“From Psychoacoustics to citizen science: Acoustic Ecology 2.0”
October 25, 3-4PM
Presenters: Sabine Feisst, ASU School of Music, Acoustic Ecology Lab Co-Director Garth Paine, ASU School of Arts Media and Engineering, Acoustic Ecology Lab Co-Director
The Acoustic Ecology Lab listens to the Earth, from community engagement in sound monitoring through public listing walks to psychoacoustic analysis of environmental change.
Garth Paine has been working with colleagues at IRCAM developing a music performance system that moves the audience from spectator to part of the ecosystem of the work. His first major work Future Perfect was premiered at ZKM in Germany – above is a short doc on the project
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.
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.
Garth Paine, of Arizona State University, speaks at SXSW Eco in Austin, TX. SXSW Eco creates a space for business leaders, investors, innovators and designers to drive economic, environmental and social change.
Dr. Sabine Feisst and Dr. Garth Paine co-directed the Balance-Unbalance Conference at ASU in 2015. Here is a short video about the value of interdisciplinary collaboration to address climate change and other environmental issues.
