Hearing loss in adults and children is a widespread and growing problem around the world and has a negative impact on communication abilities and emotional and psychological health. Blending medical research, artistic practices, sound studies and technological innovation, ASU’s Acoustic Ecology Lab in collaboration with faculty and students from Speech and Hearing Science at ASU’s College of Health Solutions are developing new practices and tools for hearing loss awareness, prevention and rehabilitation to share with both local and global communities.
For the last 2 years we have been conducting auditory monitoring in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in partnership with the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy and the Phoenix Zoo – examining the psychoacoustic impact of traffic passing on the road that bisects the preserve and also counting and analyzing sound from aircraft overhead.
One of the recorders with a realtime clock backup battery attached and the MEMS mic with capacitor and resistor for power filtering – the Digital mic means we don’t need a mic preamp which saves lots of power draw
We have also been modeling how sound changes with weather variables and modeling how this might help us measure and predict climate impact (see the Ecosonics project and poster) – we have much more to do in terms of developing a realtime map of how the psychoacoustic parameters dynamically vary across the preserve, but the initial data is very exciting.
Initial research outcomes from EcoSonics show a strong correlation between weather data and psychoacoustic properties of environmental sound
In order to undertake this work (we now have 2 years of recordings from 14 recorders) we built 20 small sound recorders which can be deployed for long periods and take very large SD cards. Here is a link to the GitHub project detailing that recorder with uses a MEMS mic and a Teensy. The design and build instructions are available on GitHub
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31°57’2.90″N
112°51’42.09″W
We also 3D printed small cases so we could weather protect the recorders and place them inside a strong metal case associated with a camera trap at the same location. The 14 recorders are placed at 1 mile intervals, 7 miles either side of the road, so we can track changes in the environment across the 14 mile transect.
McDowell Sonoran Conservancy staff and stewards in the field setting up the field recorders
For more information on the EcoSonics project see Dr. Paine’s article in the Conversation, titled Acoustic Ecology 2.0
The theme for World Listening Day 2019 is “Listening With,” as created by composer and sound artist Annea Lockwood:
“Listening with…
listening with the neighborhood
at midnight, and again at dawn.
Listening with an awareness that all around you are other life-forms simultaneously listening and sensing with you – plant roots, owls, cicadas, voles – mutually intertwined within the web of vibrations which animate and surround our planet.”
I find the idea of “listening with” intriguing. Through my own research, weekly soundwalks, and a Deep Listening Intensive, I’ve been encouraged to listen to, with, and through my body. During a past listening meditation, I distinctly remember sitting at my kitchen table and being aware of the refrigerator’s low groans, mid-range hums, and higher crackles in and through my left lower ribs with an almost dull tingling sensation. Something about the fridge sounds resonated clearly in my body, helping me better hear the range of sounds emanating from the machine. Feeling how my body interacted with the sounds also heightened my sense of sharing the space, both sonically and physically. Sensing how the groans, hums, and crackles moved through the room and my body, I could then reflect on how my own sounds pass through spaces and impact others.
This type of reliance on embodied and multi-sensory listening – detecting changes with our skin, absorbing sound in our bodies – elevates the listening experience. It can also better connect us to ourselves and the space we’re in. Listening with our bodies to discover resonance can reveal how we’re feeling, if we’re holding tension, how we’re moving through a space, and how that space is interacting with us. “Listening with” allows for the gathering of information, which in turn can bring about empathy and care for the intertwined vibrations of people and spaces around us.
Passenger Pigeon
The American Bird Conservancy warns that “Hundreds of bird species are on track toward extinction. If these species blink out, we’ll have just one species to blame: ours.” Climate change, habitat loss, overfishing, collisions, and invasive species are among the reasons for the dwindling of almost a hundred bird species in the Americas. What will this mean for our sonic environments?
The extinction of North America’s incredibly abundant passenger pigeon in 1914 was a sonic sea-change. Simon Potagon, a member of the Potawatomi tribe and well-known writer in the 19thcentury, remembered the mesmerizing and awe-inspiring sounds of the me-me-og – the wild passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). To Potagon, the spring flocks of hundreds of thousands of travelling pigeons sounded as if “an army of horses laden with sleigh bells was advancing through the forests towards me” and like “distant thunder” getting “nearer and nearer.” He found the sound of such large flocks to be as stirring as that of the “grandest waterfall in America,” when “these birds drop from their course like meteors from heaven.” He enjoyed the sounds of their gurgles, their flapping wings and their feasting on nuts and seeds in the forest.
Wisconsin’s newspaper Commonwealthreported in 1871 that hunters dropped their guns when confronted by the avian wall of sound: “Imagine a thousand threshing machines running under full headway, accompanied by as many steamboats groaning off steam, with an equal quota of R.R. trains passing through covered bridges – imagine these massed into a single flock, and you possibly have a faint conception of the terrific roar.” Passenger Pigeon
When the settlers discovered that this bird was easily obtainable and delicious protein it only took about fifty years for the passenger pigeon to go extinct. Martha, the last member of a the species that once made up a quarter of North America’s bird population, died in the Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914 Martha died in Cincinnati Zoo (for more information see the Smithsonian Magazine
No field recordings or transcriptions of the pigeons’ calls are extant. Bohemian-born American composer Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781–1861) who witnessed large passenger pigeon flocks when he settled in America dedicated a symphonic work to this bird: The Columbiad or Migration of American Wild Passenger Pigeons(1858). Listen to a live performance of the work by the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchesta
Psychoacoustics has played an important role in automobile design for at least a decade now and this work takes it to another level – just think about those 16+ loudspeakers in your car, they are doing noise cancelling and sound sculpting to present you with an automobile sound that is largely artificial – so now you could dial in your own —
more information here in the B&K Waves Journal
to celebrate Earth Day I am going out to listen to the world – we are listening on a constant basis in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve – here is a little sample for your enjoyment on this special day
We are delighted to share our EcoRift VR experiences in an upcoming exhibition Listen to the World thanks to Darren Copeland
EcoRift: nature sojourns – Embodied sonic experiences by the Listen(n) Project
The EcoRift delivers immersive experiences of being present in highly valued natural environments without needing to travel and without degrading the environments by visitation. The prototype is designed with an explicit accessibility strategy that provides open access to the experience of pristine natural environments across the globe, including for the elderly and people with disabilities who may otherwise not have access.
EcoRift can be used in exhibitions in the partner communities and in festivals and galleries internationally. Extension to this system will allow individuals to capture their own National Park experience and upload it easily into the system.
Along with the other rich media tools developed by the project (Dr. Paine helped develop the Unity3D Ambisonic tools with Blue Ripple Sound), EcoRift directs community awareness to issues of sustainability, environmental engagement, critical enquiry and interpretative discourse around questions of how digital technology and rich media environments can be used to deepen value systems around these precious, yet fragile ecosystems. Given the ongoing need to increase ecological consciousness, the EcoRift is designed to provide new virtual immersive environmental engagement cultivating environmental awareness and community agency.
The EcoRift system was created by Dr. Garth Paine and student programmer, Andre Maestas and was launched during SXSW Eco in Austin, Texas in 2014. EcoRift experiences have been developed for each of the Listen(n) locations and this project is a core stream of the overall Listen(n) Project, democratizing access to nature and building community stewardship around important protected environments.
The success of the EcoRift experience is largely due to the fact that the PointOfView (POV) of both auditory and visual streams moves without perceptible latency and produces such a tightly correlated experience as to be perceived as an embodied relation to the content. This critical accessibility and embodiment is essential in exploring how digital technology and rich media environments can be used to create experiences of being present in remote environments.
Co-Director of the Acoustic Ecology Lab, Dr. Garth Paine wrote an article for the Conversation titled, Listening to nature: How sound can help us understand environmental change – it discusses environmental sound and how in collaboration with citizen scientists, some of our research explores how sound can be used to predict climate impact – happy readings and listening. Want more good news, sign up to The Conversation’s newsletter https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters.
Weekly Soundwalks run by Anne-Marie Shaver and Hunter Langenhorst
Wednesdays
5:15 – 6:15pm
ASU School of Music
Tempe, AZ
Meet at the fountain
Need a mid-week break? A soundwalk is the perfect way to invite relaxation in the midst of a busy schedule. We will begin and end the soundwalk at the fountain in the School of Music courtyard. The walk itself will last about 20 minutes, and all are welcome to share their observations and thoughts afterward.
Garth Paine is a researcher/composer in residence at IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris and at ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany for 2018.
He has been at IRCAM since the beginning of February developing a new concert work for field recordings and composed sound for an immersive ambisonic sound playback and for webAudio and WebVR – a truly immersive concert experience. In this talk he will demonstrate some of the technology developments and talk about the value gained by teaching listening skills and embedding acoustic ecology within the community.
The talk will be followed by a performance using your smart phone – demonstrating some fo the techniques they have been developing at IRCAM over the last 2 months.
The Acoustic Ecology Lab’s Sabine Feisst and Garth Paine and running a series of workshops with Joshua Tree National Park through the JTLab initiative.
Feel free to come and join in
Hearing Joshua Tree National Park – Workshops
Sound gives life to our environment and heightens our experience of place. Sound artists Sabine Feisst and Garth Paine offer 2-hour workshops that draw attention to nature’s pristine voices and their relationship to the environment. The workshops will teach listening skills and include creative activities such as soundwalks, sound mapping, sonic meditations and sonic story telling. These workshops also serve as a basis for their Field Recording Workshops to be offered in December 2017 and February 2018.
October 28, 2017 6-8:00 AM location: Barker Dam
October 29, 2017 7:00-9:00 AM Cap Rock
Please wear: Soft and comfortable warm clothes,
Please bring: headlight, notebook and pen/pencil.
Recording Sounds in Joshua Tree National Park – Workshop
Capitalizing on the power and beauty of sounds in the park, sound artists Garth Paine and Sabine Feisst offer 2-hour workshops that teach both listening skills and field recording techniques. These workshops include creative activities such as sonic meditations and sound mapping.
Saturday 16 December 2017, 4-6pm @ Barker Dam Car Park
Sunday 17 December 2017 , 7-9am @ Cap Rock Car Park
Saturday 17 February 2018 4-6pm @ Barker Dam Car Park
Sunday 18 February 2018 , 7-9am @ Cap Rock Car Park
Please wear: Soft and comfortable warm clothes
Please bring: headlight, notebook and pen/pencil and if available, smart phone with recording function or other portable recorder and headphones. Some recorders and headphones will be provided for use during the workshop
Joshua Tree Sonic Placemaking Workshop
This workshop directed by Garth Paine and Sabine Feisst builds on the previous listening and field recording workshops. Listening skills, field recordings and sound stories are combined into a collaborative Joshua Tree Sound Map and a musical work exhibited and performed in the park (4 and 5 May 2018).
Site: Rattlesnake room or at Black Rock camp ground
Saturday 14 April 2018, 5-7pm
Sunday 15 April 2018, 7-9am
Please bring: Notebook and pen/pencil and if available, smart phones, tablets and laptops with sounds recorded in Joshua Tree National Park.
Joshua Tree Sonic Placemaking Exhibit and Concert
4 May, 2018 – Indian Cove 7:30-9:30pm 5 May, 2018 – Harrison House in Joshua Tree (TBC)
Thanks to ASU Now for the opportunity to share my passion for how listening can make your life much richer
Garth Paine on Listening from ASU Now on Vimeo.
Listen to the sounds of the SW USA on our Listen database http://www.ecolisten.org/sonic_events.php – gathered by ASU faculty and citizen scientists in National Parks across the SW USA, the recordings help document the transformation of the environment over time due to climate change and other environmental impacts.
Photographs generously provided by Lynne Russell and Dennis Eckel
The Acoustic Ecology Lab was selected to present a poster and demonstration session on EcoRift for Health and Wellbeing at the Arizona Wellbeing Commons, hosted at the Tempe Center for the Arts on 6 September 2017. The poster presentation offered attendees of the event an opportunity to experience virtual sojourns in nature sanctuaries in the United States, Mexico and Europe, showcasing ambisonic recording technology and 3-D sound on several VR headsets. The Arizona Wellbeing Commons is a forum for interdisciplinary collaborations between Arizona’s three public universities, health providers and representatives from communities to advance research in preventive care, in the treatment of and recovery from a wide range of diseases.
The conference created a forum for artists and scientists to examine the ways in which sound can advance our knowledge about the environment. Feisst discussed Weyant’s activist creative placemaking endeavors along the U.S.-Mexico border where he turns fences into sonic bridges. Hear him talk about his work on the US/Mexico boarder on NPR
Watch Glenn Weyant talk about his work on the boarder here
Great to meet Keynote Chris Watson at the conference too.
Listen to Nature’s Symphony on International Dawn Chorus Day (May 7)
ASU’s Acoustic Ecology Lab will participate in this year’s International Dawn Chorus Day events by contributing live streaming of birdsongs from Tempe to the “Reveil” broadcast on the Sonus Locus network. In the course of 24 hours Reveil gradually moves west from microphone to microphone set up in places around the whole world to continuously feature birds singing at dawn. Go to the Locus Sonus Soundmap and tune in to the morning sounds of places near and far: http://locusonus.org/soundmap/051/.
Dawn Chorus Day is an event initiated by the Urban Wildlife Trust in Birmingham, England in 1984 and held annually on the first Sunday in May to encourage listening to bird song.
The Acoustic Ecology Lab is pleased to announce that the Joshua Tree Art Innovation Laboratory selected in a competitive review its proposed Ecolisten Artist Program. In the coming year we work with the Laboratory to conduct a series of community listening and field recording workshops in Joshua Tree National Park. These workshops will generate several creative outcomes including crowd-sourced ambisonic field recordings, audio works and virtual reality experiences.
The Joshua Tree Art Innovation Laboratory “explores new roles that arts professionals and arts students can play in helping the National Park Service pursue its mission of preservation and engagement.”
The program is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Imagine your Parks” initiative honoring the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
nature sound mapNature Sound Map is a wonderful web resource of nature recordings from all over the world – beautifully put together it acts as a portal into the sound of wilderness across the globe – go check it out for some relaxing listening experiences
Wildlife Acoustics have released Song Sleuth, an Auto bird song identifier – looking forward to testing this out in Organ Pipe Cactus national Monument this weekend
We have started several new projects working with Dr. Helen Rowe, Director of the Field Institute of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona. The projects range from looking at anthropocentric sound interference in migration pathways, to the development of sound quality metrics for environmental land management – we are thrilled to have such a strong partnership with the McDowell Sonoran Preserve – More to come on these projects as they develop
McDowell Sonoran Preserve
We have been involved in some explorations of the acoustic ecology of Costa Rica recently – in part to look at sound quality metrics for land management but also to look at using sound to track endangered species in the large nature reserves and hopefully to use the same systems for identification and early warning on gun shot and poaching activities – stay tuned for more soon……
Costa Rica
Psychoacoustics has played an important role in automobile design for at least a decade now and this work takes it to another level – just think about those 16+ loudspeakers in your car, they are doing noise cancelling and sound sculpting to present you with an automobile sound that is largely artificial – so now you could dial in your own —
more information here in the B&K Waves Journal 
