Comparative analysis of /kwa/ fish sounds recorded during an early ecoacoustics experiment in a Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadow (Ustica Island, 1999)

Passive acoustics enables studying marine habitats thanks to the sound production of their inhabitants. A key question is: “Can fish sounds be used as environmental proxies?” Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile 1813 seagrass meadows constitute an important ecosystem of the Mediterranean Sea which protects many species of invertebrates and fishes, some of which producing sounds with distinctive features. An arched frequency modulation centred at 747 Hz which aurally sounds like /kwa/ is being investigated as an environmental proxy (Raick et al. 2017). Remarkably, these sounds were already noted as a distinctive feature of the soundscape recorded during an early acoustic ecology experiment, USTICA 99, which measured simultaneously photosynthetic gaseous exchange and fish migration at the scale of a Posidonia meadow (Hermand 2003). We revisit that dataset to describe the specific characteristics and variability of the early recorded /kwa/ sounds and make a comparison with our recent study carried out in France ab...

Listening for right whales off Brazil: Present knowledge and future research

In the Southwest Atlantic, a key southern right whale wintering ground is found off southern Brazil. Aiming to collect reference information on the acoustic ecology of right whale mother-calf pairs in the region, we used two complementary passive acoustic monitoring methods. Recordings from autonomous archival devices were used to obtain the description of pairs’ vocal repertoire: call classes were established, temporal and frequency parameters of calls were measured and reported, and the existence of a diel pattern of vocal activity was investigated. Calling rate and contextual call usage were obtained through synchronized behavioral observations and acoustic recordings made using a dipping two-unit linear array. Current knowledge about the species vocal behavior off Brazil allows an increment in the use of PAM methods as a research tool. Therefore, our plans for future research include the use of multistory tags, sound propagation, and playback experiments, and long-term deployment of autonomous devices along the whale’s concentration area. Future results will contribute to enhancing the knowledge on the species communication system and will aid habitat management decisions.

Acoustic Ecology Data Transmitter in Exclusion Zone, 10 km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Acoustic ecology data have been used for various types of soundscape investigations. Counting sounds in the soundscape is considered an effective method in ecology studies and offers comparative data for human-caused impacts on the environment. The authors constructed an Acoustic Ecology Data Transmitter in Exclusion Zone (Namie, Fukushima, Japan), 10 km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It aims to transmit and store a live stream of sound from an unmanned remote sensing station in the area. They expect this data to prove useful for studies on topics, which include radioecology and the emerging dialects for future observations.