volume 17 | 019

Celebrating 20 Years of
the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology

The Journal of Acoustic Ecology

 world forum for acoustic ecology (wfae)
The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, founded in 1993, is an international association of affiliated
The Journal of Acoustic Ecology organizations and individuals, who share a common concern for the state of the world’s soundscapes.
volume 17 | 2019 Our members represent a multi-disciplinary spectrum of individuals engaged in the study of the
issn 1607-3304 social, cultural, and ecological aspects of the sonic environment.
Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology is an
English language publication of the World Forum
for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). The publication board members of the wfae and its affiliates
is conceived as a forum for communication and
discussion about interdisciplinary research and World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) Canadian Association for Sound Ecology
practice in the field of Acoustic Ecology, focusing Executive Board: Eric Leonardson (President) (CASE) / Association Canadienne pour
on the interrelationships between sound, nature, (Individual Affiliate), Leah Barclay (Vice- l’Écologie Sonore (ACÉS) Andrea Dancer
and society. Soundscape seeks to balance its content President) (AFAE), Eric Powell (Vice-President, (Chair), Tyler Kinnear (Vice-Chair),
among scholarly writings, research, and an active Treasurer) (CASE), Jesse Budel (Incoming Eric Powell (Treasurer), Carol Ann Weaver
engagement in current soundscape issues, both in Secretary) (AFAE) (Secretary), Charlie Fox (WFAE Rep.),
and beyond academia while serving as a voice for Randolph Jordan (Blog Moderator)
the WFAE’s diverse and global community. WFAE Affiliate Representatives: Leah Barclay
(AFAE), Charlie Fox (CASE), Simo Alitalo Suomen Akustisen Ekologian Seura (Finnish
(FSAE), Andreas Mniestris (HSAE), Tadahiko Society for Acoustic Ecology—FSAE)
Editorial Committee
Leah Barclay (AFAE, Editor-in-Chief), Sabine Imada (JASE), Rob Mackay (UKISC) Meri Kytö (Chair), Simo Alitalo (Vice-Chair,
Breitsameter (ASAE), Andrea Dancer (CASE), WFAE Rep.), Kaisa Ruohonen (Secretary &
Ioanna Etmektsoglou (HSAE), Gary Ferrington WFAE Communications: Leah Barclay Treasurer), Olli-Taavetti Kankkunen, Ari
(ASAE), Meri Kytö (FSAE), Anthony Magen (Editor-in-Chief, Soundscape), Hildegard Koivumäki, Heikki Uimonen, Eeva Sairanen
(AFAE), Katerina Tzedaki (HSAE), Heikki Ui- Westerkamp (Emerita Editor-in-Chief)
monen (FSAE), Hildegard Westerkamp (CASE, Hellenic Society For Acoustic Ecology
Emerita Editor-in-Chief), Eric Leonardson Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology (HSAE) Kostas Paparrigopoulos (Chair),
(WFAE Pres.) (AFAE) Leah Barclay (President, WFAE rep.), Ioannis Matsinos (Vice-Chair), Katerina
Jesee Budel (Secretary), Toby Gifford (Trea- Tzedaki (Secretary), Kimon Papadimitriou
Issue Editors surer), Anthony Magen (Member), Andrew (Treasurer), Ioanna Etmektsoglou (Advisor),
Editor-in-Chief: Leah Barclay Skeoch (Member), Vicki Hallett (Member), Andreas Mniestris (WFAE Rep.)
Emerita Editor-in-Chief: Tristian Louth-Robins (Member)
Hildegard Westerkamp (CASE) Japanese Association for Sound Ecology
American Society for Acoustic Ecology (JASE) Tadahiko Imada (Chair), Atsushi
Layout (ASAE) Jonathan Pluskota (President, WFAE Nishimura (Secretary/Treasurer)
Andrea Schmidt Rep.) Members-at-Large: Phylis Johnson,
Thompson Bishop, Honna Veerkamp, Brandon United Kingdom & Ireland Soundscape
Cover Photo Mechtley, David Aftandilian, Jeremiah Moore, Community (UKISC) Rob Mackay (Chair,
“12 Months Over the Gulf of Carpentaria by Stephan Moore, Jay Needham, Christopher WFAE Rep.)
Grayson Cooke (for more information, see page 3) Preissing, Andrea Williams

Original Design and Soundscape Logotype

Robert MacNevin

Design and Publication

The design and publication of this edition of the
journal were made possible through membership
contributions and donations.

contributions
Contents copyright © 2019, Soundscape. Ideas for journal themes, proposals for new sections, as well as visual materials, are welcomed.
The authors retain copyright on each article. You may submit either a proposal or a complete manuscript of a potential article to Soundscape.
Republication rights must be negotiated with the The Editorial Committee would generally prefer to communicate with you beforehand
author. Credit for previous publication in regarding your idea for an article, or receive a proposal, or an abstract (contact information
Soundscape—The Journal of Acoustic Ecology must below). Please visit the WFAE website at www.wfae.net for further information and instructions for
be given. Photographers, artists, and illustrators contributions. Texts can be submitted for the following sections in the journal: Feature Articles;
retain copyright on their images. Current Research: a section devoted to a summary of current research within the field; Dialogue:
Opinions expressed in Soundscape—The Journal an opportunity for editorial comment from readers; Perspectives: reports of events, conferences,
of Acoustic Ecology are not necessarily those of installations etc.; Sound Journals: personal reflections on listening in the soundscape; Soundwalks
the Editors. from around the world; Reviews: of books, CDs, videos, websites, and other media; Students’ and/
or Children’s Writings; Quotes: sound and listening-related quotations from literature, articles,
correspondence, etc.: Please send correspondence and submissions to: Soundscape—The Journal of
Acoustic Ecology, (c/o Leah Barclay, Editor-in-Chief). Email contact: soundscape-editor@wfae.net
 oundscape
The
TheJournal
JournalofofAcoustic
AcousticEcology
Ecology
volume 6 volume
number 217| fall / winter 2005
| 019

Liliane Karnouk

Contents Editorial
Contents Editorial
II
Contribution Guidelines . . see left n the context of the upcoming WFAE he developed the Hirano Soundscape
Contribution Guidelines: inside front cover t gives me great pleasure to introduce Eric Leonardson also reflects on Nigel’s
2006 International Conference on Acoustic Museum between 998 and 2004 as part of a
Editorial the latest edition of Soundscape, and legacy in his report and I wanted to take a
Editorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1. 
by Leah Barclay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ecology in Hirosaki, Japan, November grass-roots activity for community develop-
profile the incredible diversity of acous- few words to highlight his incredible impact
2—6, 2006, it is with great pleasure that ment. It is not only a fascinating account
Report from the Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 tic ecology practice and research currently on the field of acoustic ecology in Australia.
Listening Invocation we are presenting you with an issue of of the author’s own deepening involvement
happening in Australia. Over the last 20 As a founding member of the AFAE, he
by Vicki Saunders
Regional Activity and
Reports Gayle. .Munn . . . . . . . .. . 5. . . 2 Soundscape whose focus is on Japan. with and understanding of the community
years, acoustic ecology has evolved across spearheaded many activities over the years,
UKISC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Soundscape research and education as the project progresses, but also a descrip-
Regional Activity the country as a highly interdisciplinary, including the 2003 WFAE conference in
AFAE . . . . . . Report
. . . . . . . ... .. .. . .. 6. . . 2 in Japan began in the second half of the tion of how the development of the Hirano
dynamic field with increased engagement Melbourne; a pivotal event for many people,
FSAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1980s through the single-handed initiative Soundscape Museum can, as he says, “poten-
Nigel frayne Memorial across environmental sciences, architecture, nationally and internationally. As the first
JASE . . . . . . . . .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . .. 7. . . 3
Hildegard Westerkamp. of Keiko Torigoe, who had come to Canada tially provide a conceptual base and some
health, digital technology, creative arts and and longest-standing chair of the WFAE,
CASE/ACÉS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 completing her Master’s degree at York methods and tools for soundscape design.”
humanities. The last decade has seen a strong his commitment, passion, persistence and
ASAE WFAE
Report from . . . . . . .President
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 University in Toronto researching and writ- In the third article of this issue Acoustic
emergence of socially engaged practice and dedication transformed the organisation
by Eric Leonardson.
FKL . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. . 5 ing about the work of the World Soundscape Ecology Considered as a Connotation:
sonic activism along with a rapid increase in into a truly global network. As the current
Project at Simon Fraser University. Since Semiotic, Post-Colonial and Educational
DialogueArticles
Feature ...........................5 academic research with large-scale projects president of the AFAE and a committee
her return to Japan she involved herself Views of Soundscape, Tadahiko Imada
The Acoustic Sanctuary: supported by highly competitive national member for many years prior, I certainly
deeply and continuously in the study of the intensely examines the usefulness of sound-
Feature Articles
A Dedicated Listening Place funding opportunities. These have recently would not have been able to step into the
Japanese soundscape, in educational and scape studies—“to simply listen to sounds
by Ros Bandt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 included a prestigious national fellowship roles I have with the AFAE and WFAE
Insights Taken from Three Visited soundscape design projects, raising more critically and socio-culturally”—as a way to
for Jordan Lacey’s research on urban sound- without the consistent advice, guidance and
Soundscapes in Japan
Intersecting Place, Environment, and more awareness of soundscape studies reconnect to Japanese roots in the face of
scape design to assist in the management support from Nigel. His passing was a huge
By
Sound, and Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Keiko Torigoe and acoustic ecology in her own country. years of much exposure to and imposition
of the built environment and The Acoustic loss for the international acoustic ecology
by Vanessa Tomlinson . . . . . . . . .
as a 19 Aside from translating R. Murray of Western thought.
Acoustic Ecology Considered Observatory—a continental-scale acoustic community and has certainly had a signifi-
Schafer’s The Tuning of the World (in 986) In the Perspectives section you will find
Connotation: Semiotic, Post-Colonial sensor network, recording for a five-year cant impact on the AFAE and the WFAE. In
The Sound of Place: and his Sound Education (in 992) into an interesting variety of reports, which
and Educational Views of Soundscape
Environmental Artworks at Bundanon period with 400 continuously operating Australia, we continue to explore appropriate
Japanese, as well as introducing some of take us to another 100 Soundscapes project,
By Dr. Tadahiko
by Nigel Imada.
Helyer and . . . . .. . . . .
John Potts . . . . . . 27
. . . 3 acoustic recorders collecting approximately ways to acknowledge his work and dedica-
the wsp’s documents to Japan, she laid the recently conducted in Finland, and modeled
A Tiny Field for Soundscape Design: 2000 terabytes of sound data across multiple tion to acoustic ecology and this edition of
ground in her country for the establishment on the original Japanese project; to an envi-
Reviews
A Case Study of the Soundscape Museum Australian ecosystems. Recent years has also Soundscape is dedicated to his legacy.
of the Soundscape Association of Japan ronmental art project also in Finland; to the
in Osaka, Japan seen increased engagement with communi- While this edition celebrates the 20th
Earthscape by Melinda Barrie. . . . . 35 (saj/993—), which now has 200 members. Ground Zero memorial in New York and its
By Atsushi Nishimura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ties and schools across the country exploring Anniversary of the AFAE—it is vital to
We were particularly pleased when the potentially inappropriate acoustic environ-
acoustic ecology from both scientific and acknowledge thatth Indigenous communities
RMIT Gallery Chaos & Order: Japanese Association of Sound Ecology ment; to the 12 International Congress on
artistic perspectives. have practiced deep listening and acoustic
Sonic Arts
Haiku . . . . Collection
. . . . . . . . . Review
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 (jase), one of the operating divisions of the Sound and Vibration in Lisbon, Portugal,
by Melinda Barrie . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 This edition of Soundscape commemorates ecology in various forms across the country
Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 saj, decided to become an affiliate organisa- July 2005; and finally into the addictive
the 20th Anniversary of the Australian Forum for well over 60,000 years. In Australia, it is
tion of the wfae a few years ago. sonic powers of video games. Check out
Freshwater
Current Listening
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 for Acoustic Ecology (AFAE)—a milestone common practice to open public events with
by Ros Bandt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 We present you with three important Dialogue and Reviews for thought provoking
that was celebrated in 2018 through events, an Acknowledgement of Country—paying
Soundwalking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 articles from Japan, which in our opinion and critical ideas. A soundwalk on the west
research and collaborations. This celebra- respect to elders past, present and emerging
Research are representative of numerous other exam- coast of British Columbia and the sounding
Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 tion was bittersweet for the AFAE, as we and acknowledging the traditional custodi-
ples of soundscape activities, thought and words of Japanese haikus are meant to invite
also mourned the loss of Nigel Frayne, the ans of the land. For these reasons, I felt it was
Listening to Country: Exploring the philosophy in this country. In her article you into another atmosphere of listening.
founder of the AFAE who sadly passed away important the first voices in this edition of
Value of Acoustic Ecology with Aboriginal Insights Taken from Three Visited Soundscapes And finally, we want to thank Katharine
in January 2018. Nigel’s life and work has Soundscape were Indigenous. It is a privilege
& Torres Strait Islander Women in Prison in Japan Keiko Torigoe reports on her fol- Norman for her contributions and support
been celebrated at various acoustic ecology to have Gunggari scholars Vicki Saunders
by Sarah Woodland, Vicki Saunders, Bianca low-up field research of the original 100 in our editorial process during the last few
Beetson and Leah Barclay. . . . . . . 41 events throughout the AFAE anniversary, and Gayle Munn open Soundscape with a
Soundscapes of Japan project, completed in years. She recently decided to leave the
NOTE: Announcements, including a tribute at the Global Composition listening invocation—a meditative prelude
997, for which she visited specific localities editorial committee of Soundscape in order
Resources and Sound
Emerging Researcher Bites can now
Profile Conference in Germany where his leader- to reading the journal and an opportunity to
that had been recommended as significant to move on to other things. We have very
be found in our Online wfae 45
by Jesse Budel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ship and commitment to the World Forum listen and acknowledge the Country where
soundscapes by the local people. Three much appreciated her clarity, efficiency, her
Newsletter: for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and AFAE you are reading.
Field Report: Sonic Mmabolela 2017, soundscapes from very different geographi- intelligent and pragmatic, indeed profes-
was acknowledged. Nigel joined the WFAE Our three feature articles showcase
www.wfae.net/newsletter
South Africa by Vicki Hallett. . . . . . 47 cal and climatic zones of the country are sional approach to the task of editing and we
in 1996, a few years after it was founded, established Australian practitioners who
discussed. already miss her dearly!
Submissions should be sent to: when he met Hildegard Westerkamp, who are all pioneers of their field, pushing the
Membership Info. . . . . . . . . . . 49 Atsushi Nishimura takes us into the
secretary@wfae.net has kindly written a tribute to Nigel for this boundaries of sound and interrogating our
comparatively small area of the historical —Hildegard Westerkamp,
edition of Soundscape. WFAE President sonic relationships with place.
neighbourhood of Hirano in Osaka, where For the Editorial Committee

1
Editorial (continued)
Ros Bandt writes about ‘The Acoustic Sanctuary’—a remote reflection on both of these initiatives.
property in Fryerstown, Victoria that has evolved over two decades The AFAE played a large role in the development and hosting
as a dedicated place for listening, a place to contemplate our sonic of the 2018 International Ecoacoustics Congress held in Brisbane
habitat and a sound laboratory for her innovative and interdisci- at Griffith University and QUT in June 2018. The aim of the 2018
plinary creative practice. Bandt calls for a deeper understanding congress was to bring together artists, scientists, natural resource
and respect for our sonic heritage and further engagement with managers and industry to explore the ways that sound can deepen
sound culture. Acclaimed percussionist, composer and sound our understanding of the environment. The full conference program
artist Vanessa Tomlinson asks why place is so critical in music and proceedings is available online: www.ecoacousticscongress.org
making and proposes that compositions that intentionally interact The conference team were very happy to receive WFAE support
with the environment change the way we listen and leave markers and endorsement to host the congress, which included international
of cultural, social and environmental conditions at particular promotion through the WFAE affiliate networks. The feedback from
junctures in time. Her article examines various approaches sound the congress was excellent and the delegates were very inspired
artists engage with the environment and suggests that this work is by the strong creative stream that showcased acoustic ecology in
well placed to reawaken our custodianship of the land and assist us Australia. The WFAE and AFAE were well represented through
in shaping our future. presentations, installations and performances. It was fantastic to
The final feature article showcases the work of sound artist Nigel have a strong WFAE presence at the event, as previous ISE gatherings
Helyer through four case studies on his projects at Bundanon, a (International Society for Ecoacoustics) have had limited association
three thousand acre property in the Shoalhaven river valley in rural with the WFAE or international acoustic ecology community.
NSW, Australia. The artworks were created as part of a three-year The concert featuring keynotes David Monacchi and Ros Bandt
Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant project: When (both sponsored by the AFAE) was at capacity and most delegates
Science Meets Art: an environmental portrait of the Shoalhaven were able to experience the creative keynotes, research presentations
River Valley. The projects bring together environmental science, and installations throughout the congress. Ros Bandt (a found-
new technologies and cultural history to communicate the diverse ing WFAE member) made the history of acoustic ecology and the
environments of Bundanon. WFAE/AFAE very clear—which was extremely enlightening for
In addition to the feature articles, we are pleased to present several many of the emerging scientists in the room.
research profiles including Jesse Budel—an emerging voice in There were 135 full delegates registered and over 300 partici-
acoustic ecology who has recently completed his PhD that involved pants including students, artists and invited delegates. It is worth
developing a creative framework that connects and adapts the noting that this included roughly 41% women. We thought this
principles and methods of soundscape ecology to ecological sound was something to be celebrated for an emerging subset of acoustic
art practice. We also feature a field report from sound artist and ecology that crosses sciences and humanities, particularly when
performer Vicki Hallett who visited South Africa on a field recording music technology, engineering and some biological sciences are
expedition and had an opportunity to perform an intimate concert notoriously male dominated. The diversity was also reflected across
at Mabolel Rock surrounded by curious wildlife. the career stage spectrum with a balance of students, early career
The final article presents preliminary outcomes from the pilot researchers and high profile academics that have been pioneering the
research project “Listening to Country: Exploring the value of field from a scientific and artistic perspective.
acoustic ecology with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women The interdisciplinary programming was certainly dominated by
in prison”. In early 2019, an interdisciplinary team of researchers the sciences, but this was to be expected as this was the first year
worked with women in Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre a creative stream was included in the International Ecoacoustics
(BWCC) to produce an immersive audio work based on field Congress. The creative stream had extremely positive feedback and
recordings of natural environments (of country) for the purpose we hope to include similar programming at future events, including
of stress relief, relaxation, cultural connection and well being. The the 2020 International Ecoacoustics Congress in Italy.
pilot research has attracted various partners to expand the project Organising a large international conference across two universi-
and it is anticipated that the ‘Listening to Country’ model might be ties certainly came with its challenges, but we think this set a good
transferable into a number of different wellbeing contexts, includ- example for the acoustic ecology and ecoacoustics community and
ing with at-risk youth, Elders/seniors in care or off-country and demonstrated that collaboration (across institutions, disciplines and
women transitioning from prison and mental health facilities. These industries) is one of the most effective ways to expand and advance
opportunities are all exploring the interdisciplinary possibilities of the field, particularly when we are all working towards a common
acoustic ecology in contributing to health and wellbeing and build goal of promoting a greater awareness of the role of sound in under-
on the foundations of the discipline from the 1970s. standing our environment.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the AFAE and In addition to the congress, the AFAE supported and managed
some of the activities that occurred throughout our 20th Anniversary the Ecoacoustics Field Trips which involved delegates travelling
in 2018. Losing Nigel Frayne at the start of the year was certainly a to Noosa Biosphere Reserve, Mary Cairncross Reserve and the
challenge and shifted the focus of some of our activities. We were Rainforest Discovery Centre on the Sunshine Coast for sound walks,
glad Nigel was able to contribute ideas towards the planning for field recording expeditions and acoustic ecology presentations.
the AFAE 20th Anniversary in 2017—when we decided to focus The field trips were booked to capacity and provided an excellent
our energies around two large events—the 2018 International opportunity for international delegates to engage with the natural
Ecoacoustics Congress and an acoustic ecology event at Ros Bandt’s soundscapes and ecosystems of Queensland.
Acoustic Sanctuary in November 2018. I am pleased to report both I also wanted to acknowledge the loss of Stuart Gage in 2019—
of these events went ahead with great success and I wanted to offer a one of the pioneers of ecoacoustics and a founding member of

2
Editorial (continued)
the International Society for Ecoacoustics. Stuart was a generous exhibition featuring local artists from regional Victoria. AFAE
collaborator and visionary researcher who truly understood the members were very active in the development and delivery of the
value of sound in our environment. His recent book ‘Ecoacoustics: event, with AFAE board members Andrew Skeoch and Vicki Hallett
The Ecological Role of Sounds’ was a ground breaking collection of involved in workshops, presentations and performances throughout
articles demonstrating interdisciplinary methods for using sound the two days. I was happy to give presentations on acoustic ecology
to understand climate change and monitor ecosystems across the and listening underwater and also opened the exhibition with a brief
planet. He was an advocate for interdisciplinary research and a highly presentation on 20 years of acoustic ecology in Australia. During
supportive mentor and collaborator for many across the world. His this event, we acknowledged the generosity and commitment of Ros
digital acoustic library houses more than 2 million recordings from Bandt in being a pioneer of acoustic ecology nationally and interna-
over 20 soundscape projects. tionally and her dedication to hosting events and promoting the field
The AFAE 20th Anniversary celebration and program was officially of acoustic ecology to the local community.
launched as part of the Shifting States Anthropology conference at The AFAE 20th Anniversary also featured many smaller events
the University of Adelaide. Over 500 anthropologists from across and celebrations across the country and awards and accolades for
Australia, New Zealand and the UK came together in Adelaide for our members across Australia, including state and federal funding
the annual conference of three national and international anthropol- for acoustic ecology research and major awards for creative acoustic
ogy associations (AAS, ASA and ASAANZ). Our AFAE sponsored ecology projects. We congratulate the team behind the Piano Mill for
session “Dialogues in sound and listening: acoustemology and acoustic their recent win in the cultural category at the World Architecture
ecology” featured Anthropologist, filmmaker, sound artist/performer Awards. The Piano Mill also received the 2017 Award for Excellence
Steven Feld with a keynote and also involved panels and perfor- in Experimental Music for “an innovative realisation that highlights
mances throughout the day. The day concluded with Steven Feld and the interdisciplinary possibilities of experimental music in combin-
I in conversation with Daniel Fisher (Anthropology, UC Berkeley) ing architecture, acoustic ecology and instrument-making in an
and Lisa Stefanoff (Chair) exploring sound, acoustic ecology, immersive experience of musical accidents, performances and
listening and sonic arts in critical anthropology and beyond. This installations responding to place”. It is great to see projects with an
event included an announcement of an event we planned to host acoustic ecology focus receive such high profile national and inter-
in collaboration with Ros Bandt at the Acoustic Sanctuary in 2018. national recognition.
The proposed event became Freshwater Listening, a national two AFAE members across Australia continue to conceive and
day (free) event on November 17–18 in regional Victoria celebrating develop new projects and we are home to a range of long standing
freshwater care and 20 years of acoustic ecology in Australia. The initiatives such as Tristan Louth-Robins’ Fleurieu Sound Map (active
event was hosted by Ros Bandt and the AFAE with support from since 2011) and Anthony Magen’s incredible sound walks, includ-
various other community organisations. The program included ing annual expeditions through the kaleidoscopic soundscapes
sound walks, hydrophone workshops, freshwater listening expedi- of the city with Melbourne International Jazz Festival that have
tions, presentations, performances and the Freshwater Listening been running for over eight years. We represent members across

Cover Image: “12 Months Over the Gulf of Carpentaria,” by Grayson Cooke

For the past 40 years, NASA Landsat satellites have orbited the Earth. Performing what is known
as “remote sensing”, they use sensors that record both visible and infrared light, to produce data
used by geoscientists and the private sector to track environmental change over time. “12 Months
Over the Gulf of Carpentaria” is precisely that: a time-lapse mosaic of satellite images over the
Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia, showing the changing atmospheric conditions over a period of a
year. Produced through a partnership with Geoscience Australia and the “Digital Earth Australia”
platform, this image is part of an ongoing exploration of how creative uses of satellite data can
both reinforce the environmental monitoring function of the Landsat program and introduce new
conceptual and artistic dimensions. This project seeks to release satellite imaging from a directly
instrumental purpose, fostering a way of knowing that acknowledges our connectivity to and
feeling for the Earth.
Born in New Zealand and based in Australia, Grayson Cooke is an interdisciplinary scholar and media artist, Associate
Professor of Media in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University. Grayson has presented media art and
live audio-visual performance works in Australia and internationally, and he has exhibited and performed in major
international festivals such as the Japan Media Arts Festival, the WRO Media Art Biennale, the Imagine Science Film Festival in
New York, VIDEOFORMES in France and the Currents New Media festival in Santa Fe. As a scholar he has published
widely in academic journals, and he is also an associate editor for the scholarly journal “Transformations.” He holds an
interdisciplinary PhD from Concordia University in Montreal.
Personal website: www.graysoncooke.com | Project webpage: www.graysoncooke.com/works/12months

3
Editorial (continued)
Australia who have a professional or personal interest in fields such The next edition is themed around the Sound + Environment
as: acoustics, audiology, architecture, bioacoustics, conservation Conference hosted at the University of Hull, UK with guest editor
biology, digital design, education, ecoacoustics, ecosystem health, Dr. Rob Mackay and is published alongside this edition in 2019.
landscape, phenomenology, sound art, sound culture and sound The digital transition of Soundscape is still in progress but it has
design. The AFAE brings together people who aim to promote a provided a wonderful opportunity to re-evaluate the purpose of the
culture of listening to raise awareness of issues around our sonic journal and create a vision for the future that supports and promotes
environment; and to encourage discussion, debate, education, our global acoustic ecology community and WFAE affiliates. This
practical activities and research. We exist to support and promote vision includes a stronger focus on virtual tools and embracing the
the work of our members and strengthen and enhance the value of possibilities of digital media to disseminate the journal and reduce
acoustic ecology in Australia. This includes increased engagement our carbon impact by avoiding printing. We are currently working
with climate activism and fields such as environmental sciences, on a new journal database and mechanisms to publish articles in an
urban design and architecture. The AFAE also respects and audio format, which we feel strongly resonates with the purpose of
acknowledges Indigenous knowledge systems and communities Soundscape. As with all WFAE activities, this is an open and collab-
who have listened and lived sustainability with the environment for orative process that is being driven by a dedicated team of volunteers.
over 60,000 years. We hope organisations such as the AFAE can Please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have ideas or would
provide a platform to amplify Indigenous voices as climate break- like to be involved and support the digital transition of Soundscape. I
down and ecological crisis continues to cause incomprehensible hope you enjoy exploring this edition of the journal and please visit
consequences that require urgent interdisciplinary action. our website and social media platforms for further content from all
It has been a privilege to bring together this edition of Soundscape our featured articles.
and serve in the position of president for the AFAE. I am particularly I also wanted to thank the WFAE executive, especially WFAE
inspired that we are able to present this digital version of Soundscape President Eric Leonardson, who is a constant source of support and
with embedded sounds and videos that allow our readers to listen also our AFAE board, a wonderful interdisciplinary team of busy
and dig deeper into the work and ideas presented in each article. If artists and researchers who are always a pleasure to work with.
you happen to be reading the print version of the journal, I would – Dr. Leah Barclay, Editor-in-Chief (September 2019)
encourage you to visit wfae.net and download the digital version to
access the rich media content. The next three editions of Soundscape
are in progress with guest editors working on ideas and new content.

'Sound, Media, Ecology'

Palgrave Macmillian
Edited by Milena Droumeva and Randolph Jordan

T
his volume reads the global urban environment through
mediated sonic practices to put a contemporary spin on
acoustic ecology’s investigations at the intersection of
space, cultures, technology, and the senses.
Acoustic ecology is an interdisciplinary framework from
the 1970s for documenting, analyzing, and transforming sonic
environments: an early model of the cross-boundary thinking
and multi-modal practices now common across the digital
humanities. With the recent emergence of sound studies and the
expansion of “ecological” thinking, there is an increased urgency
to re-discover and contemporize the acoustic ecology tradition.
This book serves as a comprehensive investigation into the ways
in which current scholars working with sound are re-inventing
acoustic ecology across diverse fields, drawing on acoustic
ecology’s focus on sensory experience, place, and applied research,
as well as attendance to mediatized practices in sounded space.
From sounding out the Anthropocene, to rethinking our auditory
media landscapes, to exploring citizenship and community, this
volume brings the original acoustic ecology problem set into the
contemporary landscape of sound studies.
Edited by Milena Droumeva and Randolph Jordan with authors
including Barry Truax, Hildegard Westerkamp, Karin Bijsterveld,
Jonathan Sterne, Linda O’Keeffe, Leah Barclay and Andra
McCartney. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030165680

4
Listening Invocation
By Vicki Saunders and Gayle Munn

Uwalla Ukamindiya. Yuunji dandhigu nagaya yindagu.

Niya nulla noogalla niya yimbaya yadina undunoo yant el our ou.

W
e begin this edition of Soundscape with as yet untrans-
lated Gunggari words written on Gunggari country in
Australia, to acknowledge the absence of the sounds of
the languages that used to sing this country into being. They are also
used to acknowledge the presence of the land and the countries in
which we meet—here as you read and we write. We use these words
to acknowledge the traditional custodians of these places and all of
our ancestors – past, present and emerging. We would also like to
acknowledge the journal editors; it is an honor to be invited to open
this edition. And finally we use these words to acknowledge You who
are listening here today, reading these words.
This edition of Soundscape is about listening in Australia.
Dr. Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr (AO) is an Indigenous elder who intro-
duced the word Dadirri to draw attention to the different ways that
Aboriginal people in Australia listen. The word, concept and spiritual
practice that is dadirri (da-did-ee) is from the Ngan'gikurunggurr
and Ngen'giwumirri languages of the Aboriginal peoples of the Daly
River region (Northern Territory, Australia). Dadirri is a form of
deep active listening that is comfortable with silence. It is a way of
listening to the sounds beneath the sounds.
Maranoa River, Mitchell, Queensland, Australia
This edition of Soundscape is about listening to the country that
is always speaking in our lives. In the busy modern cities in which
most of us tend to live there is no such thing as absolute silence—we
are always immersed in the soundscapes that surround us—always Dr. Vicki Saunders is a Gunggari woman from South West
the vibrations of many sounds are moving through our bodies. Queensland. She has been an associate member of the Collaborative
As you read these words, try to feel for the sounds that surround Research into Empowerment and Wellbeing (CREW) group in Far
us—those we can hear and those we cannot quite hear with our ears. North Queensland and is currently working with the First Peoples
Underneath all those sounds is the sound of the country we stand Health Unit, Griffith University. Trained in psychology and public
in—ever present, ever speaking to those who would listen. Beneath health, Vicki has been involved over the last 15 years in a diverse
the concrete and tar, beneath the steel and timber—far beneath is the range of research projects with Indigenous groups and community
metronymic sound of the heartbeat of the country. based organisations across North Queensland, including acoustic
To close this introduction of Soundscape the Gunggari words ecology research supported by the Lowitja Institute. Her main
we started with are reiterated. The words we began with roughly research interests are using arts-led and poetic enquiry in the areas
translate as: of child protection and family service delivery reform, Indigenist
Research Methodologies and mental health research with a particu-
Hello, welcome everyone, the spirits of the land will watch lar focus on empowerment, wellbeing and recovery.
over you, I see you—I acknowledge your existence and the
existence of all our ancestors, I hear you, in this place I am
Gayle Munn is a Gunggari Woman from South West Queensland.
listening, I am listening for the laughter of children in this
Gayle’s primary interest for the last ten years has been healing the
place, may peace be within you. wounds of lateral violence. She is one of the four founding members
of the Lateral Peace Project and has presented at State, National
and International Conferences and Forums. In 2011-12 Gayle
Uwalla Ukamindiya. Yuunji dandhigu nagaya yindagu (the spirits completed training as a Peace Ambassador. She holds qualifications
of the land will watch over you). and is experienced in Counselling, Hakomi Method, Mindfulness
and Social and Emotional Healing, Mental Health, Training and
Niya nulla noogalla niya yimbaya yadina undunoo yant el our ou.
Assessment, Life Coaching—Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual
Intelligence and Radical Forgiveness.

5
Regional Activity Reports

Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology (FSAE)

by Meri Kytö (chair)

G
reetings from the 61st parallel north! The year 2018 was a in fiction films, from sonic frugality to metaphors of silence, from
busy one for the members of the Finnish Society for Acous- portable sound museums for the elderly and walking as an artistic
tic Ecology. The FSAE has been catching its breath after practice (and three texts in English). It also contains an essay by
bigger efforts made in the Muuttuvat suomalaiset äänimaisemat Helmi Järviluoma on how soundscape studies started out in Finland
(Transforming Finnish Soundscapes) project (2014–2016), but still we in the end of 1980s.
are moving forward on our 20th anniversary year, actively promoting The Listening map (“Kuuntelukartta”) is one of the main services
soundscape related research and art since 1999. the FSAE offers to people interested in documenting their sound-
The year started with a bang as the Muuttuvat suomalaiset scapes and listening to the recordings of others. The online map was
äänimaisemat e-book—with its research articles and soundscape given a thorough cleaning of its code (as it had aged a bit from 2010
descriptions from the Finnish public—was chosen the Book of the when it originally launched) and is now updated, map interfaces, links
Year 2017 by Tampere University Press. The head of the jury, emeritus and all. The other important online resource the FSAE maintains is
professor Jorma Sipilä thanked the book for being an exceptionally the Soundcloud site, where we keep our public soundscape archive,
meticulous whole, opening up new perspectives and adding that edited field recordings, radio programmes, talks and snippets of
“although the book is polyphonic and multidisciplinary, it still interviews from research projects, e.g. the Acoustic Environments in
speaks to the reader with a surprisingly consistent voice. It can be Change project (2009) and the more recent workshop Walking Sonic
thanked for both accuracy and sensitivity.” The FSAE was of course Commons in Venice.
chuffed to bits for the award and being able to promote soundscape Continuing with collaborations with institutions other than
studies to larger audiences from the distinguished academic podium society affiliates, the FSAE took part in planning the playful “Mind
University of Tampere. your brain!” exhibition in the Finnish Science Centre Heureka, and
The 20th of February has traditionally been a day the FSAE continued with Finnish public libraries in helping to design and take
organizes an event or similar. The day was originally chosen because care of library soundscapes. Collaboration with Soundpocket in
it is the name day of Helinä (a woman’s name translated as “rattle” or Hong Kong continued with an invitation to the Art for radio? Radio
“chime”). Last year the chore was to update the publications list on for art? symposium. A new collaboration was founded with The
the website. It was about time: the list grew tenfold from the previous Finnish Labor Museum Werstas and its Sounds of Changes project
update in 2011. Doctoral dissertations have accumulated to nine, the on acoustic heritage, a cooperation between six museums in Europe.
recent ones being Olli-Taavetti Kankkunen’s dissertation on listening The FSAE chair delivered a keynote “Soundscape recordings, cultural
education in Finnish basic education and Ari Koivumäki’s disserta- brokerage and translatability of sonic experience” in the project's
tion on soundscape studies benefiting sound design. The number yearly seminar. The popular three-hour live call-in program Evening
of peer-reviewed articles amount to over a hundred. In addition to of sounds (“Äänien ilta”) by the Finnish Broadcasting Company—
these, one can find links to projects, recordings, reports and reviews with a strong representation of FSAE members commenting the
in the list. Hopefully the list will continue to be a helpful resource for soundscape requests in the studio—aired its twelfth program in
artists, researchers and students alike. October: this time the theme was sounds of commerce, trade and
The endeavor for the year 2018 was to publish yet more studies shopping.
and essays on soundscapes and auditory cultures: to edit a special The Helinä’s Day for 2019 involved a research seminar and a
issue for the Musiikin suunta e-journal, published in October Listening map based on soundscape recording spree celebrating the
(http://musiikinsuunta.fi/2018/03/aanimaisematutkimus). The 20th year of bringing “soundminded” people together. Lots of frozen
issue—edited by Meri Kytö and Heikki Uimonen—contains topics environments to be heard, check out the FSAE webpage for updates:
ranging from supporter’s sounds in sports to soundscapes of stalking www.aanimaisemat.fi.

For more info, visit: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780810888258/R-Murray-Schafer-A-Creative-Life

6
Memorial

REMEMBERING NIGEL FRAYNE | 1952–2018

August 2018:

A
s I am re-reading some of our email correspondence, I am
hearing Nigel’s voice clearly again, chuckling at his dry
sense of humour—The WFAE is still the same old difficult
beast that we wrestled with over the years—enjoying his honesty
and clarity; feeling respect and admiration in remembering how
hard and persistently he worked, always listening, grounded in his
dedication to the hard work of keeping the WFAE together and
running; but most of all dedicated to a kind of truth in his life and
work, making sure to stay humanly connected always, to family,
friends and colleagues.
Sadly Nigel passed away in January 2018 after some years of
challenging ‘negotiations’ with life. His tenacity during these last
years of his life was inspiring. Nigel is survived by his wife and life
partner Helen Dilkes, his son Viv, and daughter Ella. They accom-
panied him throughout this long and challenging journey, even
traveling with him to Europe as he followed his passion for cycling.
Many of us were continents away from him during his last years
and months, and I think I can speak for all of us who knew him, that
we are deeply thankful to his family for surrounding our amazing
Photo by Helen Dilkes
colleague and close friend with their love and support, allowing and
enabling him to live a rich life to the end, passing peacefully.
Nigel was a quietly powerful person, never making much of The challenge to run and maintain the WFAE was more enormous
himself. One needs to check out his professional website http:// than any of us realized at the time, because the people and organiza-
www.resonantdesigns.com/cv.html to find out about the truly tions that are drawn to and become members of the WFAE inevitably
multifaceted nature of his work life and his expertise, quite apart come from a multiplicity of disciplines and cultures. How on earth
from his voluntary role with the WFAE. Right up to the end, he was could we find the focus under these circumstances in this very new
working on the design for the Walkabout Australia soundscape at field of acoustic ecology, which was only beginning to define and
San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California. A few months before his know itself? Nigel’s persistence and patience helped to integrate this
death he wrote that the new exhibit in San Diego was keeping him question into the ongoing process of building the new discipline and
active, and that he had started playing with some old recordings of a deepening our understanding of what it is we want to achieve as an
band he played in years ago, just for fun and nostalgia. ecological organization. Where many of us would have thrown in
He was unable to finish the San Diego soundscape. But astonish- the towel Nigel remained calm, steady and firm in his belief that the
ingly, his wife Helen and son Viv completed it in time for the official organization would find itself, given the time and space necessary.
opening in May of 2018! An admirable feat and most likely it took When things seemed to happen at an unfathomably slow pace he
unimaginable strength to accomplish this so close after Nigel’s continued to guide us through the silences and gaps with his subtle,
passing! It is yet another indication of the deep connectedness that almost unnoticeable leadership, never loosing faith.
existed between Nigel and his family. When I first met Nigel in 1996 I had no idea that the future
In the following paragraphs I will reiterate words that I wrote in first and long-standing chairperson of the WFAE had just walked
2010 after Nigel had resigned as chairperson from the WFAE. (The into our life. It was clear from the start however, that Nigel was an
original can be found in Soundscape, Vol. 10, Number 1, page 5.). ear-minded person, naturally drawn to acoustic ecology. His ways of
Even though it is a repetition, I feel it is a good reminder to all of listening perked up my own ears and I sensed right away, here is a
us who worked with him, and will give historical perspective to all new colleague for whom the WFAE would be a valuable context and
those who were not part of the WAFE at that time. Besides, I could vice versa, the organization would benefit from his input.
not say it in any other way today. On this first trip to Vancouver Nigel had come to find out about
the former activities of the World Soundscape Project at Simon
August 2010: Fraser University, the courses in Acoustic Communication and the
In the name of the entire WFAE I am transmitting here a workings of the relatively new World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.
wholehearted and deep Thank You to Nigel Frayne for his strong A year later after he had followed WFAE matters with great inter-
commitment and hard work during his twelve years as our chair- est, including the International Congress of Acoustic Ecology at the
person. I will try to retrace here the role that Nigel has played in Abbaye de Royaumont, near Paris in 1997 (organized by Ray Gallon
the development and growth of the WFAE. Humble and soft-spoken and Pierre Mariétan of the Collectif Environnement Sonore) he
as he is, he will not like this attention focused on him! But the wrote to me:
significance of his involvement cannot be underestimated, as it has I was so disappointed not to have been able to get to Paris–so many
been precisely his quiet strength and persistence, which have guided of the ‘main players’ seemed to be there and I needed to meet people
the WFAE out of its rather insecure infancy into a more confident, face to face. Never mind, next we’ll try for Stockholm.
consciously functioning organization. Wow, reading the minutes of the Paris meetings indicated a pretty
7
‘interesting’ (read tricky) discussion. There is so much still to be worked in person. How often did he make a point of dropping in on Affiliates
out for the future of the WFAE. At least something is happening which in various places, on me in Vancouver—sometimes for less than 24
can be observed and learned from.... I’m looking forward to playing hours!—on his way to or from Europe, Singapore, or San Diego, with
my part (however small) in working for WFAE’s survival. No doubt the express purpose to meet face-to-face, brain storming upcoming
it is going to take quite some effort and one day I’ll be sighing like tasks, solving problems, answering troubling questions, clarifying
you. But that is okay. Acoustic Ecology (as such) has become a way of misunderstandings, making new plans for the WFAE or simply
life for me now. And in that regard I have to say that meeting Susan spending time? We all know how exhausting travel can be and thus
[Frykberg], Barry [Truax] and yourself in Vancouver last year was can appreciate to what extent his tireless personal attention has
formative in this process. brought us all together.
In 2003 Nigel organized almost single handedly, with the help
It did not take long until Nigel joined the WFAE Interim Board, which
from his family, some colleagues and friends, and on a shoestring
was formed in advance of Hör Upp! Stockholm Hey Listen!—as it
budget an international acoustic ecology conference in Melbourne,
turned out, a pivotal international conference on acoustic ecology in
Australia. This first-hand experience of planning and organizing a
1998 (organized by Henrik Karlsson of the Royal Swedish Academy
conference on his own home territory helped him to guide more
of Music). Not only had Nigel contributed in a truly valuable, level
effectively the organizers of future WFAE conferences. It had become
headed and intelligent way to this board, he also had developed a
clear over the years that acoustic ecology as a new field needed to
vision for the WFAE.
assert itself as the central theme in each conference. This took an
In his quietly energetic way Nigel pushed the idea that the WFAE
enormous amount of discussion and exchanges with individual
would be—in his words—a more manageable organization if it were
conference organizers, sometimes visiting the places beforehand and
structured into clusters of groups who administered themselves.
helping realize the vision. Nigel was a driving force there, a catalyst,
Thus the idea of Affiliate Organizations was born. Despite some
enabling others to pull off such a task successfully.
initial resistance, Nigel convinced most of us that instead of having
Whereas the initial acoustic ecology conferences had tended to
individual members scattered all over the world it would be more
consist of a series of often disconnected show-and-tell presentations
productive to encourage the formation of regional groups who would
from different disciplines, often only vaguely connecting to issues of
be active locally: while it may seem that individual memberships
acoustic ecology, recent conferences have become more focused in
provide a good income stream the downside is that those individuals
their approach. Nigel’s vision became a guiding light in this context:
are not active “on the ground” in their community—at least not in an
to challenge presenters to link their own field (usually specialized
organized way, and that is ‘ground zero’ for acoustic ecology.
in some area of sound) to acoustic ecology or better, learn to speak
Not surprisingly Nigel was elected chair of the WFAE at the 1998
about their expertise in sound from the perspective of acoustic
Stockholm conference and remained in that position right up to the
ecology.
conference in Koli, Finland in 2010! From the beginning and repeat-
Thanks to Nigel, the WFAE and its activities have expanded at
edly Nigel emphasized that the WFAE is not a separate organization
a pace that was possible, given the many challenges: slowly and in
acting on the world stage in isolation. Rather it is the ‘world focus’ of
keeping really, with the time it has taken to expand consciousness
the member groups. Or in other words: the Affiliate Organizations
of acoustic ecology in all of us, that is, in keeping with a deeper
are the WFAE and need to be responsible for running the WFAE.
sense of listening. Such consciousness, if allowed to blossom,
His sense of humour shone through frequently as in this email
cannot be pushed it seems. I have learnt through working with
where he made us all laugh and successfully ended an unproductive,
Nigel, not only to acknowledge such a pace but also to trust, that
wordy board discussion about future WFAE memberships: Let’s not
an ear-minded consciousness—a certain listening attention and
get bogged down with scenarios that are not necessarily problematic.
creative presence— makes things happen in its own good time and
Too many members would be a nice problem for us to have to solve...
in unexpected ways.
Or when the going was tough and the silence on the board became
too much, instead of getting annoyed and impatient Nigel thought:
Somehow I need to inspire them to generate more involvement.
Epilogue
Although Nigel had tried to retreat from the position as WFAE
In many ways Nigel has been the WFAE for many years, develop-
chair for quite some time, it was not until 2010 that younger,
ing his vision for the organization into an ever more workable reality.
energetic and committed people have come forth, willing to take on
By 2010 the WFAE consisted of nine Affiliate Organizations, who
various tasks in the WFAE. This was wonderful and encouraging. It
took turns in putting on conferences, publishing Soundscape–The
made his resignation possible. Although we said goodbye to him as
Journal of Acoustic Ecology, and keeping an online presence through
chair, we were delighted that he continued to be part of the WFAE,
its website and newsletter. The expanded possibilities for global
offered advice where necessary and lent a helpful hand transferring
communication and travel have helped enormously in connecting
his know-how, experience and wisdom to the next chair and the
culturally and among disciplines, but at the same time they have
board. Right up to the end of his life, as the current WFAE chair Eric
also created new and unexplored challenges. In Nigel we had found
Leonardson pointed out, “Nigel was actively helping the leadership
someone who was able to combine his vision for the WFAE with his
of the WFAE as Treasurer, and its Australian affiliate, the Australian
own sensitive perception as a sound designer and with his practical
Forum of Acoustic Ecology.”
know-how in how an international organization could manage its
And in those times of his life when work pressures were easing
affairs through email, internet and a virtual office.
momentarily, he would report something like this: I’m enjoying
While his own business, Resonant Designs took Nigel to many
actually working with sound again, getting my ears dirty!
places in the world, designing the soundscapes of a variety of
museums, exhibitions, building environments and zoos, he also saw —Hildegard Westerkamp
his travel as an opportunity to meet many WFAE affiliate members August 2018

8
Report from the WFAE President

F
or individual and affiliate members of the WFAE, this report come from countries where accelerating ecological and technologi-
provides a synopsis of many efforts that constitute the current cal change leads to extreme differences and imbalances of political,
state of the WFAE. As only an overview of significant events social, and economic power. We are living in interesting times, to
since the publication of the previous volume of Soundscape, this say the least. Of special value to the finely tuned convening was the
report points toward some of the promising opportunities unfolding extra investment in providing publicly accessible post-conference
now that only become actionable through participation. proceedings online in video.
Many noteworthy events marked 2018. Among them, two Many have expressed interest in starting their own WFAE
anniversaries. 25 years ago over a hundred people from around the Affiliate Organization at The Global Composition and via email
world participated in Tuning of the World: The First International communications. I welcome these queries and place a high prior-
Conference on Acoustic Ecology at the Banff Centre of the Arts in ity on providing as much help as possible. I invest significant time
Alberta, Canada. Here with R. Murray Schafer, Pauline Oliveros, in supporting those who are interested in activating and engaging
Barry Truax, and Hildegard Westerkamp, an interdisciplinary their local communities and cherish the professional friendships
host of contemporary media producers, philosophers, and artists that grow out of these collaborations. It is important to emphasize
founded a new organization named the World Forum for Acoustic the obvious: without active members, the WFAE simply cannot and
Ecology (WFAE). Five years later, in 1998 the Australian Forum for will not exist. I encourage all members of the WFAE to emulate the
Acoustic Ecology (AFAE) was formed. example of Nigel’s generosity of spirit and active mentorship as the
This edition of Soundscape reflects the substantial contributions most powerful way to grow membership and strengthen the work of
of AFAE’s membership, who celebrated their 20th anniversary while our organization.
co-hosting the WFAE-endorsed 2018 International Ecoacoustics Together, WFAE Affiliate Organizations and Individual Members
Congress in June 2018. collaborate in creating a global vision for acoustic ecology. Currently,
Nigel Frayne was among those who came around and joined there are seven WFAE Affiliate Organizations in Australia, Canada,
the WFAE in its early years. A musician and sound designer from Finland, Greece, Japan, United States of America, and UK and
Australia, his role in establishing the AFAE is noted in several Ireland. They represent the interests of individuals who comprise
remembrances here in this journal. Nigel became the WFAE Chair them and carry out activities in our network according to local,
of a restructured organization in 1998, including international cultural, and national affinities.
affiliate organizations from around the world. I met Nigel 11 years Membership and participation are essential to the World Forum
later, at the WFAE’s conference in Mexico City. Thankfully, when for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE)'s existence. As an international
I became WFAE President in 2012, Nigel stayed on as WFAE network of volunteers, the WFAE functions only as long as its
Treasurer, providing prompt, essential help and advice. I could not members maintain its website, social media and listserv while perse-
have managed without Nigel’s help and support. His mentorship vering to publish our annual journal.
and collegiality were unwavering throughout the years, unlike The positive outcomes of intense Affiliate Organization participa-
anyone I have known. Despite his ongoing treatment, he was tion in conferences endorsed by the WFAE are exemplified in this case
present until a few weeks before he passed in early January, 2018. by their renewed vigor. For example, at the Sound + Environment
As noted on the WFAE News blog, Nigel was a steadfast friend and 2017 conference at the University of Hull, it was most gratifying
supporter of the WFAE leadership of which I am honored to be a when over 30 people signed up to get involved with UKISC, this
part. In his quiet and reserved way Nigel provided us, both in the following a long period of inactivity. Following the event, we invited
AFAE and the WFAE, a gift for a new and younger generation of conference director Rob Mackay to work with us and guest edit the
forward-thinking scholars, artists, researchers, and designers who next edition of Soundscape with a focus on acoustic ecology research
will lead us into the next decade. in the UK. Additionally, Rob has joined the WFAE Board represent-
Next generation leadership in acoustic ecology and media aesthetic ing UKISC. In this way the WFAE can support its members, and in
education was the focus of The Global Composition 2018, one of turn its members make our shared efforts such as the publication of
many WFAE-endorsed conferences held last year. This conference Soundscape possible.
was the second since its inaugural first iteration in 2012, chaired by Two other groups are seeking to become active participants in the
Prof. Breitsameter with her talented team of graduate students at the leadership and functioning of a dynamic and inclusive WFAE. One
Media Campus of the Hochschule Darmstadt in Dieburg, Germany. group is in Mexico, led by Luz María Sánchez-Cardona and Amanda
In addition to the celebration of the 25-year anniversary of the Gutiérrez, forming a new group to supersede the former Foro
founding of the WFAE, many workshops, papers, and presentations Mexicano Ecología Acústica/Mexican Forum for Acoustic Ecology.
on sound, ecology and media culture were shared. The proposed launch of the new Red Ecología Acústica_México/
Reflections on the WFAE’s first 25 years and the formal and infor- Acoustic Ecology Network_Mexico is October, 2019, with a confer-
mal conversations throughout The Global Composition 2018 were ence at the Fonoteca Nacional in Mexico City in conjunction with an
enhanced by the presence of some of the WFAE’s early founders, International Immersive Seminar from the research group Practice
including Hildegard Westerkamp, Claude Schryer, and conference as Research in the Arts, Transdisciplinarity, Sound and the launch of
chair, Professor Sabine Breitsameter. As a special surprise, the Leonardo Laser Talks Mexico in conjunction with the International
WFAE honored one of its keynote speakers, Walter Tilgner with Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST), hosted by the
an honorary lifetime membership in the WFAE in recognition of Department of Arts and Humanities of the Universidad Autónoma
his achievements in public engagement and science as a naturalist Metropolitana.
and field recordist. In his keynote, Tilgner gave a moving account The other group seeking to become active in the WFAE is in Central
of his life’s work in words and sounds. Open discussions on “where Europe. Following the WFAE-endorsed conference of the Central
to go from here” were essential for the outcomes of this conference. European Society for Soundscape Ecology in Budapest, Hungary
These were both exciting and challenging, especially for those who in early December 2018, an international group of more than 20

9
individuals signed an accord establishing the Central European points of focus and make the connections with others who are either
Network for Sonic Ecologies (CENSE). Their mission is to convene well-established or are seeking to find answers among the broad
“...organizations and individuals who focus on the importance of range of actors.
sound in the context of environmental concerns, socio-cultural We encourage everyone to join the WFAE, either as Individual
development and contemporary art practices. . . . CENSE includes Members or through our regional Affiliate Organizations. We
artists, researchers, scholars, cultural actors, interested individuals, invite other established organizations to join us who may formal-
and organizations from broader Europe.” The signers are based ize their interest through the third category of membership, of an
in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Association.
Poland, France, and Denmark. They will hold a series of conferences Individual Members have the same privileges and benefits as our
first in Czech Republic in 2019 and then Romania in 2020. Their Affiliated Members. As the majority of people live where WFAE
Silent Manifesto is being translated to multiple languages and may Affiliate Organizations do not exist, please know that Individual
be found, in the English version on CENSE’s Facebook Group, and Members are helping to grow the WFAE membership and cultivate
soon on their new website at cense.earth. Please visit the WFAE leadership in new places. They serve as a support to those isolated
News blog for updates on this and other opportunities. individuals who join the WFAE in search of a supportive commu-
Reiterating one point from last year’s report, on the constitution of nity, mentorship and encouragement. They strengthen the WFAE’s
the WFAE and its Affiliate Organizations, while most have defined understanding of our world. We welcome the knowledge and
themselves over the organization's 25 history on the basis of nation- challenges that a more diverse and active membership offer.
states, this is not a requirement for membership as a WFAE Affiliate Please visit the WFAE website and News page to learn more about
Organization. In fact, limiting membership to a single entity within our activity and resources. Updates are posted on the News page, and
national borders could be a potential obstacle to a healthy WFAE if there's more news to come! WFAE also maintains an active stream of
a group’s activity is hyper-local or spread across a vast geographic or information and events on the Facebook Page and Twitter. WFAE is
cultural spaces, or if a population is so active that many groups are interested in sharing any relevant news announcements Individual
emerging within one country, or if a group defines itself as migrant or Members may have. In this way our members create the content of
by criteria other than national borders. The only real requirement to our forum.
be an Affiliate Organization is a shared point of interest in the ever- Some features and functions are being built and some have been
evolving field of acoustic ecology by an active group of individuals restored, most significantly the online library. All WFAE members
who self-identify and function as an entity aligned with the WFAE’s have the opportunity to continue building this important and acces-
mission. In this way the WFAE opens itself to many groups who sible public resource. Please visit our Library page to learn how you
are already fully functioning, but may not have felt welcome, as can contribute.
well as encouraging the formation of new Affiliate Member groups. The WFAE also shares information through its email listserv and
All Affiliates are encouraged to be open, inclusive, and transparent social media channels, all of which I encourage you to subscribe
to pique interest and inspire trust and move our shared mission and follow. Please visit our Contact page to subscribe to our email
forward to a widening sphere of people. Understanding of how local newsletter. Contact either WFAE Secretary, Jesse Budel or me with
conditions and diverse people’s needs and interests change is key to your ideas, news, or questions.
maintaining a vital, adaptive and effective organization.
—Eric Leonardson
Unlike other nonprofit organizations, the WFAE does not receive
April 2019
funding from any government agencies or universities. It is run
entirely by unpaid volunteers. That is why memberships are so
important for the WFAE. Working outside academic institutions Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based audio artist, serves as the
offers individuals who are not in academia a pathway for connecting Executive Director of the World Listening Project, founder and
their research and helping establish their career independently. co-chair of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and President
In addition to Affiliate Organizations and Individual Membership of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. He is Adjunct Associate
the WFAE welcomes Associate Organisations with an interest in Professor in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art
acoustic ecology to support the WFAE. They may participate in Institute of Chicago (SAIC). As a performer, composer, and sound
the deliberations of the WFAE’s Board of Directors but do not have designer, Leonardson created sound with the Chicago based physi-
voting rights. cal theater company Plasticene (1995–2012). Leonardson performs
For the WFAE to be effective, participation is essential. All internationally with the Springboard, a self-built instrument made
members of the WFAE create the content and are the WFAE’s raison in 1994 and often presents on acoustic ecology to new audiences
d’être. Effective participation requires us to be present, to identify beyond art world contexts; engaging and connecting communities
in the interrelated aspects of sound, listening, and environment.

10
 The Acoustic Sanctuary:
A Dedicated Listening Place.
by Ros Bandt

F
ocusing on auditory phenomena through the processes of soundscape contains them all, but the foreign customs, beliefs and
listening and hearing requires us to inhabit time, to be present cultural practices have to be absorbed through listening and under-
in the temporal continuum of place. By participating in the standing. Only then can they be properly shared just in the same way
auditory moment, the continuously changing present can be more that more time has to be given over to hearing and appreciating the
fully known through experience. The present becomes the past in a cultural practices and desires of the original Australians. This is a
moment and activates memory thereby penetrating many layers of never-ending process essential to the changing identity of Australia,
consciousness. What are we hearing, what did we hear? To stop still, a massive cultural and social experiment. The constantly changing
to take time to listen is an uncommon practice in modern civilised sound environments in Australia reflect its buoyant cultural diver-
white society. Listening requires a sharing of temporal space; it is a sity. Sound inscribes place. It tells what is present and absent. Sounds
communal experience very much defined by the accumulated sound- are powerful indicators of the health of habitat and society, the
scapes of a place over time. Every site is an acoustic space, a place biosphere, and water qualities, as well as changes in flora and fauna.
to listen. Acoustic space is where time and space merge as they are
articulated by sound. An acoustic sanctuary is a place to contemplate CASE STUDY: JaaraJaara Country: Goldfields
our sonic habitat and the sounds we inscribe as significant. Sounds Box Ironbark Woodland, endangered
have meaning whether wanted or unwanted. In a sound garden, one Australia is a very ancient continent that has been sung by the first
can consciously include wanted sounds such as aeolian harp wind Australians since the beginning of the dreamtime. The first Australians
sounds. But we can also contemplate sonic weeds, sounds we want are the longest continuing culture on earth. It is hardly surprising the
to eradicate, so that the sounds that are endangered and the sounds land is sacred to them. Country has been carefully minded for more
we want to preserve can be more audible. Sonic gardening. What is than 60,000 years without interruption until the British stole it. The
our sonic heritage? What do we understand about Australia as sung bitter truth is that colonisation brought brutal wreckage, the desecra-
country and do our sounds collect in the collective consciousness of tion of people, (massacres, missions, mental illness, racism, abuse
the dreamtime? We are sharing inscribed acoustic habitats, wittingly of women and chemical eradication), ruination of the land itself,
or unwittingly. (farming hooved animals and sowing inappropriate crops, mining,
fracking), water damage by over-farming, pollution of the water
1. Hearing the Land, present and past
The land of the Australian continent is the primary source material
for all Australians. It defines the commonality of place and belong-
ing. Jane Belfrage in her thesis, The Great Australian Silence, defines
why listening should be the dominant paradigm of knowledge in
Australia. ‘Listening to the soundscape is particularly important
when we consider that the philosophical linguistic traditions of
Australia have always been oral and aural. Text is a very recent
human technology. The practice of text has only occurred here in
Australia for a little over two hundred years, in some places, far less
than that and in other places barely at all. It was in the soundscape
that indigenous peoples' knowledges were published.’ 1   Jane Belfrage
argues for a change in perception to acknowledge the status of the
ancient tradition of listening as a practice of knowledge in Australia.
She argues that “the dominant paradigm of knowing is European,
visual and scribal, in contrast to the holistic oral/aural tradition
practised for so long in Australian Soundscapes.” 2   
She points out that Australia’s acoustic space is unlike that of any
other land. Its dignity has been maintained by Aboriginal elders
through the singing of their land for over 60,000 years.  Australia
has a history of place as acoustic space, one that can be revered and
experienced.
 Listening is another way of being, which inscribes and endorses
silence. Not to listen in a land, which has been sung for thousands of
years by many peoples, is to deny their existence, ever widening the
gap of silence and endorsing the colonial imposition of terra nullius.
The practice of listening has changed as the culture has changed.
European colonisation has expanded to include a diversity of
immigrant cultures including Asian and African cultures. Australia’s Treetops, The Acoustic Sanctuary. Photo by Ros Bandt.

11
JaaraJaara Elder Uncle Rick Nelson (voice, clapsticks) and local Murray man Ron Murray (didjeridoo), ‘playing in’ the 106 string aeolian harps
before the JaaraJaaraSeasons Event, 2013. The playable wind harps sing country in honour of Aunty Alice Kelly, Mutti Mutti elder who inspired
me so much in Lake Mungo, and told me to “keep the harps singing, they bring blackfellas and whitefellas together.” (1992). You can hear and
see the video of the live welcome to country on the Hearing Jarra Jarra website: www.hearingjaarajaara2013.wordpress.com.

supply through stock defecation, damming of the Murray floodplains country caused by the Europeans” https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.
and irrigation, loss of wildlife species. Fragile environmental balances au/sites/default/files/2016-09/FINAL_REPORT_Aboriginal_
that took years to establish, such as indigenous eel traps have been History_June_2013.pdf
broken through denying land access, a metaphor for the physical, Overfarming, gold and copper mining, tree cutting, the intro-
psychological and emotional health of the nation’s culture. duction of rabbits, foxes, gorse and blackberries, pests and foreign
The soundscape has mirrored all of these changes over the last 300 diseases are all described by indigenous voices. In his indigenous
years but the western world has not been listening. The supremacy “short history of the JaaraJaara area”, Uncle Gene Roberts outlines
of the gun over the spear changed the soundscape forever. The land the statistics of the loss and harm. The remnant outcomes are terrify-
and its people are scarred. Australia must be cared for and shared, ing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djadjawurrung. See massacres,
LISTENING to the indigenous custodians for it to heal. The land of disease, clans, names.
Australia is the only thing we Australians from every part of the
world share and we should all be fully involved in making it the HABITAT Description: the Physical Space:
healthiest nest it can be for all inhabitants, just as the first peoples IMMEDIATE ACOUSTIC CONNECTION
have cared for it for 60,000 years so softly, minding food, water and The decision to acquire the 55-acre property in this region was a
the dreamtime connections of the land. sonic love affair from the start. On the first visit, I sonically identified
5 species of frogs. This meant it was well on the way to being regener-
The box ironbark woodland forest in north central Victoria was
ated. The sounds echoed all around the valley. I was seduced. This
not exempt from misguided and inappropriate plundering. “There
love affair with the sounds of the natural environment never errs. By
was irrevocable spiritual and physical disruption to connection to
making it land for wildlife we wanted to continue regenerating it and

12
be able to maintain this off-grid substantial wildlife corridor from returns to the tree by the back
the town to the national forest. From the outset it was to be a quiet door. Grey shrike thrushes breed
place, no introduced sounds, fast cars or motorbikes, no smoking, each spring in the eaves and a pair
take your rubbish with you. of olive backed orioles inhabit the
The shape of the land as acoustic space is awesome. The 5 sets of south side. The crimson rosel-
natural north facing rises to the south boundary form an amphi- las colonise the bridge over the
theatre array down to a small intermittent stream tributary. Water streamlets in the stands of mature
has been introduced in 2 large artificial dams and smaller ponds. grey and lemon box. They share
The dams have grown sedges and frog communities expanded. the upper storey with corellas,
This little plains brown tree frog was conceived in the kayak at sulphur-crested cockatoos, choughs, magpies, and currawongs.
the edge of the dam in 2016, and it is his home. His signature call While the superb fairy wrens, robins and weebills dart into the
can be heard most of the year, 3-5-7 slowly repeated grating notes scrub near the ground, by the waterholes herons, egrets, cormorants,
creeeee-creee-cree- cree. native ducks, lapwings, wait their turn. On the side of the track,
Mullock heaps, blackberries, a broken water race, a polluted bronzewing and crested pigeons guard entrance to the place while
natural swimming pool adjoining pastoral land and a sheep eaten further along, pallid cuckoos, bush wrens, thornbills, weebills,
meadow came with it. fantails, willie wagtails are stable nearby residents. Jacky winter and
Over the 25 years, all the motor-bike and jeep tracks of the scarlet robins are widespread breeding residents. This ensures a
former owner have overgrown, changing constantly according to myriad of aerial sound composition as they go about their business
the seasonal needs of the kangaroo population which has always in temporal layers of intricate complexity, a sonic composition.
been vast. They are making their track over this mullock heap, Box ironbark dependent fauna include many endangered species
also becoming overgrown with the Cassinia bush, so important for of birds, woodland brown and white throated tree creepers, mistle-
understory regeneration nitrating the soil. toe bird, regent honey eater, coming at the flowering times for the
There are only kangaroo tracks now and no fences apart from the sugar food of lerp and pollen. Other elusive presences are the rufous
high south boundary where goats and cows have been introduced honeyeater, swift parrot, and small marsupials, phascogale, antechi-
as a small venture by the neighbour. Moos and bleats are sometimes nus, tree goannas, skinks and stumpy tailed lizards. Micro bats and
heard from this denuded place floating down the hill through the native bees, termites, underwater yabbies and aquatic invertebrates,
bushed amphitheatre. small crustaceans and insects are being further investigated both
It was after some years of being in place with all our senses scientifically and artistically. The tiny orchid season, Bom, meaning
off-grid living slowly in the rhythm of the land that we realised what ‘orchid’ is particular to this area being the 7th aboriginal season,
we were in, an acoustic sanctuary, a place to celebrate the sounds of named Guling here.
an endangered habitat. When local Murray man Ron Murray gave
me some ochre left over from a children’s workshop, I went home SONIC CALENDARS
and painted the words above the shed: Acoustic Sanctuary. For 25 years the area has been recorded in nature diaries, sound
recordings, video and photography, and occasionally shared with
the public through on-site public performance events 2013/2018.
A CD of the Jaara Jaara Seasons, 2013 was published by Hearing
Places. This major bush symphony is derived from the site-specific
sound recordings made throughout the 7 Jaara Jaara seasons. This
celebration of country with multi-cultural musicians and associated
art projects are digitally documented on the dedicated website, www.
hearingjaarajaara2013.wordpress.com.
This first annual audio-visual calendar of the box ironbark
endangered woodland forest habitat shares observations, history,
language, flora and fauna, sound recordings over the calendar year
2013. It is thrilling in 2018 to now have a printed calendar produced
by the local indigenous children made with aboriginal elders and
volunteers knowing that the continuity of land attachment is surviv-
ing. Our Mob’s Seasons Calendar, The Meeting Place, has been created
by Aunty Julie McHale, Aunty Kathyrn Coff, Phoebe Barton, Cath
South and many volunteers. In creating it, the Meeting Place created
Acoustic Sanctuary Doors. Photo by Ros Bandt. art, dance, song, ceremony and writing about the seasons. We hope
that Uncle Rick will bring them to the acoustic sanctuary to sing one
of their newly created songs.
I realised how fragile man/nature relationships are and how easily
this place could be wrecked by human greed. Later in 2013 he and
uncle Rick would play in the Aeolian harps, which further added to
SOUNDSCAPE RESEARCH & ADVOCACY
Further study is being done on monitoring the changing sound-
the sonic identity of the place. 106 strings, blessed by Aunty Alice
scape here as the acoustic environment is always changing in the air
Kelly at Lake Mungo seem to have found their way back here, gifted
and in the water. Hydrophone recordings have been made here since
from the RedCliffs High School where they were commissioned by
2004. You can hear some online.
Steve Naylor, woodwork teacher at the time, (1989).
The acoustic sanctuary as an acoustic lab is becoming more
The Acoustic Sanctuary at Fryerstown has evolved slowly over two detailed and scientific. In 2020 a 24/7 microphone live feed will be
decades. The biodiversity is continually being documented since put in the sanctuary and available for listening on line. Students from
becoming Land for Wildlife in 1996. Several generations of owlet Griffith University and USC Sunshine Coast will decode the data,
nightjars maintain sovereignty in the shed unless the powerful owl calibrating presence and absence of sound over the long term with

13
the help of Dr. Leah Barclay. This site is a biosphere lab for scientific to know more about our place in the sonic world and how to look
acoustic habitat study, but as well, it is a continuing poetic inspiration after it in a mindful way. An underwater calendar will be made in
for sound art and musical composition and collaborative projects. the future. Artworks emerge in their proper time and can share these
The aeolian harps in the garden may be singing the land?.... on the new experiences, art, sonic ritual, ecology, performance, science all
whispering wind. Can you hear them? You can focus on the natural melded together.
harmonic series of the just intonation changing polyphonies, or This experience became an exhibition in a two-day free event
be taken to heaven by the beautiful sound. If you can’t hear it put Freshwater Listening, celebration of water as a life-giving substance,
your ear to the sculpture’s posts, and pluck a string, or just wait for a an investigation through sound of the dams in the sanctuary
stronger breeze to set them off. (www.hearingplaces.com/freshwater-listening.html).
It was a national event celebrating twenty years of acoustic ecology
QUIET: AWARENESS AND THE ANTHROPOCENE in Australia with the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology. Leah
Australia is a sung country with an acoustic history. We need Barclay, Vicki Hallet Andrew Skeoch, Jon Drummond, Guildford
to listen to understand where we are and what is happening. The Vineyard, and the local Fryerstown community came together with
absence of sound is just as indicative of the soundscape and its me to host free hydrophone workshops, scientific presentations on
changes as the sound itself being present. A major concern is the underwater creatures, field recording, artistic processes of night
800 percent increase in aircraft noise over the 22 years. Human air exposure photograms on water, and surround sound composi-
travel is out of control as greedy capitalist humans feel they can fly tions—one made from the participants recordings at the site the
wherever and whenever they like. The flight apps now confirm that if following day. This huge sound mix was ably handled by Leah
all the planes tried to land at once, there isn’t enough space for them Barclay with musicians Vicki Hallet (clarinet) Ros Bandt (tarhu),
all to land. Our neighbour has a light joy-ride plane which often Brigid Burke (clarinet), and Megan Kenny (Flute), and public sound
circles over our property. I wonder how the habitat is being affected. makers improvising together. Primitive water timers and fountains
It certainly disturbs the peace and quiet. We can identify the 9.30 were manually kept going by new residents to help us reconsider the
and 10.30 Emirates flights to Athens and many other planes, now scarcity of water in this area and to take care of it. In the gallery,
running on the hour and half hour at certain times. (A plane is going I curated the Freshwater Listening exhibition. Georgia’s Freshwater
over now as I write this). Percy Grainger warned about living in the dancing video was continuous and auditors could listen to the 6
age of flying in his free music statement of 1938. Are we caring for channel mix of the hydrophone recordings made the same day as the
the upper atmosphere? video by Vicki Hallett and Ros Bandt.
What about the health of the water in the artificial dams? The summary of this extraordinary event, written a few days after
In a revaluation of human/nature relations, a spontaneous artistic it occurred can be found in the short report from AFAE and in the
work was created between two hydrophone recording sound artists event reviews towards the end of this journal.
Vicki Hallett and myself and a performance artist Georgia Snowball.
All three have spent years listening to the region and had visited the EDUCATION: EXPERIENTIAL SITE VISITS
acoustic sanctuary previously. I wanted to create a situation where Most city dwellers have no concept of contacting Australia’s long
the human becomes immersed in a non- human world through and continuing unique sonic fabric. The Acoustic Sanctuary offers
sound, that of the underwater symphony created constantly in this perspective on caring for country.
one of the freshwater dams. Georgia had never heard these sounds When a heritage group interested in a UNESCO listing for the
before. Wearing headphones she responded to these unfamiliar Goldfields visited the sanctuary, I asked them to respect the quiet
sounds with her whole body, translating the audio into kinetic at and those that have gone before.
the moment of audition; firstly a warm-up through one powerful They felt self-conscious being still and quiet, away from their
marine hydrophone and then a longer event listening to Vicki’s six power-point presentations. Listening together is an uncom-
channel array of different hydrophones in order to catch the different mon experience. After a while they tuned in and had fascinating
frequencies with more detail and spatialisation. A video was made of responses. We are not trained as an oral/aural culture as were the
these events by Arthur McDevitt. After the first take Georgia came first Australians.
out of her sonic immersion smiling into the human world of speech, A printed leaflet is available, but I tend to keep it as a leaving
“it’s so intense”. She had become totally immersed in the little heard present, something they can think about again later as to what the
sounds of ecology in action. We need to spend real time auditing the experience might have meant. The questions it asks are below as a
fascinating changes that are weaving around us constantly in order means of provoking modalities of listening and reflections through
sound.

SITE LISTENING: ENGAGING WITH SOUND.

BE STILL. QUIET.
CONSIDER WHAT IT MEANS TO SHARE THE SOUNDSCAPE?
Be aware of the sounds you are making.
WHERE ARE YOU IN THE COSMOS?
Listen for a while, all around, standing, up down, in front behind,
lying down, locate moving sounds, distant sounds, tiny sounds.
Listen to the breeze in the scrub, the trees, the harps.
Listen inside to the harmonic series, the particles which move and
shape sound.
Listen to the sound underfoot, how dry is it?
Listen and locate other moving sounds.
Georgia Snowball, AUDITORY DANCE, being an aquatic participant, What is happening in the upper canopy, or behind you?
at one with the underwater sound ecology, sound into movement, Listen to sounds recorded in water through the hydrophone, on the
captured on film. CD JaaraJaara Seasons.

14
Freshwater Listening Exhibition 2018, Tate Gallery, Fryerstown. Photo by Ros Bandt.

Listen to sounds at night.

Compare them with diurnal sounds.
How do sounds change with the seasons?
Which sounds are familiar/unfamiliar
Which sounds are special to this area?
Listen for a long time... over the course of the year
See www.hearingjaarajaara2013.wordpress.com, an audio-visual
digital acoustic sanctuary online.

SOUND AS INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

Why do some cultures have heritage soundscape studies in
their consciousness and built into their language and others don’t?
Japan’s government has implemented its 100 soundscapes of Japan
project marking their 100 most iconic sound places with markers
for all to share.
2013 Jaara Jaara Seasons performance, Acoustic Sanctuary.
In the western canon of sound research, sonic archeology, archeo-
acoustics, sonic geography, place studies, ecoacoustics are new fields
of research, building on what has come before. Acoustic ecology sound heritage by whom? Why? For whom is a sound significant?
expanded across the globe in 1993 in Banff, Canada with the forma- Where? When?
tion of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology—inspired by Murray
Schaffer’s seminal book, The Tuning of the World which was written LINGUISTICS
in 1977. Australia has a unique sonic lineage. The aboriginal concept What are the spoken sounds that have gone before? How many
of deep listening dadirri, could be over 60,000 years old. Australia aboriginal languages are extinct? living? migrant languages?
is a sung country. Why is so little attention paid to this? Acoustic Naming places? How many aboriginal place names can you trans-
ecology rarely pays attention to the indigenous aspects of Australian late? How do you say them properly?
culture. We need to do more. Which sounds should be classified for See Linguist Stephen Morey on JaaraJaara website:

15
www.hearingjaarajaara2013.wordpress.com. spatial interactive installations, written the definitive book on her
Listen to AWAYE by Daniel Browning on the ABC and you can first ARC grant, and installed whole buildings in sound and light
learn aboriginal words each week pronounced by elders. (Grainger Museum Melbourne International Festival). She was
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/awaye/ winner of the Sound Art Australia prize, the first woman to win the
Don Banks Award for their life’s contribution to Australian Music and
MUSIC received the Fanny Cochrane Smith sound heritage award from the
JaaraJaara meeting place mob is composing new songs with National Film and Sound Archive. The resonant sounds of her first
children now to fill the gap from their lost traditional music. The vinyl, Improvisations in Acoustic Chambers, wheat silos and water
song Rick sings at the Acoustic Sanctuary in 2013 is not from his tanks, 1989 is in the NFSA register of Australian Significant Sound.
own group, a tragic disconnect inflicted by colonials banning them She has lived from her international art practice since 1980 and was
from speaking ‘lingo’. the inaugural Benjamin Cohen Fellow for Peace and Innovation at
Why is music classified as sound heritage? Ball State University USA. She is a founding member of the World
Compare the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage credentials Forum of Acoustic Ecology and curated 2 sound exhibitions for the
with the Australian National Film and Sound Archive heritage Australian Forum’s hosting of the international conference at the
register. The ABC list of Australia’s significant sound. VCA. Her book on Sound Sculpture was launched by Murray Shafer
What do you think Australia’s sound heritage should be? at this event. In 2017 she was invited to be guest artist for the Animart
festival in Delphi, creating 5 nights of discreet Sonic Metamorphoses
BUSH VISITS BY APPOINTMENT in the ancient sites of Delphi with international artists, dancers,
To visit is a full bodied immersive, still listening event, an oppor- and colleagues Dr. Jon Drummond, (streamed sound), and ancient
tunity to be in place to spend time listening. Despite having to walk Greek scholar Arthur McDevitt.
in (no cars), it is not a soundwalk environment which disturbs the Her music and installations have been exhibited on 5 continents
habitat. Wildlife have priority. where she continues to collaborate with many international artists.
Visits to The Acoustic Sanctuary are by appointment and donation. She has been a founding member of 5 ensembles including Trio
No electricity, no cars, motorbikes, no dogs, no smoking, no phones, Avium (Baroque) and Birdsong (electro-acoustic), the multi-cultural
no facilities. It’s a pleasant walk from the Fryerstown school which Back to Back Zithers, and La Romanesca, Australia’s pioneering
has facilities. early music ensemble, touring with them for 30 years. She has been
The Acoustic Sanctuary is a place to reconsider man/nature commissioned by the WDR, The Paris Autumn Festival, Radio
relationships and a place to uncover hidden sounds. Listening to Wien, the Audio Arts unit of the ABC and her works are published
country requires tuning in and being mindful (See Le Tuan Hung, by Wergo, New Albion, EMI, Schott, Move Records, Sonic Gallery,
The mindfulness of listening in 2007 Hearing Places, Cambridge Pozitif, Double Moon and Hearing Places.
Scholars Press). It’s a wildlife habitat.
Learn more:
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT https://animartgreece.eu/2018/en/tutors/bandt
Where we live. What the local soundscape www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au
means. www.rosbandt.com
The Acoustic Sanctuary shack has been there for over 30 years, www.hearingplaces.com
off grid, with no communications. No other human dwellings. It’s www.hearingjaarajaara2013.wordpress.com
a shelter, in JaaraJaara—Larr meaning roof. Every time you build
or move a wall you change the soundscape. What directions are we Bibliography: Sound Heritage,
taking to improve our acoustic environment of the dwellings we live Sonic Archeology, Archeoacoustics
in and their relationships to the environmental context? 1. Bandt, Ros, 2003, Hearing Australian Identity: Sites as acoustic spaces,
Here in the shack, it’s a slow shed, not much more than a humpy an audible polyphony. See paper http://www.sounddesign.unimelb.
made from gum logs, found stone from the sandstone reef on which edu.au/site/papers.html
it sits and recycled tin. Many doors open out to hear the beautiful
2. Bandt, Ros, 2003, ‘Taming the wind: aeolian sound practices in
box iron forest “ in its manner of operation” as John Cage would say.
Australasia,’ Organised Sound, International Journal of Music
Small toadstools are just outside the door.
Technology, vol.8, no 2, Cambridge University Press, pp 195–204.
It’s a place to listen, ponder, reflect, create with Australia’s stunning
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/
box ironbark habitat.
taming-the-wind-aeolian-sound-practices-in australasia/7BE9E0AB
Fill the kettle from the tank, light the fire and wait. Boil it. Drink
DC270764A110AF86EA9DEE19
the water when it cools down.
Leave no trace. Take your rubbish away. 3. Bandt, Ros, 2008 ‘Hearing the Free Music: Percy Grainger, Australian
We need to care for our nest wherever we live. Listening is a visionary of the soundscape, creator of electro-acoustic Free Music and
constant barometer. It needs constant tuning and is always changing sound machines.’ Soundscape, The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, pp 9-14.
as is our sung country. Care for it wherever you are. 4. Ros Bandt, 2013, JaaraJaara Seasons, a 12 month 7 aboriginal seasons
audio visual dedicated website to a year’s listening Hearing jaara-
About the Author Jaara2013.wordpress.com (www.hearingjaarajaara2013.wordpress.
com)
Dr. Ros Bandt : Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sound
Culture E-scholarship research, The University of Melbourne. 5. Bandt, Ros 2013, JaaraJaara Seasons CD available of electro-acoustic
On her 3rd ARC grant she became the Founding Director of the symphony composed from the recorded soundscapes on the property
Australian Sound Design Project, the first on-line data base and funded by a fellowship grant from the Australia Council.
on-line gallery of Sound Designs in Public Space in Australia. She 6. Ros Bandt, 2014, "Sonic Archeologies: Towards a Methodology for
has pioneered sound sculpture, sound playgrounds, spatial music, re-hearing the past, Lake Mungo, Australia and the Yerebatan Sarnici

16
Binaural recording at the Acoustic Sanctuary. Photo by Ros Bandt

17
Listening to the harps, Freshwater Listening 2018 at the Acoustic Sanctuary.

Istanbul,” in Archeoacoustics:The Archeology of Sound, OTF USA 19. Falk, Catherine and Catherine Ingram From intangible cultural
Conference proceedings of the first conference in Archeoacoustics, heritage to collectable artefact:the theory and practice of enacting ethical
2014 Malta, pp 87–96. responsibilities in ethnomusicological research. http://www.aust-neth.
7. Bandt Ros, 2015, ‘Soundwalks: Soundwalks and environmental sound net/transmission_proceedings/papers/Falk_Ingram.pdf
recording, performed and interpreted in the Victorian Goldfields’ 20. Listen Symposium, Arizona State University, October 2014. Papers
Australasian Sound Archive No 40 , pp 74–79. and concert of 5 international compositions composed from field
8. Bandt, Ros, 2013, Artifice et Integration dans le creation des recordings
installations sonore et musique environnnementale in situ: Floating 21. Barwick, Linda, Paradisec ethnomusicological archive,
Glass et JaaraJaara Digital Acoustic Sanctuary, Published online www.paradisec.org.au
by Universitaire 8, Paris. http://www-artweb.univ-paris8.fr/spip. 22. Lovell and Chen, 2013, Thematic environmental history, Aboriginal
php?article1677 history, Report prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo adopted
9. Bandt, Ros, 2003/2014, ‘The changing faces of Australian identity July 2013. PDF, 23pp. https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/sites/default/
as heard through children’s voices in Kim’s Song,’ The Australia/ files/2016-09/FINAL_REPORT_Aboriginal_History_June_2013.pdf
Asia Foundation, Ed. Le Tuan Hung https://sonicgallery.org/tag/ 23. Low, Tim, 2014, Where song began: Australia’s birds and how they
kims-song-children-songs-australian-songs-ros-bandt changed the world. Penguin, Australia.
10. Bandt, Ros, 1997, ‘From acoustic ecology to cyberspace’ Counterpoint, 24. Sounds of Australia, National film and sound archive of Australia’s
VSMA Quarterly Journal, February, pp 5–13 register of Australian sound. http://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/
11. Bandt, Ros, 2005 ‘The Listening Place, Alma Park’s multi-cultural sound/sounds-australia
voices’, Soundscape, The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, 5(1), pp 39–42. 25. 100 soundscapes of Japan http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/
12.Bandt, Ros 2003/7/2018, Australian Sound Design Project, sound blog/100-soundscapes-of-japan
designs in public space in Australia, an online data base and audio 26. ABC report on Australia’s position in the world heritage, http://www.
visual gallery of over 130 sound artists in Australia. www.sound- abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/06/13/4024232.htm. Mr.
design.unimelb.edu.au, ARC large grant. Abbott did not attend the convention in Australia on environmental
13. Bandt, Ros, Michelle Duffy and Dolly McKinnon, (eds) 2007, Hearing heritage issues.
Places: Time Place Sound and Culture, Cambridge scholars publishing, 27. Tzaros, Chris, 2005, Wildlife of the Box –Ironbark Country, CSIRO,
international anthology. (with audio CD).
14. Barclay, Leah, 2012. Biosphere Soundscapes http://biospheresound-
scapes.org
15. Belfrage, Jane, 2004, The Great Australian Silence,
http://www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/site/papers.html
16. Boyd, David R, 2017, The Rights of Nature, ECW Press, Canada
17. Grant, Stan, 2016, Talking to my Country, Harper Collins, Australia.
18. Pascoe, Bruce. 2014/2016. Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or
accident? 2014 Magaabala Books, 2016 Griffen Press S.A.

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 Intersecting Place, Environment, Sound, and Music
by Vanessa Tomlinson

T
his paper explores both how and why composers in the
twenty-first century have such an active engagement with
the environment. Why is the place of music making so
important right now? I propose that composition that intention-
ally interacts with the environment changes the way we listen,
deepens the listeners’ connection with the sonic material, and also
activates our relationship to place. Furthermore, these compositions
leave markers of cultural, social and environmental conditions at
particular junctures in time. These considerations will be explored
through an examination of six broad approaches to engaging with
the environment in the making of sound-based art, some historical
precedents with a focus on the Australian context, and then a look at
some of my own site-specific projects.
The other morning I was reading an article about John Luther
Adams in the LA Times referring to his new piece Become Desert; my
facebook feed led me to listen to a new work by Liza Lim How Forests Listen (Vanessa Tomlinson), Piano Mill 2018. Photo by Tangible Media.
Think; my inbox received a soundcloud link about a new CD by
almglocken (again harkening to Mahler) situate sound in alps, but
GreyWing featuring a 2017 piece of mine, Sonic Dreams: Extinction;
the cowbell associated with jazz comes from the Kentucky cowbell,
I received an email invite to participate in a large scale grant
and the Condamine Bell from Australian droving history has a
application that looks at Australian sound-makers engaged with
completely different sound again. In these examples the soundscape
place-based music making; and I am just recovering from running
of the roaming cow is represented through the local alloys and
an experimental music festival in the bush Easter@Harrigans Lane:
blacksmithing of the bell, and has entered musical language in vastly
The Piano Mill. This is 2018, a time when scientists are arguing that
different ways; environment is mapped in to the instrument.
we have crossed the climate change threshold, and artists' ability to
Music is often designed for a particular site—a concert hall, an
communicate and articulate has gained renewed urgency. If artists
outdoor stadium, a particular speaker array. A site-specific perfor-
are in fact a “distant early warning system” (as Marshall McLuhan
mance can be an outdoor music festival with loud speakers and no
suggested), then there is no doubt that addressing ecological issues
intent to interact with the already sounding environment. It can also
through music must be a central concern. This article looks at the
be a performance that intentionally co-exists and interacts with the
ways in which composers and improvisers of today are addressing
environment. We know that numerous composers have been engaged
ecological issues, while tracking how we consider our environment
with environmental listening as a primary compositional material
in sound making activities.
including Edgard Varèse and Pierre Schaffer listening to cities, R.
The environment, or the place in art, has long been a vital part of
Murray Schafer listening to soundscapes, and Pauline Oliveros’
art-making, with music and sound-based art-making no exception
practice of Deep Listening. As an extension of these approaches, I
(Tomlinson & Wren, 2017). The acoustic environment of cathedrals
have been thinking more broadly about how composers approach
clearly inspired a kind of composition, a musical pacing, harmonic
environmental music making.
relationships, ideas about spatiality that may not have evolved
We might think of this area of study as akin to the Environmental
without the concept of the cathedral first (Blesser, 2007). The talking
Art movement from the 1970’s—looking at how land art, environ-
drum that can bounce off river gorges and communicate informa-
mental art, and place-based art intersect. While sound-based art
tion over long distances would not have evolved the same way
was also happening in the 1970’s (Schaffer, Alan Lamb, Ros Bandt),
without the acoustical advantage of that topographical peculiarity
there has been an explosion in this area in the 21st century, perhaps
(Carrington, 1949).
mirroring re-activated awareness toward climate-change and the
So too in composed music—Gustav Mahler lived in a particular
anthropogenic impact we are having in our time on this planet.
mountainous environment, with close proximity to domesticated
This paper proposes various approaches to sound making in
animals. John Luther Adams has written extensively about how his
the environment, inclusive of built environments and naturally
living environment of Fairbanks, Alaska, became an inseparable
formed environments. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list
aspect of his compositions of that time. In song too, place makes
of activities but an invitation to consider this field as a whole, and
itself known. Even Christmas songs—Sleigh Bells Sing—can be
to unpack some of the impetus behind individual sound-maker’s
about place (made crystal clear to those of us living in the southern
decisions to engage so deeply with place. How can a sound artist
hemisphere, in snowless areas, celebrating Christmas in the heat of
bring about new understandings of place? How and where are these
mid-summer). The bell is a navigational device, needed through
understandings expressed in performance? Can artistic work affect
the fog and snow-enclosed weather of mid-winter, with the bell
change in a site, leaving memories, transformations, fragments?
being transformed from literal sleigh bell, to an instrument we
Can site-specific performance lead to new knowledge, new
now call “sleigh-bell” that represents this sound. So too sounds like

19
relationships, new experiences, and new discoveries about place? speakers/performers/sounds or away from them, and their body
Can it contribute to our understanding of spatial variation and can also make aesthetic choices as they choose to leave a space or
temporal variation? Contribute to our understanding of geophony, re-orient themselves within the space. There is a labyrinth of routes
biophony, anthrophony? to which sound can be experienced which is always in flux and in
Because this field is so broad, the case studies mentioned below motion. The threshold of entry and exit is important in this listening
are all centred in the Australian context, already a unique site for environment, and the self-determination of the listener also vital.
interacting with environment. The land here has been walked upon, In musical terms this kind of listening experience has not been
listened to and sung about for well over 60,000 years. The connecting overtly exploited, although it is becoming increasingly common
feature of these projects is listening, and so I will begin the paper with large-scale performance pieces like The Sound of 84 Pianos
trying to articulate an understanding of environments through (Griswold & Tomlinson, 2017)
approaches to listening—part 1, before trying to categorise the use
of the environment in sound-based art to conclude part 2. Part 3 City of Listening
will look at aspects of my own practice—also all Australian-based Within the City of Listening we lose the clear entry or exit point,
projects—that apply some of the terminology and methodologi- and therefore there is no clear idea of when the listening experience
cal frameworks, to share more case-studies that examine a broad begins and ends. This does not mean that there cannot be intentional
approach to making sound in place. foregrounded sound added into the environment, but that it will be
added in to an environment already rich with sound. The individual
is navigating their own way through space with no listening rules
PART 1 or physical limitations. Each individual can choose how and when
to activate their listening experience. In the City of Listening we
Musicalising the Typology of Listening can think about soundwalks, and the idea of a guided listening
In 2008 Rebelo, Green and Holleweger proposed a Typology of
tour through a particular place. Or it can be a self-made listening
Listening (Rebelo et al., 2008) that considers mobility of listeners
experience, tuning in and out of various pre-existing activities—the
experience in the built environment. While their approach comes
blacksmith, the streetsweeper, the airplane etc. The City of Listening
from landscape architecture, the applications of their lexicon to
is not limited to the city as such, but to any space where there is no
sound-based practices can provide additional language to listening
clear entrance. Performances in nature are happening in the field of
beyond the concert hall. Reflected in these listening activities is the
the City of Listening; there is an active soundworld which becomes a
way in which humans navigate through their listening environments,
central part of the listening experience.
making decisions to physically go towards or away from sounds.
Adding to this lexicon is another tripartite –intentional sounds,
This consideration is around the proximity of and the intensity of
interruptive sounds, and masking sounds– again building blocks for
sound. It begins to expose commonplace changes in our sounding
understanding our listening environments, and our listening priori-
environment; the ubiquitous ambient drone of and in buildings
ties. These categories are always in flux and interact in different ways.
(air-conditioning alongside many other electronic drones), music in
It is in fact the listener that most often makes the decision about what
restaurants so loud that conversations are not possible; traffic noise
is important to be heard. Think about a person giving an important
being masked by other noises. Central to this typology of listening are
address in a crowded space with glassware, eating, some talking and
three categories; the Theatre of Listening, the Museum of Listening
a sound system that does not project to the back of the room. You
and the City of Listening, which help us understand compositional
can strain to listen to the speaker through the fog of noise, or your
approaches to listening in place.
listening attention can be diverted. You can listen to the intentional
sounds, the interruptive sounds or in fact the masking sounds. This
Theatre of Listening kind of re-orientation is common when dealing with sound in the
The Theatre of Listening is familiar to most of us as the concert hall,
environment, and can become a point of focus.
a space with set seating, providing a particular physical relationship
The masking sound discussed here is a particular ubiquitous
to receive sound, and a clearly marked stage area indicating what
sound in place which blocks out entire frequency bands. This could
is to be listened to. Implicit in this relationship is that even though
be air-conditioning (whether inside or outside), the ocean, traffic, a
there are many other sounds in the space—electrical hums from
distant waterfall. The ear is extremely good at removing these sounds
video projectors, air-conditioning, stereos—these are not part of the
from the field of listening, and focussing in on the intentional sound.
listening field. So too, accidental sonic additions such as coughing,
However, it might be possible to highlight the masking sounds, and
whispering are also undesirable additions to the sonic field. This is
bring attention to them, as in Circular Ruins (Marks, 2015) when
the very model that John Cage challenged in 1952 with his piece
the drone of the Wheel of Brisbane gets used as a harmonic layer
4’33”.
in a site-specific composition. This reorientation of a continuous
In the Theatre of Listening there is a clear entry into this listening
everyday droning sound became the central thematic material of this
environment and a clear understanding of how to situate oneself in
work, transforming an object into an instrument, and an inaudible
the listening experience, usually in a prescribed seat with a particu-
sound into an active part of the sound environment—relocating the
lar code of conduct that governs the experience. One can stay or go,
sound as informational and relational.
but leaves generally after the listening is “complete”. The individual is
Interruptive sounds are usually the sounds of distraction, sounds
not in control of the duration of the listening experience, and does
that are out of context, too loud, or too inappropriate. The cough-
not have personalised volume control, or perspectival control; one
ing in the concert, the motorbike revving through city blocks, the
receives information.
galahs fighting over food supplies. These sounds might disturb
a level of comfort, tranquillity or peacefulness. In the Australian
Museum of Listening context, we are perfectly aware that nature is not tranquil, and is
The Museum of Listening can be thought of as entering a space
full of the unintentional demanding our attention, demonstrating
where things are already happening—an art gallery, a shop, a
that unintentional is of course a subjective perspective. The listener
museum. There is a clear entry or threshold to cross to enter this
chooses when to listen and what to listen to.
environment, and once inside, the individual has agency about
Intentional sound is the foregrounded sound; the performer
where to place their listening self—standing, sitting, walking, hiding.
on stage, or the orator speaking. The speaker mentioned earlier,
Their body can become the volume controller as they walk towards
20
is the intentional sound, but interruptive sounds were distracting which of course it is. Along the way the protagonist—the
from the listening experience, causing something of a cognitive Housatonic—experiences roaring adventures and peaceful
dissonance. The ocean can traverse from being a masking sound, to interludes, rising tensions and hidden turns. Guest stars
the intentional sound to be enjoyed and focussed upon, to being an appear without warning: a train, a frog, a group of tourists.
obstruction to hearing the thing you are trying to focus on. Proximity, But nothing stops this river from its single-minded quest
orientation, perspective and attentiveness are all basic and variable to reach the sea." (Richard Allen, acloserlisten.com, Feb.
building blocks for interacting with sound, and are all active agents 2013)
in the upcoming discussion around modes of interaction with the
This sonic mapping of place has taken place in many composers work
environment from the perspective of the sound-making artist.
from Fransisco Lopez, La Selva (1997) immersion into the rainforest
in Costa Rica, to Lawrence English, The Peregrine (2013)—record-
PART 2 ing of wind made in the Antarctic made during blizzards. Leah
Barclay’s work in River Listening has used the recording technology
Modes of sonically interacting to take us beyond what we can hear. Using hydrophones to listen
with the environment underwater has brought us in to the incredible sonic world of whales
I would like to propose that we can align environmental listening- and dolphins in the marine environment, but her recordings and
based compositional and improvisational activities into six broad compositions based around the less understood freshwater aquatic
categories of exploration; 6 modes of interaction with environment, environments transform perceptions of the previously unhearable.
embodied approaches, contexts, methodologies etc. Listening beyond what we can see (a great Oliveros provocation) is
These interactions could be interdisciplinary, and in fact it would ever present in this work. The visually murky waters of Australian
be interesting to apply these approaches to studies in poetry, dance, rivers are revealed to be full of sonic activity, with dawn and dusk
performance art etc. The fact that the categories focus on sound choruses, neatly organised frequency bands of communicating
is only to shine a light on historical approaches to sound making species, and a helpful link to the scientific world in being able to
with environment in order to build an understanding that can be listen to these recordings to understand health of the systems. It is
used across artistic disciplines and also across environmental disci- akin to hearing birdsong and insects for the first time, and provides
plines—especially with respect to environmental studies. both artistic and scientific engagement.
Broadly speaking, the six categories of engaging with the environ-
ment to make a musical work are: Listening to the environment
There has long been a poetic vision of the artist in nature, using
• Recording the environment for use in compositions; place as inspiration for composition. Throughout Western Classical
• Listening to the environment to prepare for composition; music history composers such as Mahler, Debussy, Messiaen and
• Site-specific environmental performances; Sculthorpe to name just a few, have written about place impact-
• Constructing an environment in which listening will occur; ing their composition style. It involves the idea of deep listening,
• Harnessing the environment to make sound; embodied experience, listening through time, and becoming atten-
• Using environmental data to make compositions. tive to sonic changes through seasons, temperatures, topographies,
These categories are all considering the environment from different and geologies. It is about using listening in place as the site of learn-
vantage points, dissecting or intuiting sonic behavior. The bound- ing; changing time scales, playing with foreground and background,
aries between the categories are not fixed and of course there is listening in to the known and the unknown.
fluidity and overlap between this propositions. The more important Soundwalks, all individually composed happenings in place, are
question is how these divisions, categories and theories make sense completely engaged with listening to the environment. But so too
of the art being made. I will first look more deeply into the categories are composers who use a morning walk as preparation and inspira-
of sound-based engagement with the environment to expand upon tion for work—being affected by place. Listening-in closely to the
the potential inside each perspective. environment, as in the detailed work of Hollis Taylor listening to
Secondly, I will look at the emergence of my own practice of different families of butcher birds across the Australian continent,
building large-scale work, using the framework of listening and also fits in to this category. Her work, listening, transcribing and then
categories of environmental engagement to analyse what the artist composing with the material contains direct markers of cultural and
can bring to environmental studies, and how our observations and environmental conditions at particular junctures in time.
interactions can re-calibrate relationships to place. I will do this
through examining my practice of Sounding, and the practice of Performing in and with the environment
Found Object performance to propose a large-scale compositional Playing music in any environment reveals detailed information
form of Assemblage. about place, space and time, whether it represents the Theatre of
Listening, Museum of Listening or the City of Listening. When we
Recording the environment go beyond the built environment into the outdoors this effect is
Recording place was one of the earliest uses of recording technol- heightened, drawing attention to particularities unique to the site
ogy, through the areas of ethnomusicology, experimental music inclusive of resonance, ambience, and climate. Regardless of the
and composition. It allows us to have a sonic imprint of a time and musical output, the result is always a dynamic experimental process.
place—often used for artistic means. When recording place for artis- The environment is an active participant in sound-making, being
tic means, the recordings can house knowledge not collected by any listened to and itself listening.
other researcher—weather patterns, flight paths, traffic conditions, When performing in and with the environment, it is the composer
noise pollution levels, migration patterns, conversation topics etc. A or the improviser asking the question of place. In the case of Alvin
review of Annea Lockwood’s, A Sound Map of the Housatonic River Lucier’s I am Sitting in a Room, this is an active research question—
(2010) states: what happens when I do this task repeatedly, in this space. In the
case of Jim Denley in Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley
"The recording unfolds in settings and chapters, the
(2007) he is performing with the environment, listening as much as
aquatic equivalent of a Bond film. This album doesn't just
playing, tuning in to his place through improvisation.
sound like a river; it sounds like a river going somewhere,

21
 Erik Griswold’s Sounding Wivenhoe takes 20 musicians out on Harnessing the environment to make sound
to the cracked banks of Lake Wivenhoe at the height of the 2007 Using the environment itself as the sound-making force has many
South-East Queensland drought. As the major water source for the natural derivations with wind tunnels, blow holes, not to mention
city of Brisbane, the impetus for the work was to better understand the clapping tree in Western Queensland. Numerous artists have
the multi-sensorial nature of water loss. And playing in the actual taken advantage of natural forces to produce mostly installation
dam, well below the tree line, with musicians up to hundreds of works. Alan Lamb’s Wire Music records Aeolian sound generated by
meters away from each other and the audience navigating the dry long telegraph wires, sometimes with live performing playing along
space between, this place and the recording became a sonic marker live, and other times with performers added in during the mixing
of waterlessness (Griswold 2007). process. Ros Bandt’s Aeolian Harps used in the installation work
Other key works that have exploited the site-specific nature Mungo, on the dried lake bed of Lake Mungo, where desert sands
of performance include Inuksuit (John Luther Adams 2009) for sound the harp into action as it intertwines with dreams and stories
classically-trained percussionists in place, and Helicopter String that are tens of thousands of years old. This cycle of listening draws
Quartet (Stockhausen 1992/3). These examples highlight the trend on the sharings of Mutti Mutti elder Alice Kelly. Also drawing on
wind power are some of the work of Cameron Robbins exhibited at
the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. The Wind
Section—Instrumental is a wind powered drawing instrument, that
when amplified becomes a kind of musical instrument as well. Using
the power of the easterlies that race up the Derwent river, the inten-
sity transformed the drawing speed and design.

Using Environmental Data

to Make Composition
Sonifying data is a useful and interesting way of grasping the
otherwise unknowable. Translating information from one form to
a sounding state giving us the option to hear compositions based
on the stock market crash, transformations in ice, GDP or data sets
from NASA. The field of ecoacoustics uses this methodology as a
primary tool for listening in to large data sets—being able to track
absence and presence of species or to hear trends in the sounding
Sounding Wivenhoe by Erik Griswold. Photo by Sharka Bosakova. world. Translating bat calls into human range gives us access to
what was previously unhearable—similar to the work of Barclay and
Linke in their River Listening project.
to expand our notion of where art happens, (Small 1998) opening up In the Australian context, Jesse Budel used data sonification to
possibilities for repurposing places, reinterpreting relationships, and hear changing weather patterns in a ghost town over a one hundred
rethinking the place of culture in our daily lives. year period. The audibility of weather patterns provided a subtext
This category of sonic and compositional exploration is also for other compositional methods in the piece, allowing different
inclusive of interspecies improvisation, adding sound in to the readings and layerings of information.
environment, performing with the environment. These 6 categories have been separated out to help articulate
different approaches, but in reality many projects use two or more
Constructing an environment approaches in the same work. Even many of the projects used above
Constructing an environment in which listening can occur incor- as exemplars actually intersect with multiple categories of compo-
porates anything from a purpose built concert hall, to a bespoke, sitional approaches to using the environment, taking place in an
unique situation designed for sound making and listening. It could environment, or being inspired by the environment. Part 3 will chart
be at once a sound installation, a physical object to be entered into, some of my own projects that work within the musicalisation of the
or a physical object to be listened in to. The amazing Phillips Pavilion typology of listening, consider changing relationships to the drone,
from the world expo 1958 designed by Le Corbusier and Xenakis, intentional sound and unintentional sound, and interact with the 6
and sonically explored by Varese is one such example. categories of composing with the environment.
So too is Kumi Kato’s Suikinkitsu, in the Roma Street Parklands
(2009). This Sound Garden is designed with a water harp, sui-kin-
kutsu, as a central feature. Sui-kin-kutsu, written as 水sui (water) PART 3
琴kin (harp) 窟kutsu (cave), is an inverted terracotta pot (40 to Much of my recent creative work consists of large scale site-
60cm in depth) buried underground with a small hole at the top specific performance events housing a wide variety of sonic material
(3cm in diameter) through which water drips. It is devised so that convened together through attitudinal approaches like proximity,
water pools about 10cm at the bottom, leaving the rest empty. Slow intimacy, density, intersections, shape, and emergence to name a
dripping water splashes in the water pool and rings, creating a harp- few. These works tend to employ materials at hand including people,
like sound, hence the name suikinkutsu. This instrument sits in the sounds, spaces and places. Drawing on a huge body of historical
middle of a park near a busy railway station in central Brisbane. Its work—much of it mentioned already in this article—these creative
sonic access is via a hollow bamboo pole, providing private access in works assemble sounding events to co-exist with various sites.
to a sounding world. Examples of this recent work include:
Other site-specific environments include Graeme Leak’s Musical The Sound of 84 Pianos (Griswold & Tomlinson, 2017) which
Fence in Winton, Blue Bottle Design’s Quartethaus (2011) originally employs mobility ideas from the Museum of Listening; making music
constructed for the Melbourne Festival, and The Piano Mill (Wolfe in a site, and blurring foreground/background/drone. It is based on
& Griswold, 2016). my concept and artistic direction, and a commissioned composition
by Griswold. The work itself presents 84 pianos simultaneously
working through a 30 minute score in a non-aligned fashion, with

22
Vibrations in a Landscape from Easter at the Piano Mill 2017. Photo by Tangible Media.

the audience wandering the corridors listening to the combinations choreographic director, making work on bodies, designing physical
of pianos, pianists, acoustics and proximities of the sound. [WATCH as well as sonic shapes, collecting and assembling from what I have
VIDEO: http://www.100waystolisten.com/84-pianos.html] at hand. It is intrinsically an adaptive and flexible compositional
Vibrations in an Architecture (Griswold, Tomlinson, 2016) was process which takes advantage of my skill base as an improviser,
made for the Queensland Conservatorium foyer, performed by 20 interpreter, composer, artistic director and curator. It also takes
percussionists playing instruments, moving fabric, and activating into account familiarity with place, usually built over a long period
ropes. This 20 minute work moves between the modes of listening of time until I can incorporate the sounding environment into my
presented in the Museum of Listening and Theatre of Listening, temporal design process.
again making site-specific music that exposing architectural particu- Soundings is a term I coined to define this activation of a place
larities in a surround sound presentation, with clearly foregrounded or space by a musician that is both investigative—information
material to be listened to, but without the ability to shut out intrud- seeking—and performative. The first Sounding was by Erik Griswold,
ing sounds. [WATCH VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/175329522] examining drought through a sounding on the dry, cracked banks
Vibrations in a Landscape (Griswold, Tomlinson 2017) while of Lake Wivenhoe—the main water source for Brisbane. In this
similar in name, and employing similar compositional material, instance sounding had the dual meaning of making sound, and depth
places the work in a different mode of listening—the City of Listening. of water, with all sonic material being derived from the hydrologists
It is specifically re-composed for an outdoor site in the bush, that data about the dam. The second sounding, Sounding the Condamine,
allows for interaction with the already-sounding site as part of the was again site specific—on the banks of the Dogwood Creek near
listening experience. It blurs the boundaries between intentional and the town of Condamine—examining the colonial droving history
unintentional sound and moves the drone of wind and motorbikes of western Queensland through the Condamine Bell. This bell,
revving from background sounds to intentional sounds. This work a cowbell, was used in the pre-fence droving days to help drovers
was specifically composed for the house site at the top of a huge navigate and locate their stock while moving them through the harsh
valley at the Piano Mill site. It was re-composed again for the oval in weather patterns of flood and drought. Sounding the Condamine
the town of Tyalgum for the Tyalgum Music Festival 2017. [WATCH brought together 400 farmers, community members, listeners, and
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-CG2iLtfQc] artists to create an event exploring one particular theme from a
Lastly Clocked Out and Simone DeHaan (DeHaan, Griswold, multitude of perspectives. [WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.
Tomlinson, 2017) clearly employed the Museum of Listening. com/watch?v=O_mssYWuCYY] More recent Soundings have been
Set again in the Conservatorium Foyer the audience were free to more singular in nature. Bloom Collective, investigating the process
wander around at will, and the performers too appeared in different of gullying at a property in the Darling Downs while Artists-in-
parts and different levels of the space. This work was site-specific, Residence at the EcoScience Precinct, Brisbane used sounding as a
but provided very clear listening material in the form of 8 smaller methodology for learning about place. [WATCH VIDEO: https://
compositional and improvisational pieces. It featured the forces of www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sWNgJja5u0] Clocked Out Duo,
trombone soloist and trombone choir, harp soloist (Anne LeBaron), while on an artist retreat as part of 2019 Because of her we can
prepared piano, percussion soloist and percussion ensemble, plus Naidoc Week celebrations out at the 22 mile near Mitchell also used
music boxes being played in to peoples ears (Tomlinson, 2017) and Sounding as a way to get to know place [WATCH VIDEO: https://
a choir of bowed cymbals (Tomlinson 2017). [WATCH VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvcpAzr71-I]. Based around The
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3cbvv8Q2so] Piano Mill property in the granite belt of Southern Queensland, these
My role in these works is fundamentally as a collaborative soundings are exploring the acoustics of place—resonance, absorp-
composer, but in the act of making it becomes as much the role of a tion, inter-species dialogue, weather patterns, and topographical

23
Sounding the Condamine on the Banks of the Dogwood Creek, 2008.
Photo by Sharka Bosakova.

24
patterns—through semi-composed performances. pianists themselves had to specifically learn how to interact with the
In all these Soundings there is a desire to understand and learn avian life, “as the musicians themselves were high up in the canopy
about place. It is an assemblage of local knowledge, indigenous as if in a bird hide” (Tomlinson 2017). They had to first learn to
knowledge, scientific knowledge, experiential knowledge, all drawn listen in place, to be able to play in place, and more importantly play
together into a moment shared between creator, performers, listen- with place. Lastly, Griswold discusses in his article about composi-
ers, to essentially change awareness and attentiveness to place. tional process (Griswold 2018) using recording of place as a vital
Two ongoing site-specific projects that exemplify issues discussed compositional tool. [WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/
thus far in this article are The Piano Mill and The Listening Museum, watch?v=HeUiq8grGsk]
both exploring different aspects of site, environment, approaches to
listening and acceptance of the soundscape. One is in a bush setting, The Listening Museum 2013, 2016, 2018
in a purpose-made building, the other in an industrial factory—still Tomlinson
in use. What they both have in common is the desire to give mobility The process of making the Listening Museum is well documented
in the listening experience, to work with instruments, people and in the article The Museum of Listening (Tomlinson 2016). Set up as
place and to expand creative ideas through experimentation. Ideally an experimental site to intentionally disrupt notions of durational
these projects will lead to new ways of interacting with sound, and compositions by setting them amongst installations and disturb-
potentially new relationships to place. The mobility of the listener ing them with spontaneous happenings, The Listening Museum
seems to have a deep effect on the experience of listening—choosing interrogates the Museum of Listening – https://www.clockedout.
what to listen to, where to listen from, and experiencing sound as org/the-listening-museum. In this case the environment, of the
something to be explored rather than simply received. threshold entered into, was the working factory of UAP, complete
with lathes, a foundry, mold-making machines, cutting machines,
Easter at The Piano Mill 2016, 2017, 2018 grinders, blow torches among many others. Functionality was
(Tomlinson, Wolfe, Wolfe, Griswold) mixed in with non-function, the intentional with the unintentional,
The Piano Mill is a site-specific construction high up in the pre-determined with spontaneous. What results is a listening experi-
granite-belt on the NSW/QLD border in Australia. It was designed ence where each individual audience member, over the course of 2
by architect Bruce Wolfe as an instrument that houses 16 pianos, hours, navigates their own personal journey through the sounding
manually operated by 16 pianists, and listened to from outside the material. In a space of over 200 square meters, there were sound
building. Composer Erik Griswold was closely involved in the devel- events with only one audience member, and there were others where
opment of the building and composed the first work for the Mill—an the entire audience was aware of collective, loud provocations.
hour-long composition All's Grist That Came to the Mill. Tomlinson The Listening Museum is itself a meta-composition, made up of
was the musical director of the premiere performance, and musico- many component parts, constructed in a modular time-based map.
loigist Jocelyn Wolfe collected the pianos and re-constructed each The 2018 version featured Powertools and Drummers, a conducted
pianos individual history. This is a building constructed in the work for 4 factory workers and 3 drummers, 10 sound installations,
environment. But in the book The Piano Mill (2018) Griswold a piano playing robot, a metal pour and 8 performances. No individ-
talks about his compositional process, based on years of listening ual experienced all the works, but all had unique stories to tell about
in place—learning to hear weather patterns, the pacing of birdsong, their experience of the event. It is this choose-your-own-adventure
the time of day. These elements, listening to the environment, are that is inspired by ideas of the Museum of Listening. [WATCH
deeply embedded in this composition, in this building, in this place. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKigeVdm6GU]
In learning the performance practice of how to play “in the Mill” This article has proposed a musicalisation of the terminology

The Listening Museum, UAP Factory, Brisbane, 2013. Photo by Sean Young.

25
The Theatre of Listening, The Museum of Listening and The City Griswold, E., Tomlinson, V. (2018). Amby Creek—Because of her we Can
of Listening and tracked the application of these terms in various (Clocked Out). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvcpAzr71-I
sound projects. In addition, the awareness of intentional sounds, LaBelle, B. (2007). Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art.
unintentional sounds and drones allows us to transform sonic London: Continuum Press.
components from one category to another, by prioritising different
Kato, K. (2009). Sound Garden: addressing social and ecological
sounds. Categorising the ways in which the environment is used in
sustainability. In D. Kahn (Ed.), Art Monthly Australia, November
composition starts to illuminate just how broad this field is, and how
#225, Acton, ACT: Art Monthly Australia Ltd.
interconnected sound and place have in fact always been. The appar-
ent increase in this activity in the twenty-first century is most likely Magen, A. (2009). Sound Walking: A walk on Maria Island, Ten Days On
due to the increased urgency in our awareness of climate change. But TheIsland Festival March 27-April 5 '09. Soundscape, The Journal of
it also demonstrates that the singularly interaction and relationship Acoustic Ecology, 9(1), 5-6.
of audience seated hearing a performance on a stage, in a purpose Marks, B. (2015). Circular Ruins. A Composed Environment. Noise and
built concert hall, is only one of many potentials for sharing sound. Silence [Blog]. Retrieved from https://noiseandsilencemagazine.
This transformation marks huge change that can assist in democ- wordpress.com/2016/10/17/the-circular-ruins/
ratising access to sound events, change the value system of the Oliveros, P. (2005). Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice.
arts, and make accessible through different presentation methods Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.
so many more sonic ideas. If sound can activate compassion and
Rebelo, P., Green, M., & Hollerweger, F. (2008). A Typology for Listening
awaken our sense of custodianship of land, then music is well placed
in Place. Paper presented at Mobile Music Workshop, Vienna, Austria.
to be a central creative voice in our future.
Schafer, R. M. (1977). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the
Bibliography Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.

Adams, J. L. (2009). The place where you go to listen: In search of an Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening.
ecology of music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Adams, M.D., Bruce, N.S., Davies, W.J., Cain, R., Jennings, P., Carlyle, A., Taylor, H. (2017). Is Birdsong Music? Outback Encounters with an
Cusack, P., Hume, K., & Plack, C. (2008). Soundwalking as a methodol- Austraian Songbird. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
ogy for understanding soundscapes. Reading, UK: 2008 Institute of Tomlinson, V., Wren, T. (2016). Introduction, Here and Now. Here and
Acoustics Spring Conference. Now: Artistic Research in Music, an Australian Perspective. Intelligent
Bandt, R. (ed) retrieved 2018 http://www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/ Arts; New York, USA.
site/about.html Tomlinson, V. (2016). The Listening Museum. Here and Now: Artistic
Blesser, B. (2007). Aural Architecture, Spaces Speak are you Listening? Research in Music, an Australian Perspective. Intelligent Arts; New
York, USA.
Buziak, R., Tomlinson, V., Griswold, E., Baker-Finch, J., Kelleher, V.
The Wrong Kind of Beauty—On the Rocks. (2018). https://www. Tomlinson, V. (2017). Sonic Dreams. Self-Published.
youtube.com/watch?v=8sWNgJja5u0 Tomlinson V., & Baker-Finch, J. (2009). Sounding the Condamine,
Cage, J. (1960). 4'33'': Tacet, any instrument or combination of instruments. sharing a process. Artspeak, Queensland Regional Arts and Cultural
Frankfurt, Germany: C.F. Peters Corp. Conference.

Carrington, J. F. (1949), The Talking Drums of Africa. London, UK: Carey Tomlinson, V. Griswold, E. (2018). The Listening Museum 3, UAP,
Kingsgate Press. Northgate, Australia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKigeVdm6
GU&list=UUPlffqFtHG32rPDxrDOK92Q
Clarke, E. (2005). Ways of Listening: An ecological approach to the
perception of musical meaning. New York, USA: Oxford University Tomlinson, V. (2017). A Bath of Vibrations. Self-Published.
Press. Tomlinson, V. (2017). Intimacy. Self-Published.
DeHaan, S., Griswold, E., Tomlinson, V. (2017). Clocked Out with Simone Westerkamp, H. (1974). Soundwalking. Sound Heritage, 3(4), 18–27.
DeHaan. Queensland Conservatorium Foyer, Brisbane, Australia Wolfe, J., Tomlinson, V., Griswold, E. & Wolfe, B. (2018). The Piano Mill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3cbvv8Q2so Melbourne, Australia: Uro Publications.
Denley, J. (2007). Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley.
Griswold, E. (2017). 84 Pianos, Unpublished Manuscript.
Griswold, E., Tomlinson, V. (2017). Vibrations in a Landscape, Harrigan’s
Lane, Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ed8VKVq5ww
Griswold, E., Tomlinson, V. (2016). Vibrations in an Architecture,
Queensland Conservatorium Foyer, Brisbane, Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgTkyff6aVU&t=2s
Griswold, E. (2007). Sounding Wivenhoe, Lake Wivenhoe, Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wx34dtEDCY&t=11s
Griswold, E. (2016) All’s Grist that Came to the Mill. Unpublished
manuscript.

26
 The Sound of Place:
Environmental Artworks at Bundanon
by Nigel Helyer and John Potts

T
his essay listens to the sound of place: of Bundanon, a three
thousand acre property in the Shoalhaven river valley in
rural NSW, Australia. Bundanon is today an artists’ colony
and education centre, following the gift to the Australian people
in 1993 of the entire property—including homestead, artist studio
and extensive collection of art works—by its previous owner, the
Modernist painter Arthur Boyd. Every year, 300 artists take advan-
tage of the artist residency program, living in rustic isolation at
Bundanon while working on art projects in all forms and media.
This essay considers four artworks made at Bundanon by the artist
Nigel Helyer: Milk and Honey, Biopod versions 1 and 2, and Heavy
Metal. Each of these installation works was first exhibited onsite at
Bundanon, before their inclusion in an exhibition in 2017 entitled
Landscape/Portrait: An exploration of the Shoalhaven River Valley.1
Each work has an audio component; the essay focuses on the role of Nigel Helyer, Silent Forest (1996), National Gallery of Victoria.
sound in evoking aspects of place in these artworks.
as a means of manifesting our reflections upon and relationships to
The four artworks were created as part of a three-year Australian
the landscape. We hope to act not as distant and impartial observ-
Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant project, When Science Meets
ers but embodied within the terrain, moving through it, working
Art: an environmental portrait of the Shoalhaven River Valley.2 The
with it. The greater research project addresses the issue of how an
overall aim of the project is to create a complete environmental
environmental portrait might be conceived, and what constitutes a
portrait of the Bundanon region, using techniques of environmental
landscape. The approach is to think about landscape as an amalgam
science, artistic practice, information technology, media technology
of lives, cultures, histories, sounds, biologies and economies; never
and cultural history. Science meets art in the fusion of data—collected
the one thing, always a jostling of the many; the different and incom-
by environmental scientists—with the communication of this
mensurate; some obvious voices, some quiet and hidden. The sounds
information through artworks and media technology. Each of the
of nature, and of cultural history, are invoked within the multi-voiced
artworks conveys part of the greater environmental portrait of
environmental portrait of Bundanon.
Bundanon undertaken by the research project.
The research process involves the analysis of soil and river water An environmental history of Bundanon
quality by a team led by environmental scientist Mark Taylor. The One of the fascinating aspects of Bundanon is that the region’s
paints used by Arthur Boyd in his former studio have also been social and cultural history has left an imprint on the landscape.
subjected to mineral analysis; sonification of this data is incorporated The Indigenous people whose traditional country encompassed the
into the work Heavy Metal. The data representing environmental contemporary Bundanon Trust properties were part of the Yuin
quality is digitally transformed into sound and visual information group, with close ties to the Wodi Wodi people to the north. An
in numerous artworks. The environmental portrait of Bundanon Indigenous Cultural Heritage Plan commissioned by Bundanon
also incorporates the social and cultural history of the region, as it Trust in 2011 found only two sets of axe-grinding grooves and
pertains to its environmental condition. Social history is included in possible stone tools in the region. The scant traces of habitation
the project as it embodies the environmental shaping of the region. suggest that the lower Shoalhaven was an area moved through rather
The Bundanon region is the site of our environmental portrait than settled, with the river an important means of travel by canoe.
because of its distinctive natural and cultural character. The 3000 Extended family groups moved through their country responding to
acres have been overseen by the Bundanon Trust since 1993. The seasonal availability of resources, managing country by fire. These
vast property, including a winding section of the Shoalhaven River, groups came together with others for ceremonies or activities such
incorporates eleven different vegetation communities, an abundance as kangaroo drives or burning country.3
of flora as well as native wildlife. The landscape is central to the European occupation brought a radical transformation of the
Trust’s activities, which include replanting of native vegetation, and landscape, through tree-felling and then clearing for agriculture.
the removal of exotic weed species from the riverbanks. Cedar-cutters felled valuable red cedar trees (cedar was report-
The four artworks considered in this essay all probe the question: edly Australia’s first export) from 1811; in 1812 there were nine
What is it to know a place, and how is it that we know? Do we slowly ships transporting cedar back to Sydney. The clearing of the forest
accumulate intimate details gathered during repeated visits to a removed the site of traditional Indigenous life, and opened the land
familiar terrain, or are we perhaps transfixed and transformed in an for agriculture. 600 acres of land were sold to R. H. Browne in 1832,
encounter with a solitary natural phenomenon? Does our knowl- on the condition that ‘55 acres were to be cleared and cultivated and
edge of the place’s history condition our experience of that place in fences erected.’4 This and other adjoining properties were bought by
the present? Does imagination colour our perception of place? We Dr. Kenneth McKenzie in 1838; the McKenzie family endured severe
have contributed to the Bundanon Trust’s annual Siteworks festival periodic flooding of the Shoalhaven River to establish their farm and

27
farm buildings. The destructive flood of 1860, which wiped away Theorists of sound art and acoustic ecology have been particularly
buildings along the river, prompted McKenzie’s building in 1866 of attuned to the function of sound in evoking place. Because sound
the two-storey homestead, built of sandstone and local cedar, along fills space, it is strikingly effective in conjuring the experience of
Georgian lines and on high ground: this house today is open to the place or “soundscape”, as sound artist R. Murray Schafer articu-
public as the former house of Arthur Boyd. lated in his highly influential 1977 book The Tuning of the World.9
The McKenzie agricultural estate of Bundanon focused on dairy Generations of artists working with sound have evoked place using
farming and maize crops; access to Nowra was by river ferry. Other recording technology; this evocation may take the form of a recre-
farmers cleared and cultivated land in adjoining areas, among them ation of sounds within a specific space, or a creative response to the
the Biddulph brothers, who owned Earie Park. The Biddulph diaries sonic profile of a particular environment. As the sound artist Ros
are used as a source by Nigel Helyer in his work Milk and Honey Bandt has observed: “place is constructed, remembered, embodied,
(2013), originally installed in the Bundanon homestead; these diaries restored and re-created through certain aural signatures that enable
display a farmer’s sensitivity to the weather, the productivity of the us to interact with that place in new ways.”10 The 2007 anthology
land, and a watchful eye on the river (there were disastrous floods in Hearing Places, co-edited by Bandt, offered thirty-four perspectives
1870, 1891 and 1898). By the early twentieth century, the Bundanon on the general theme of localised sound: the way “hearing place”
homestead was the central building of a working farm that included is understood and interpreted. This may refer to a specific location
stables, a curing shed, orchard, vegetable garden, pigpens, dairy, or “sonic habitat”, or to an artistic response to an acoustic environ-
beehives, as well as workers’ huts. ment, using recording technology or invented sound work. The
The McKenzie family left Bundanon in 1926, following a tragic ethical dimension of experiencing place through sound is frequently
double drowning in the river. The property was leased to tenant emphasised in critical writing on acoustic ecology and sound art.
farmers for half a century, running dairy and beef cattle. The next Attentiveness to the sounds of the other or of the past is invoked as
major transformation of the Bundanon landscape occurred in 1968, the basis of cultural and political dialogue.11
when the property was sold to art historian Sandra McGrath, her Recent theorising of place has emphasised the complexity of the
husband Tony, and art dealer Frank McDonald. Most of the working personal rendering of space, incorporating memory and history of
farm buildings were removed, trees planted, and an English-style place. Lucy Lippard’s book The Lure of the Local defined a city as
cottage garden installed. A magazine article in the 1970s, entitled “a layered location replete with human histories and memories.”12
‘The Happy Valley’, commented that ‘a Sydney art dealer has built Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas proposed an
a mid-nineteenth century landscape on a grand scale’.5 Bundanon infinite number of subjective maps of a city, comprising the personal
was now less a working farm than an artists’ community; it was this experiences of all those who traverse the city’s space. For Solnit,
environment that Arthur Boyd visited in 1971. He was so captivated “every place is if not infinite then practically inexhaustible.”13 This
by the landscape that he bought the nearby property Riversdale in complexity of time and space pertains to rural environments as well
1974, then Bundanon itself in 1979. Boyd built his studio at the rear as urban spaces: every place has a history which shapes our apprecia-
of the homestead in 1981 (the studio was the initial site of Heavy tion of the place in the present.
Metal in 2016). There is a strong, but largely unacknowledged, relationship
During his tenure at Bundanon, Arthur Boyd fought to preserve between sound, site and memory, both personal and cultural, that
the environment from development and damaging activities such as allows us to form complex associations and communal identities
sandmining. He was quoted many times in his belief that “you can’t with particular loci. John Potts has described the sound of place
own a landscape”. He realised his vision of protecting the natural and evoked by two recent sound-art works, both exhibited at Documenta
cultural heritage of Bundanon when the Commonwealth accepted (13), 2012, in Kassel, Germany. FOREST (for a thousand years) by
Bundanon as a gift in 1993, establishing the Bundanon Trust. Boyd Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller pursued the idea of emplace-
saw Bundanon as “a place for the community to enjoy the bush and ment through the medium of sound. This audio installation within
the river, and a place to be used as a forum where those from every a densely wooded park created a spherical sound field with 30
facet of the arts and science could get together”. Collaboration and loudspeakers, which played voices and sound recordings evoking
interaction were essential: “I like the idea of people talking to one different periods of time. The audience had the sense of “experienc-
another,” he stated.6 These four artworks, with their collaboration ing the passing of a millennium from the perspective of this one
between art and science, and focus on the landscape and environ- patch of territory in the park…the artists in this work complicated
ment of Bundanon, develop the spirit of creative inquiry advocated the experience of place by invoking the passing of time.” 14 At the
by Arthur Boyd. same Documenta, Susan Philipsz achieved a similar feat of inscrib-
ing a specific place in Kassel with layers of time evoked by sound.
Hearing Place The timescale, 1941–1944, was much briefer; the site was Kassel’s
The distinction between place and space has been made in a former Hauptbahnhof, still in marginal use. Seven loudspeakers
number of disciplines since the 1970s. Place is understood as the above the train platform played Study for Strings (1943) by the Jewish
subjective rendering of space, the personal appreciation of a section composer Pavel Haas, who died in Auschwitz in 1944, after being
of space or territory. The architect and theorist Colin Ripley has deported by train from this very platform. The effect of this work
remarked that place emerged in architectural thought in the late was of “the past speaking to the present at this haunted place” as
1960s as an “antidote” to the modernist conception of space. The the music drifted in to the platform as if from the past. Listeners
“homogeneous and abstract built world” constructed by modernist were affected by the melancholy weight of the past, their experience
architecture began to appear disenchanted and “devoid of poetry” displaced “through the intersection of place with the plane of time.”15
to many architects in the 1970s. A more sensitive architectural Recent sound works by Nigel Helyer have incorporated a histori-
practice valued place over abstract space, enabling a “poetical cal dimension in creating an audio portrait of a specific place. John
dwelling” as well as greater harmony with the environment.7 Place Potts has called these works, such as Silent Forest (1996) and The
was further emphasised in human geography in Yi-fu Tuan’s book Wireless House (2009), “multi-faceted sounding-boards of history
Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (1977): Tuan focused and culture.”16 The original “wireless house” was built in 1934 in a
on the significance of human experience in constructing and defin- park in inner-city Sydney, with the aim of providing radio broad-
ing places.8 casts for the poor during the Depression. Helyer’s work re-sounded

28
Nigel Helyer, Milk and Honey (2013). Bundanon homestead.

this long-forgotten site with contemporary audio technology: the location-sensitive sounds, sonfication of water quality data, and oral
re-constructed site detects visitors and plays audio sequences from history material into “a multi-layered composition that rendered
its archive, as if quietly announcing its memories to visitors. Other densely intertwined sonic narratives of and by the place: Belfast.”17
recent works—Ecolocated (2011) and VoxAura, The River Sings VoxAura focused on maritime life and marine ecology at the port
(2011)—create a “sonic cartography” in evoking specific places, city of Turku, Finland. Two ships’ lifeboats were moored either side
with an environmental emphasis. The audio of Ecolocated blended of a pedestrian bridge over the River Aura in the centre of town;

29
one lifeboat played audio including local narratives and music, while smooth-flowing system. In her catalogue essay, Cecelia Cmielewski
the other played sonification of local water quality data. The work describes the “quality of reverie that the composition of sound and
asks the audience to reflect upon the river—and the Baltic Sea—in objects in Milk and Honey evokes”. The work asks us to compare the
an environmental context, to appreciate its “vital role as a chemical pace and rhythm of life then and now; the close proximity and forms
interface that controls our climate and our atmosphere.”18 of mobility and markets then and the ease and environmental havoc
The four works discussed below use similar methods, incorpo- of the transport and dispersal of produce now. Milk and Honey is
rating environmental data, historical material, and environmental also “a deeply political query into the rapid shift that has happened
sound recordings, to evoke a specific place: Bundanon. in the short time of farming at Bundanon.” It provides a space for
contemplation that can “lead to an enquiry into the ways in which
Milk and Honey land management shapes the environment and those who live in it
Milk and Honey (2013), was an eight-channel sound-sculpture and benefit from it.”20
installed in the music room of the old Bundanon homestead. As
if stranded by an ancient flood, two sonic punts “floated” in the BioPod_V01
Bundanon homestead, carrying cargoes of milk and honey, sound- BioPod_V01 (2014) was a site-specific, micro-architectural sculp-
ing out their riverine environment with fragmentary voices in a ture designed to facilitate active listening in the natural environment.
strange new world. Positioned on the lake, a sonically significant site at the Bundanon
Milk and Honey invoked the voices and atmospheres, the actions property, a single-person capsule allowed for an overnight acoustic
and beliefs of generations of Bundanon settler inhabitants as they vigil. BioPod_V01 combined sculptural, architectural and acoustic
struggled to eke out a living in these strange surroundings. “A land experiences that could create an extended narrative of aural experi-
flowing with milk and honey” is the biblical phrase that describes ence. Participants were invited to make digital recordings of their
the agricultural plenty of the chosen land. Early colonial settlers to sonic surroundings as well as their own voice as contributions to the
the Shoalhaven region forged their own path toward realising this ongoing sound archive—a type of ship’s log. BioPod_V01 functioned
metaphor in a life that melded European practices and stereotypes as an escape pod, a re-entry capsule, an ark, in which an overnight
with an unknown, even unknowable, landscape. acoustic reverie could be recorded on the pod’s user-friendly audio
The audio of this work comprises sounds of farm life, and a system.
mingling of Old Testament voices with the prosaic and terse entries
from the Biddulph farm diaries of the 1880s. Extracts from these
diaries summon a life of constant physical action and interaction;
a life in which the ebbs and flows of the river provide both a daily
pulse and a lifeline to the outside world; a life where the constant
routines of farming were interrupted and supplemented by the more
ancient rhythm of hunting and foraging in the bush:
Shipped 22 bags of corn on punt
Picked preserving dish full of grapes to make jam
Got a small swarm of bees, mother practiced her hymns
Mother had a yarn with Hugh at Cowtails.19
In the Milk and Honey soundscape, oars and seats of the punts emit
voicings of segments of the diaries. The piano plays farm sound-
fragments including the buzzing of bees; the slapping of oars against
the water as the punt transports people and things to and from the
farm on the fast-flowing river; the squirt of fresh cow’s milk onto Nigel Helyer, BioPod_V01. Lake at Bundanon.
the side of galvanised buckets; and segments of a concert played on
the Steinway piano by a family member, who stays at the homestead For many, the combined sensations of camping alone in the
from time to time. (extremely vocal) Australian bush and floating in the middle of a
As in previous Helyer installations, the work has a “visceral” lake in total darkness proved a severe challenge, but the temporary
quality derived from the audio technology. The sound-sculpture withdrawal from the quotidien permitted an acuity in listening,
does not employ normal speakers but a series of eight “audio actua- experience and thought: a brief period of transformation and identi-
tors” that transform the sculptural objects (the punts, the bee hives fication with the environment.
and oars) into sounding objects that literally vibrate. The many audio The BioPod_V01 Survival Guide offered this advice for users:
sources in the work—historical, biblical, ambient environmental and Our species makes a lot of noise—we have created a world
those referencing Boyd—form a fragmentary, multi-vocal attempt to in which silence is a rare commodity. The BioPod invites
portray the complexity of the lived landscape. Having eight sound you to spend an overnight acoustic vigil where you can
channels allows the sounds to literally move around and through maintain your silence and listen to the voices of other
the various components of the sculptural work—which has at once a species.
familiar but also an alien presence in the homestead.
During your overnight stay you are invited to make a
series of short audio recordings of the soundscape and
Link to Audio File 1: Audio, Milk and Honey to also record a personal audio-log reflecting on your
experience.21
Milk and Honey crosses time, re-creating a sense of the arduous BioPod_V01 was an immersive experience for the intrepid soloist.
repetition of farm life back then; the isolation both blissful and Cecelia Cmielewski, who experienced a night in the pod, describes
demanding. Working the punt required attention to the river and its the aftermath: a “deeper consideration of the biology of the lake”
conditions, but also provided timeout and a chance for reverie on the and the opening of a sonic world that “feels like prehistory.” The

30
Nigel Helyer, BioPod_V02 (2015). Bundanon.

recordings she made of this acoustic environment included: kanga- the narratives of the outcast King Nebuchadnezzar II. Moreover,
roos which “thump loudly as they come to and from the lake to visitors were required to crawl on all fours to enter the works,
drink; frogs are abundantly loud and varied; egrets and kookaburras emulating the posture of the savage king.
swoop close by, wings touching the water; the smallest of insects The orientation and motivation of the work was drawn from a
are out and about. It is not peaceful; it is a rowdy, hectic cacophony large series of Arthur Boyd paintings depicting Nebuchadnezzar, a
and one not heard during the day, but only at night in places where Babylonian king of overarching military ambition, who, for a period
people don’t often go.” The experience in the biopod slowly revealed of seven years, was outcast into the wilderness to live as an animal
“a complex world that cannot be seen, only heard.” It was the sound (or rewilded) as a form of rehabilitation and redemption. The Book
of Bundanon, at night, on the lake. The result was “a disarmingly of Daniel recounts how King Nebuchadnezzar was punished for his
humbling experience in which the human is completely disregarded overbrimming, warlike ambitions by being exiled into the wilder-
and not required. For a moment, it is as if the Anthropocene had not ness to live as a feral creature:
begun.”22 and he was driuen from men, and did eate grasse as oxen,
BioPod_V01 was a sound-work designed to “make itself ”. Instead and his body was wet with the dew of heauen,
of controlling the audio content, Helyer’s aim was to establish a till his haires were growen like Egles feathers,
situation in which participants engaged with a natural soundscape and his nailes like birds clawes.23
(in a way that they would not normally experience). This allowed
then to produce their own content/response, creating in the process Possibly in homage to the iconic image by William Blake, Boyd
a generative work. painted Nebuchadnezzar in an almost obsessive manner over several
years. He produced some seventy allegorical works featuring an
Link to Audio File 2: Audio, BioPod_V01 outcast, tortured figure in a blazing Australian landscape: the human
reduced to the subhuman, beyond society, alone.
BioPod_V02 The following are narrative extracts from the three sound sculp-
BioPods_V02: the Nebuchadnezzar suite (2015) responded to tures—Helyer’s responses to Boyd’s images; a repertoire for exile:
the 2015 Siteworks thematic at Bundanon, The Feral Amongst Us. The King stands in a burning desert weeping.
The suite of three biomorphic sculptures could be considered as The King stands for his portrait.
‘biology turned feral as sculpture’ or, conversely, ‘sculpture turned The King stands and stares at the horizon.
feral as biology’. Each structure contained a narrative of a feral or The King stands and bows his head in sorrow.
rewilded being. Each of the works was designed to be inhabited in a The King stands but does not brush the flies from his
single mode—standing, sitting and lying down—and each form was face…
equipped with a solar-powered audio resonator system that played
The King sits and birds peck at his head.

31
 The King sits under a tree with melancholic thoughts. Heavy Metal
The King sits in judgment of emptiness. Heavy Metal (2016) provides the sound of a painting. Specifically,
The King sits on a throne of dried grass. it was initially the sound of Arthur Boyd’s Return of the Prodigal Son
The King sits in his own excrement and is foul … (c1997), left unfinished in his studio at Bundanon (Boyd died in
1999). To generate the data programmed into Heavy Metal, a hand-
The King lays staring at his claws.
held X-ray fluorescence spectrometer operated by environmental
The King lays engulfed by his own stench.
scientist Mark Taylor was directed at paints used in the painting.
The King lays with aching bones.
The starting premise of the work is that Arthur Boyd painted this
The King lays dreaming of a huge tree.
(mineralised) landscape with colours that were themselves formu-
The King lays dreaming of four monsters …
lated from earthy compounds and exotic metals, milled to a fine
These narratives, spoken by the artist, described the physical and paste in linseed oil and turpentine. Heavy Metal invites us to interact
emotional toll of Nebuchadnezzar after his fall from grace due to with one of Boyd’s paintings to discover a hidden world of elements
acts of tyranny and arrogance. The three audio sculptures, situated and minerals in an experience that is simultaneously chemical,
on a hill at Riversdale (part of the Bundanon Trust property), were visual and musical.
feral in the most appealing way: they became playful objects for all Helyer and Taylor analysed the mineral composition of the entire
ages. Children crawled, climbed and jumped from them; teenagers colour range used by Boyd, developing a huge database of miner-
and younger adults enjoyed being safely enclosed in the vessels while als that corresponded to his palette. The spectrometer analysis of
drifting off or listening attentively. Older adults were absorbed by the paints used on the unfinished Boyd painting revealed that the
the meaning of the text and stood alongside, closely listening to the paints contained up to 35% cadmium and 60% lead. Because Boyd
sound work. Many listeners had the experience of being isolated frequently painted with his fingers, preferring to feel the metal-rich
from the external world and immersed in the Nebuchadnezzar paints with his hands rather than use a brush, he may have inadver-
reveries. One surprising effect of the feral sound sculptures was that tently contaminated himself in the process of painting.
many people felt protected and/or invisible once ensconced in these The second stage in the creation of Heavy Metal was to sample the
quite visually transparent structures; it was as if the soundscape had Steinway piano at the Bundanon homestead, note by note. Regular
enveloped them in an impenetrable mist. keystrokes were recorded, along with the reverberance of the
sounding board resulting in one to two minute sound files per note.
Working with another colleague, Jon Drummond, an expert in data
sonification, Helyer created a computer-driven audio-visual system
Link to Audio File 3: Audio, BioPod_V02
able to read the video stream from a camera facing Boyd’s painting.

Nigel Helyer, Heavy Metal (2016). Artist studio, Bundanon.

32
 2. This research project, based at Macquarie University, has as its person-
The screen interface displays a highly magnified colour “target” area
nel the researchers Professor John Potts, Adjunct Professor Nigel
from the painting along with the RGB values and the predominant
Helyer, Professor Mark Taylor (Macquarie University) and Professor
minerals present, which are shown as elements of the periodic table.
Mark Evans (UTS). Industry partners for the ARC Linkage Grant
The system then translates the stream of mineral data into sound,
project are Bundanon Trust and the Australia Council of the Arts.
which is layered in two components: a generalised harmonic chord
structure that corresponds to the colour, overlaid by individual note 3. Sue Feary and Heather Moorcroft, An Indigenous Cultural Heritage
highlights that illustrate the distribution of the most prominent Plan for the Bundanon Trust Properties. (Bundanon: Bundanon Trust,
minerals. The computer monitor gives feedback on the area of inter- 2011), 34–35.
est, colour ratios and a graphical display of the minerals detected. 4. Bundanon Conservation Heritage Plan, Vol 2. (Bundanon: Bundanon
Heavy Metal is interactive at a complex and conceptual level. The Trust, 1997), 3–4.
composition of chord-like sounds is created by a real-time analysis 5. ibid, p 20.
of the minerals in the colours of the painting. As a video camera is
6. Siteworks: Field Guide to Bundanon. (Bundanon: Bundanon Trust,
trained onto a section of the canvas, the screen displays the mineral
2014), 236.
content of the selected colours, in the form of the periodic table. The
image and corresponding sound change each time someone selects 7. Colin Ripley, “Hearing Places: Sound in Architectural Thought and
a new section of the canvas on which to train the camera. Heavy Practice”, in Bandt, Duffy and MacKinnon (eds), Hearing Places:
Metal also brings together two kinds of science: environmental and Sound, Place, Time and Culture. (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars
computational. The installation provides participants with different Publishing, 2007), 87. Ripley cites Christian Norberg-Schultz’s
ways to animate a ‘static’ painting. The sound is dynamic, based on Intentions in Architecture (1968) as an early and influential study of
the elements used in a particular area of Boyd’s oil painting. architecture and place.
8. Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.
(Minneapolis: Minnesota Press, 1977).
Link to Audio File 4: Audio, Heavy Metal
9. R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World. (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1977).
In designing the soundscape, Helyer and Drummond decided that
10 . Ros Bandt, Michelle Duffy and Dolly MacKinnon, “Introduction” in
as the installation would operate constantly, the audio should consti-
Bandt et. Al. (eds) Hearing Places, 1.
tute a subtle, harmonic composition. While correctly representing
the database, the audio would automatically re-write sequences of 11 . “Listening and not listening have moral and ethical implications, not
the selected notes, thus avoiding the ‘looping effect’ common in only for the voices that speak and are heard, but also for the ways in
generative digital works. The soundscape operates like the ‘strange which voices constitute particular forms of power…”. Ibid., 1.
attractor’ phenomenon in Chaos Theory, in which iterations are 12 . Lucy Lippard, The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a
similar but never identical. Multicentred Society. (New York: New York Press, 1977).
Deborah Ely, Chief Executive Officer of Bundanon Trust, has 13 . Rebecca Solnit, Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. (Berkeley:
remarked that in these four artworks, Nigel Helyer “has developed University of California Press, 2010), 2.
a language that engages visually and aurally with the physicality 14 . John Potts, The New Time and Space. (Basingstoke: Palgrave
of the place”. This engagement is with both the “literal material” Macmillan, 2015), 91.
of Bundanon, and with the “ideas held within its histories and the 15. Ibid., 92.
artist’s imagination.”24 The sounds of Bundanon are reinterpreted for
16 . Nigel Helyer and John Potts, “Ecolocated: Art, Science,
us through these artworks, as is the presence of Arthur Boyd, and the
Environment,” Studies in Material Thinking Vol. 8 2012 at
wide landscape of his mind. The acoustic environment of Bundanon,
http://www.materialthinking.org/papers/94. 6.
recorded in BioPod_V01, mingles with Boyd’s imagination and with
the history of the place, creating a portrait in sound of Bundanon. 17. Ibid., 4.
18 . Ibid., 5.
Endnotes 19 . Thomas Tregenna Biddulph, diary extract, 1880s, archival material,
1. Milk and Honey (2012) was an eight-channel sound-sculpture Bundanon Trust.
installed inside the homestead at Bundanon. Biopod_V01 (2014) was 20 . Cecelia Cmielewski, “Edges, Proximity and the Creative Leap”, in
a single-person capsule floating on the lake at Bundanon. Biopod_V02 Nigel Helyer: Landscape/Portrait: An exploration of the Shoalhaven
(2015) was a suite of three sculptures exhibited at Bundanon for the River Valley catalogue (Macquarie University Art Gallery, 2017). 30.
annual Siteworks festival. Heavy Metal (2016) was an interactive 21 . Nigel Helyer, BioPod_V01 Survival Manual, 2014.
installation situated in the artist studio at Bundanon, opening at the
22 . Cecelia Cmielewski, “Edges, Proximity and the Creative Leap”, 31.
2016 Siteworks festival. Heavy Metal and Biopod_V01, along with
documentation of Milk and Honey and Biopod_V02, were included 23 . Daniel 4:33.
in the exhibition Nigel Helyer: Landscape/Portrait: An exploration of 24 . Deborah Ely, “One World” in Nigel Helyer: Landscape/Portrait:
the Shoalhaven River Valley, curated by Nigel Helyer and John Potts, An exploration of the Shoalhaven River Valley catalogue (Macquarie
Macquarie University Art Gallery, 1 March—13 April 2017. University Art Gallery, 2017). 37.

33
Reviews

As a follow-up of the successful The Global Within the frame work of acoustic ecology, this At the same time, The Global Composition 2018
Composition 2012, the 2018 conference brought year’s symposium had its focus on media culture. centered around the silver jubilee of the World
together around 100 scholars, scientist, It discussed innovative cultural, artistic and Forum for Acoustic Ecology, which was founded
designers, engineers, educators, artists, educational auditory practices in an age coined by 25 years before in Banff/Canada, so that the
composers, and activists from all over the world, worldwide migration, the societal requirement of Dieburg event also balanced and compared
all selected by a double-blind peer-review diversity, and an enormous increase of new audio Soundscape Studies’ achievements, its old and
process following a transdisciplinary open call. technologies and Augmented/Virtual Reality. new perspectives.

In brief Background
Major interdisciplinary conference on sound. The interdisciplinary blend of intellectual analysis, practical design, engaged
Relaying scholarly, scientific and artistic research. environmental, social and political work, as well as artistic production, is what
More than 100 participants from around the globe. constitutes the essence of Soundscape Studies and acoustic ecology. It has a
Keynote lectures & keynote workshops by renown researchers. close tradition related to media cultural concepts.
Open call; selection process based on double-blind peer reviews by top-class Media and its auditory, from analog audio media up to digital and interactive
committee members. media and virtual reality, play a crucial role in almost any listening practice and
Paper presentations, lecture performances, poster sessions and workshops. methodology. Based on R. Murray Schafer’s seminal publication „The Tuning of
Concerts, performances, media installations and fixed media artworks. the World“ (1977) which unfolds a cultural history of listening, the conference
Published conference proceedings with full papers in print form (ca 500 p). addressed especially the relationship between listening and media.
Full video-documentation of lectures, paper and poster sessions plus workshops and In the center stood the debate of the main thesis, that the importance a society
artistic works. assigns to the realm of the auditory correlates with the qualities of its sonic
Strong student involvement, especially from the Master’s program International Media environment including its audio media, signifying the overall attention a
Cultural Work. community pays to the auditory and its cultivation.
Conference chair: Sabine Breitsameter/Professor for Sound and Media Culture, h_da. Acoustic ecology is a prototypical example for aesthetic education, issuing
directly into the desideratum of media aesthetic education in the digital age.

Scientific, scholarly and artistic contributions Emerging focal points Organization

More than 150 submissions were reviewed by the Migration and diversity, virtual technologies and media The Global Composition 2018 conference was
committees, resulting in a conference program with a aesthetic education emerged as the “red threads” organized by Hochschule Darmstadt’s Research
transdisciplinary variety of paper presentations as throughout the conference. Numerous contributions Center for Digital Communication and Media
the core of the symposium. reflected not merely the soundscapes of natural and Innovation (DKMI) in collaboration with GFTN
The carefully selected program of installations, urban environments, but discussed also soundscapes’ e.V./Darmstadt, the h_da’s Soundscape &
performances, compositions, workshops and social implications, e.g. experiences of women, Environmental Media Lab/Master’s program
earplays added an array of creative as well as queers, and migrants, such as in Amanda Gutierrez’s International Media Cultural Work (Faculty of Media),
practice oriented positions. highly acclaimed essay and audiovisual installation, and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.
“Walking in Lightness”.
As one major topic, artistic contributions dealt with Organisational Committee
Keynote lectures and keynote workshops the tangible and simulative qualities of sound created Carolina Alarcón
The symposium’s keynote lectures investigated and by 3D audio technologies, and along the paradigm of Cansu Karakiz
discussed current and prototypical problems within soundscape: Pieces from accomplished artists like Valentina Petermann
the field of the auditory world, and suggested Barry Truax and Leah Barclay and by newcomers like Natascha Rehberg
possible pathways to solutions: Natascha Rehberg and Aleksandar Vejnovic were Aleksandar Vejnovic
presented – created, displayed and discussed by and Robin Wiemann
Prof. Dr. Milena Droumeva (Simon Fraser- Univ. within the framework of Darmstadt UAS’s Soundscape
Vancouver/Canada): Gendered Ecologies. Voice and Environmental Lab. Student Volunteers
and the Game Soundscape. Media aesthetic education unfolded as a major and Sabine Abi-Saber, Diego Arandia, Hayley Durham,
Prof. Dr. Maria Klatte (University of future topic, as its central goal is not merely to master Moritz Fischer, Nina Hassinger, Ayesha Jawaid, Xenia
Kaiserslautern, Germany): Effects of Noise on the digital age’s machines for utilitarian purposes, but Kitaeva, Daniela Koch, Jan Longerich, Amani
Cognitive Performance in Children. Evidence from its aesthetic-oriented exploration of the devices’ Maache, Anastasia Melai, Jessica Menger, Nathalie
Laboratory and Field Studies. characteristics and potentials for expression and Moran, Maria Camila Muñoz, Juan Carlos Richard,
Walter Tilgner (Independent Artist, Allensbach, creation. Lina Roca, Oumaima Salmi, Richard Tahan.
Germany): Recording European Biotopes. Listen
to Nature!. Discourse
Special thanks to Klaus Schüller M.A. and Niklas
Daily plenary sessions complemented the ongoing
Brehm M.A.
In keynote workshops the conference’s overall topic discourse, starting with “Erratic Blocks”, five-minute
was practiced by different approaches to listening inserts, in which experts from other fields added to
Co-chair Keynote Workshops
and auditory awareness. The workshops were also the Soundscape Studies’s discourse from their point of
Prof. Ulrike Pfeifer (Frankfurt UAS)
open to the general public and took place in view of their respective discipline.
cooperation with Prof. Ulrike Pfeifer, Frankfurt UAS
A social sculpture Conference Chair
(Faculty of Social Work and Health) and within the
On the occasion of WFAE´s 25th anniversary, a “social Prof. Sabine Breitsameter (Darmstadt UAS/DKMI)
academic network of the Hessische Film- und
sculpture” was created by photos, program copies, Master’s program International Media Cultural Work
Medienakademie hFMA.
compositions, recordings, reminiscences, writings,
Prof. Dr. Ioanna Etmektsoglou (Ionian University, drawings, which participants who attended the
Corfu, Greece): “Cats don’t just miaou!” Exploring founding event in Banff/Canada in 1993 were asked to
Animal Sounds in Soundscape Improvisations. A bring in.
Tool for Developing Environmental Awareness,
Empathy and Aesthetic Sensitivity. Documentation: Proceedings and videos
Prof. Eric Leonardson (The School of the Art The published conference proceedings with full papers
Institute of Chicago, USA): acoustic ecology and filled a book of around 500 pages.
DIY Hacking Aesthetic. Accessible Technology and A video-documentation on a youtube channel of each
Embodied Listening. lecture, paper session and impressions of the
Hildegard Westerkamp (Word Forum of acoustic workshops and events are complementing the
ecology, Canada): Sustainable Soundwalking. documentation of the symposium.
Passing on and Relaying acoustic ecology’s Core
www.youtube.com/channel/UCr3X25zJ9mla0zdzbgSWV5Q
Practice.

34
Reviews (continued)

Earthscape
By Melinda Barrie

O
n the night of the 2018 Geelong
After Dark GAD festival, sound
artists Ros Bandt and Vicki Hallett
sounded the mysterious upper reaches of
the cosmos and the subterranean waterway
habitats below in Earthscape.
Bandt and Hallett initially conceived the
idea for a collaborative venture on a road
trip to attend the Australian Wildlife Sound
Recording Group workshop in the Pilliga
State Forest in northern New South Wales.
Along the way they discovered they had a
long association with Geelong in common
and a shared passion for probing the myster-
ies of the universe. A hallmark of both artists’
work is their site-specific investigations of
country using their hydrophones as sonic
surveyors of the health and wellbeing of the
environment. GAD’s theme for 2018 ‘Earth’ Ros Bandt (tarhu) and Vicki Hallett (clarinet), Earthscape Performance, Geelong After Dark
provided them with the perfect opportunity
to bring their investigation into the deep the space age style dome building made it are set in motion with the hectic beat of the
history of land and sky to fruition. is easy to imagine the radio waves travel- mallet and the rasp of the finely strung bow.
Earthscape was staged in the liminal space ling up through the stratosphere on a The wind moved briskly across the stage as
between the futuristic architecture of the mission to gather knowledge from beyond the gong resonated wildly in sonorous ripples
dome building and the manicured environs of the terrestrial boundary and then beam it that merged into the beat of the machine as it
Johnson Park with its hidden past as a wetland back to earth. Our planet with its thin blue moved faster and faster, crashing and clank-
in the centre of Geelong. The show drew atmosphere observed from up high is a ing with the elements until it slowly subsided.
together three distinctive stories in sound – salient reminder of its celestial fragility.
dish, probe and scope – which provided the III. Scope: [Buckley’s Falls and
visitor with contrasting viewpoints on the II. Probe Mangroves at Sheep Wash
changing earth in the cosmos. Jem Savage’s Back on earth it is now time to consider Barwon Heads
mesmerising electroacoustic backdrop the land and human intervention under the As the whirring creatures and machinery
and Marie Pangaud’s captivating projected constantly shifting images of the Artesian are stilled and the wild ride through the
montage, combined with well-placed sounds Bore and Budj Bim. Bandt and Hallett maelstrom and raw energy of the Dish and
sculptures made from found objects, ensuring have come prepared for this investigation, Probe is finally concluded. The transition
the show was an immersive, multi-sensory equipped with their luminescent PVC pipes to the final movement Scope is announced
experience for all. that whirled and droned within the throb by the rattle of the percussive shells an
of the live electronics. They moved with acknowledgement of the need to take stock
I. Dish measured steps, past the orange hues of and reflect on the journey thus far. A sense
As clouds scudded by overhead in the the sandy desert bowl as they made their of stillness prevails and the silvery feath-
evening skies and the wind whipped around way ceremoniously to the eerily glowing ers positioned in an upright position in
the colourfully lit stage, the show opened water dish. Deep blue ethereal light played the artists hair and on the head of Bandt’s
with both artists standing silently in a bath of across their ghostly faces as the industrial distinctive long necked string instrument, the
eerie purple light as the cymbals and chains soundscape pulsed around them. They then tarhu emphasis this change in tempo. The
rocked and clanked within their wooden carefully dipped their pipes and egg beater sense of ceremony, spirituality and wisdom
rack in readiness for the night ahead. into the depths of the watery microcosm to that had been tacitly acknowledged in the
The electroacoustic soundtrack thundered simultaneously probe and activate the subter- first two movements had now given way to
across the cosmos, punctuated by Aeolian ranean world of ancient creatures and myth. full expression in the third.
harp bursts and echoes of broadcast voices Enthralled audience members gathered in The sounds of Buckley Falls located near
on their journey to the outer reaches. In close to watch as the still phosphorescent blue Fyansford, Geelong cascade through the first
response the long slide whistles swooped water bubbled into life. The tiny inhabitants half of Scope. The long soulful notes of the
in sonic arcs of glissandi as they flew up whirred, danced, crackled and span gleefully clarinet ebb, flow and intertwine with the
higher and higher through the tempestu- through their fathomless aquatic domain. sounds of the waterways flowing through
ous atmosphere. Images of the dish, Parkes Water bottles, springs and chains, the the volcanic crater full of water, dead cars
Radio Telescope, flickering overhead on artefacts of industry hanging in their frame and urban debris. In this place named after

35
Reviews (continued)

Original water sculpture with hydrophones, Earthscape Performance, Geelong After Dark

in the evening breeze as ceremonial smoke artshub.com.au/festival/news-article/

the legendary escaped convict William
and the sounds of traditional song floated sponsored-content/festivals/brooke-boland/
Buckley there is a pervasive sense of eeriness
around the sacred procession. responding-to-earth-through-performance-
and otherworldliness which is beautifully
sound-and-light-255573
evoked by the mournful call of the clarinet Artists
in conversation with the maddened bowing Geelong After Dark 2018,
Earthscape was produced and performed
and screams of the tarhu. https://www.geelongafterdark.com.au
by Ros Bandt and Vicki Hallet in collabora-
The mood then shifts again for one last tion with Jem Savage and Marie Pangaud. Gallasch, Keith. ‘Ros Bandt, Tarhu Connections,
time as Bandt and Hallett reach their final Hallett and Savage are also co-founders of double CD, Realtime 138 http://www.
destination at the Barwon Mangroves where the New and Experimental Arts Laboratory realtimearts.net/article/138/12566
previously introduced threads and narra- NEAL in Geelong. Hearing Places, http://www.hearingplaces.com
tives coalesce. The meditative sound of the
Geelong After Dark 2018 New and Experimental Arts Laboratory, http://
composed piano drifts slowly through the
Across one night the city centre of Geelong www.newandexperimentalartslaboratory.
estuary, an elegy to the role mangroves play
was brought to life by a program of interac- com/New_and_Experimental_Arts_
in the health of the ecosystem. A live sonic
tive street performances and installations, Laboratory/NEAL.html
overlay shaped by the rich, deep notes of the
tarhu and clarinet unite in reverent harmony which were situated in unexpected public
spaces, encouraging visitors to experience a
About the Author
to investigate this ancient liminal habitat
constant flow of song, dance and theatre. Melinda Barrie is a Melbourne-based
between land and sea. It is the earth’s clarion
archivist, working for one of Australia’s
call for a more balanced approach to our Featured Sites leading universities. Her research inter-
fragile ecosystems and endangered species. Places visited in Earthscape were Lake est has to do with intersections between
As the show draws to a close and the duet Bolac Western District Victoria, Buckley heritage, industry and community, and she
ends, the tarhu in one last burst of voice Falls Crater, Geelong, Barwon Mangroves, has written and presented extensively on the
cries out in empathy with the chatter of the Pilliga State Forest, NSW, Artesian Bore, topic. In addition she has a practical involve-
mangroves and the growl of the eels in a final NSW and the Radio Telescope ‘Dish’, Parkes ment and interest in the significance of
plea to listen and take notice. NSW. Australia’s sound heritage. Barrie is former
Epilogue Sources
editor of the Australasian Sound Recording
As Earthscape concluded, the peoples of Association’s (ASRA) journal Sound Archive
the Wadawurrung nation gathered together Bandt, Ros, Interview about Earthscape held on 2010–2015 and she is still a member of the
in Johnson Park to perform their Welcome 20 May 2018 editorial committee. In 2017 she completed
to Country and smoking ceremony. Banana Boland, Brooke. ‘Responding to Earth through her Master's in Cultural Heritage at Deakin
palms bathed in red and blue light swayed performance, sound and light’, http://www. University.

36
Reviews (continued)

RMIT Gallery Chaos & Order: Sonic Arts Collection Review

By Melinda Barrie

Review of the sonic art works at the RMIT contemplation. (Bubaris 2014: 391) For more (AUS) Raptor, Chris Watson’s (UK) Namib
Art Gallery’s exhibition Chaos & Order: 120 than two hundred years complex science- and Nigel Frayne’s (AUS) What You Might
Years of Collecting. based taxonomic systems via didactic panels Have Heard were acquired by RMIT Gallery
were used to convey knowledge to visitors. after their respective international premieres.
Societal concerns about the fragmenta- These text based systems of knowledge Collectively and individually they repre-
tion of democracy, identity and climate privileged the educated and literate. Sonic sent a generation of sound artists whose
change are reflected in contemporary art that is chaotic by nature and complex to pioneering work in the use of field recordings,
artistic preoccupation. Reference to classify is now emerging from the margins as electroacoustic composition and passion for
these ideas were apparent in the art an established presence in the gallery side by sound have contributed much to raising
work on display in this show. side with established art forms and systems. awareness about global climate change and
The aim of Chaos & Order was to challenge anthropogenic impact on a diverse range of
the established order and ask why do we have urban and natural settings.
Introduction/Context public collections, who are they for and what The sonic works in this survey exemplify
RMIT Gallery recently celebrated its
is their purpose? a range of approaches that challenge the
longevity in the field of collecting by the
listener to explore unfamiliar landscapes
presentation of a survey of its art works
in Chaos & Order: 120 years of collecting
Collection Survey and probe those that are familiar. Areas
Chaos & Order marked the first time a of enquiry include a collaboration with
at RMIT. The exhibition was a forum for
survey had been done of the Gallery’s own museum professionals and use of archival
students, alumni and local and international
holdings which contains over 2,500 art sound recordings of frogs. (Edwards); use of
artists in a range of mediums including
works. Of the 2,500 works 80 items were electro-acoustic composition and recorded
sound. It was also an opportunity for
chosen to showcase the Gallery’s diverse sounds of the Golden Eagle in flight (Bandt);
the Gallery to examine its own collect-
visual, sculptural and sonic media collec- transformation of urban sounds into an
ing practices. The Gallery collection was
tion. Seemingly arbitrary combinations of orchestral soundscape (Brophy); field
started in 1887 and for most of its history
art works from across more than a century recordings of ambient urban sound used
developed naturally of its own accord. The
of collecting were shown together, loosely to explore motion (Adam); compression of
organic nature of the Gallery’s collecting is
grouped by the broad themes. time and ecology (Watson); acoustic urban
represented by its five broad themes, ‘Self,
Of special significance are the seven environment (Frayne) and cultural heritage
‘Other, ‘Form, ‘Protest and ‘Place’. They are
sound art works which were selected from of place (Quin).
defined as:
the Gallery’s newly established Sonic Art
• ‘Self: The body, identity, gender and Collection. The Sonic Art Collection is Location
race’ of note for being one of only a few known Chaos & Order spanned two galleries,
collections that are wholly dedicated to the the RMIT Gallery on the ground floor and
• ‘Other: The unknown, the surreal, the
acquisition and display of ‘sound art’. A rarity the First Site Gallery directly underneath
uncanny, death, the sublime’
in a visual art dominated world. The concep- in the basement. Both galleries occupy the
• ‘Form: Shape, space, gesture and time’ tion and launch of the Sonic Art Collection heritage listed Storey Hall building located
in 2012–2013 was the end result of an active on Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD.
• ‘Protest: Social realism, dissent,
exhibition program of experimental sound Storey Hall’s tall nineteenth century stone
outrage’
work dating from 1996 and long-term and brick frontage gives the impression of
• ‘Place: Landscape, urban versus institutional collaboration and support. The quiet formality that is in sharp contrast with
natural environments, home and seminal influence of Luigi Russolo’s 1913 the animated activities of its interior. The
belonging’ (Buckingham 4 June publication Art of Noises on the development physical layout of the display was defined by
2018) of sound art as a genre during the twentieth its five collecting categories. Strong primary
century, is also acknowledged in the gallery colours were used to define each theme which
Exhibition Theme statement. (RMIT Sonic Art Collection) created mood and a point of navigation for
The chaos and order theme emerged Local and international sound artists the visitor. Blue was used for ‘self ’, black for
as a response to the tension between the featured in the show represent a selection ‘other’, red for ‘form’ and white for ‘protest’
institutional desire to classify and recogni- of the Gallery’s commissioned works and and ‘place’. Polarisation and provocation of
tion of the chaotic origins of art. The show high-profile acquisitions. The commissioned the audience were the defining aims in this
acknowledges the historical lineage of the works of Steve Stelios Adam’s (AUS) Passing show and the allegorical use of bold colour
art museum dating from the time of the By…More Quickly, Philip Brophy’s (AUS) was one of many manifestations of this idea.
Enlightenment. (Buckingham 2018: 5) Atmosis and Douglas Quin’s (US) Madeira
From the time when the noisy ‘Cabinet of Soundscape were premiered at the 2013 RMIT Sound Room
Curiosities’ (Bennett 2018: 162) was first Gallery’s exhibition Sound Bites City. Sarah The exhibition of electroacoustic sound
opened up to the public to its most recent Edwards’ (AUS) Echo Chamber premiered art works has found increasing mainstream
incarnation as a ‘stadium’ of silence and in 2013 at First Site Gallery and Ros Bandt’s acceptance in museums and galleries.

37
Reviews (continued)

However, the availability of exhibition spaces and architectural heritage in her sound
specifically designed for the exhibition of work Echo Chamber. Her work featured the
sonic art works remains rare. Traditionally, sounds of an extinct frog who used to live in
gallery design has privileged the visual nearby wetlands that have been lost to urban
arts and sound art has been consigned to development, as well as the sounds of the
a supporting role or is only been accessible gallery’s interior and exterior. Edwards art
via a tinny pair of headphones. The Chaos practice interrogates the use of classification
& Order exhibition actively confronted this systems to create meaning in the natural
deficit by allocating a whole gallery space world. Foucault’s The Order of Things has
for the display of its environmental sound been influential in her work (Edwards 2018).
art installation. The First Site Gallery’s ‘Gallery 2’ space
The entry point into the ‘place’ and was temporarily repurposed into a sound
‘protest’ underground gallery was tucked room. It was fitted out with a sixteen-speaker
away to the left of the main gallery foyer. A array which were shrouded in white gauze
set of winding stairs led down to a corridor covered cages. The speaker boxes were hung
where the visitor was welcomed to the ‘place’ in uneven rows on cross beams across the
gallery by Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie’s gallery ceiling. This irregular rectangular
‘wall art’ I was always here: ‘an acknowledg- design created an intimate haven for listen-
ment of country’ (Buckingham 4 June 2018). ing to sonic art. [image 2 Gallery speaker
The corridor lead to the basement which array, photo Melinda Barrie 7 June 2018) The
was divided into three distinct display areas. spatial design of the array filled the space with
According to the floor plan ‘Gallery 2’ was sound that surrounded and immersed the
the location of the sound art installation. visitor. Of note were the variations in spatial
The basement belongs to the student run design between each work, accommodated
First Site Gallery where experimentation and by a single configuration. From a listener’s
the testing of new ideas is encouraged (Hirst perspective, the variations in design and
2006 p. 3). It was opened up specially for the number of channels was subtle, and without
display of Chaos & Order ‘Place’ and ‘Protest’ previously hearing the work close difficult to
themed artworks. It had formerly been home First Site Gallery Floor Plan, 2006, Brook
detect. The generic installation design meant
to the Working Men’s Technical College, a that all works ranging from six to sixteen
place where generations of printers, artisans, channels were arranged to accommodate the
its polished concrete floors, utilitarian white
radio operators and engineers learnt their setting. Ros Bandt’s circular sound design
wall finish and its elongated structure topped
trade. During the war years and the post war for her six-channel work Raptor [image 3
off with a curved corrugated iron ceiling.
period, RMIT played a key role in the train- Ros Bandt Raptor sound design 4 September
RMIT alumni and artist Sarah Edwards paid
ing of service personnel. This is reflected in 2014] illustrates this point.
homage to the First Site Gallery’s training
the architectural design of the bunker with Visual elements were kept to a minimum
to focus the visitor’s attention on the aurality
of the works. The gallery was big enough for
the visitor to walk around in and choreo-
graph their own unique aural experience.
At times the faint sounds of Nathan Gray’s
audio-visual work Species of Spaces which
was next door in the ‘protest’ gallery could
be heard—this did not distract. A stack
of folded seats were also provided for the
comfort of the listener. They also served as
a tangible clue about the duration of all the
works combined.
The recordings were played on a continu-
ous loop in alphabetical order by artist
first name with a duration of close to two
hours. This arbitrary decision to alphabetise
effectively democratised the play list. The
moment when the listener arrived was the
start of the show which emphasised the
boundless temporality of sonic art where the
notion of beginning or end becomes subjec-
tive. For the more curious there was a list of
Gallery speaker array, photo by Melinda Barrie 7 June 2018) the sound artists on the gallery wall and an

38
Reviews (continued)

RMIT Art Collection app which contained

detailed synopses of each artist and their
work. A limitation with the app was its
inability to sync the information displayed
with the artist who was playing.
The shift from one work to the next was
seamless and played together they could
have been considered to be one long work.
Paradoxically this arrangement had the effect
of reducing the ‘place’ specific features of
each composition and create an alternative
conception of many chapters of one unified
soundscape. In this re-imagined landscape,
the listener experienced a sense of timeless-
ness as the Golden Eagle wheeled overhead
through the skies, the insects chittered in
the African desert, the chant of religious
ceremony, the flow of ancient waterways and
the call of the frog long extinct. Interspersed
with these natural sounds were the familiar
aural motifs of urban life in Melbourne such
as the tram bell and snatches of repeated Ros Bandt Raptor sound design 4 September 2014
laughter and conversation.
usa-commission-ros-bandt-raptor-6-chan- Buckingham, J. (2018) ‘Chaos & Order: 120
Conclusion nel-electro-acoustic-work-15-minutes Years of Collecting at RMIT’ RMIT Gallery,
RMIT Gallery is to be applauded for its
accessed on 15 September 2018 & https:// Melbourne.
recognition of the signification of sound art
soundcloud.com/making-waves/tarhu- Buckingham, J. (2018) ‘Chaos and Order,
as a genre in its own right by the establish-
connections-rapturous-by-ros-bandt 120 years of collecting at RMIT’ RMIT
ment of its own Sonic Art Collection and the
accessed 15 September 2018. University, https://www.rmit.edu.au/events/
creation of purpose designed multichannel
space to display its collection. I hope this Heritage Council Victoria. (2000) ‘Storey all-events/exhibitions/2018/april/chaos-
installation serves as a model for future Hall’, Victorian Heritage Register, http:// and-order, Accessed on 12 April 2018.
exhibitions and installations. vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/821/ Davies, S. & Harvey, L. (eds) (2013) ‘Sound
download-report accessed on 3 July 2018. Bites City: The RMIT Sound Art Collection’
In memory of Nigel Frayne who was one
Buckingham, J. (2018) ‘Chaos & Order: 120 RMIT Gallery.
of the founders of the World Forum for
Years of Collecting at RMIT’ RMIT Gallery, Edwards, S. (2018) ‘Echo Chamber’, Sarah
Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and later the
Melbourne. Edwards, https://sarahedwards.com.au/
Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology
(AFAE). Of note was Nigel’s persistence Bandt, R. ‘Silo Stories’ https://www.youtube. portfolio/echo-chamber accessed on 3
and patience to help build the newly com/watch?v=5KIuoBr0MCM&t=2s August 2018.
formed discipline ‘acoustic ecology’. Nigel’s accessed on 18 September 2018. Heritage Council Victoria. (2000) ‘Storey
sonic work ‘What you might have heard’ Buckingham, J. (2018) ‘Chaos & Order: 120 Hall’, Victorian Heritage Register, http://
was featured in Chaos & Order. Years of Collecting at RMIT’ RMIT Gallery, vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/821/
Melbourne. download-report accessed on 3 July 2018.
About the Author RMIT University Art Collection, ‘Chaos &
See page 34. Bibliography/Sources Order Education’, 13 April—9 June 2018,
Bennett, T. (2018). Museums, Power, Accessed at, https://rmitgallery.com/
Endnotes Knowledge. London: Routledge. https:// wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Chaos-Order-
SIAL, ‘Spatial Information Architecture www-taylorfrancis-com.ezp.lib.unimelb. Edu-Kit-2.pdf
Laboratory’, http://www.sial.rmit.edu.au edu.au/books/9781317198109 RMIT University (2018) ‘Building 16 (Storey
accessed 15 September 2018. Brook, J. (2006) First Site RMIT Union Gallery : Hall), Accessed at https://www.rmit.edu.au/
Edwards, S. ‘Submission for ADPATR 10 years underground RMIT, Melbourne. maps/melbourne-city-campus/building-16
Creative Practice Conference Presentation: Nikos Bubaris (2014) ‘Sound in museums– RMIT University. (2018) ‘History of RMIT’,
Echo Chamber’ adapt-r.eu/wp-content/ museums in sound, Museum’, Management Accessed at https://www.rmit.edu.au/about/
uploads/2014/02/ADAPTr_conference.pdf and Curatorship, Vol. 29, Issue. 4, 391–402, our-heritage/history-of-rmit
accessed on 15 September 2018. DOI: 10.1080/09647775.2014.934049
Bandt, R. ‘USA Commision: Ros Bandt Buckingham, J ‘Chaos & Order’ email
Raptor: 6 Channel Electro-Acoustic communication 4 June 2018.
work, 15 minutes’ https://rosbandt.
wordpress.com/2014/11/13/
39
Reviews (continued)

Freshwater Listening
By Dr. Ros Bandt

AFAE 20th Anniversary Celebrations

F
reshwater Listening was a free 2-day recordist from Listening Earth spoke on his lunches and helping campers and event
event celebrating freshwater in the field recording practice. He along with Leah goers with their inimitable country flair,
precious box ironbark environment and Vicki are members of the Australian flowers, check table cloths and generous
of regional Australia's goldfields. The event Forum of Acoustic Ecology which was help with tech equipment. Sunday’s public
included soundwalks through the forest, celebrating twenty years in Australia as participatory concert was an inclusive sonic
hydrophone listening in two dams at the part of the Freshwater Listening event. The event with everyone understanding the
Acoustic Sanctuary, experiential workshops launch of the event and the exhibition was freshwater habitat they were part of. Single
on how to use hydrophones (underwater sponsored by Guilford Vineyard and the sounds of insects were played by the public,
microphones), listening to the aeolian harps vineyard owner, Mandy Jean, spoke of her water was poured through large chalices
sound sculpture, an exhibition at the Tate insectarium and goats milk spray which has and a fountain in the centre was maintained
Gallery at the Fryerstown School and schol- replaced chemical use on the vines. manually. Instrumental wind moments from
arly and artistic talks about ways of listening In the Tate Gallery the exhibition Brigid Burke, Megan Kenny, Vicki Hallett
from a variety of experts in the field. Freshwater Listening brought together with Ros Bandt on Tarhu, were heard along
The event began with Uncle Ricky Nelson sound artists Vicki Hallett and Ros Bandt, with the dissolved voices of Doug Ralph and
and brother Cain, who gave a warm sung Elisa Stone (contributing photograms) and poet Bernie Janssen, with a live electroacous-
welcome to Country after which a blue Georgia Snowball (performance artist) in an tic mix of the freshwater recordings by Leah
Crane flew over, an omen to keep listening exciting investigation of what it's like to be a Barclay. So much inspiration and sharing at
to first peoples. Artists, scientists, ecologists, bug in freshwater, through listening to their this event. Notable academics including Jon
academics, friends and locals came together behaviour. Georgia was asked to come to the Drummond came and contributed along
to do just this. dam and respond to what she heard through with video artists and young composers and
A key figure was Dr. Leah Barclay, who movement earlier in the year. Donned in musicians. I was thrilled to say that everyone
has pioneered new approaches to ecoacous- a green poncho, she vibrated and sensed cared for the bush and the venue with great
tics and has done extensive research with this new underwater world brought to her aplomb and shared the acoustic spaces of this
the Australian Rivers Institute on freshwater through headphones from 6 underwater unique event in generous and quiet ways.
listening and acoustic ecology. She was microphones. This dramatic event was “so Thankyou to all the helpers and participants
able to identify the species we heard in the intense” for her. Three sets of headphones who made this such a great event.
dam through hydrophone recordings and shared this audio material with the gallery The concert can be heard from the
gathered the files everyone had recorded visitors. Australian wildlife Sound Recording Group
for the art work performance the next day The artists explained their different website. Andrew Skeoch has kindly recorded
(many gigabytes of sound). She helped approaches in the artist talks which followed. the concert there.
everyone on site to understand hydrophone The Fryerstown School was a friendly venue More feedback on this event in sound
possibilities and along with Vicki Hallett with the locals providing fabulous fresh and photos can be seen on the Australian
assisted with hands on recording and listen- Forum for Acoustic Ecology’s social media
ing. Andrew Skeoch, an outstanding field and website, as part of their 20th Anniversary
celebrations.

40
Research

Listening to Country: Exploring the value of acoustic ecology with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander women in prison
Sarah Woodland, Vicki Saunders, Bianca Beetson, Leah Barclay

L
istening to Country is an arts-led
research project exploring the value
of acoustic ecology in promoting
cultural connection, maintenance and
wellbeing among Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander communities and groups who
experience separation from family, culture
and Country. The project began with a pilot
phase in Brisbane Women’s Correctional
Centre (BWCC), where an interdisciplinary
team of researchers worked with incarcerated
women to produce a one-hour immersive
audio work based on field recordings of
natural environments (of Country). The
pilot was built on several years’ engagement
with BWCC delivering participatory drama
projects, including radio drama (Woodland
forthcoming). Our decision to use acoustic
ecology and immersive audio resulted from
a direct request from a group of Aboriginal
women at BWCC to create a “culturally
relevant relaxation CD”—a sound record-
Aunty Melita Orcher from the Brisbane Council of Elders listening to the sounds beneath the
ing for the purpose of reducing stress and
surface of the Brisbane River with hydrophones
connecting to Country.
In Australia, as in other settler-colonial
nations such as Aotearoa New Zealand and women, and research has shown a demand bedrock for producing the audio work, and
Canada, Indigenous peoples are imprisoned for holistic, innovative and flexible for understanding the connections between
at an alarming rate. Aboriginal and Torres approaches to engage and support women listening to environmental soundscapes, and
Strait Islander women are the fastest growing and their children before, during and the wellbeing of individuals and communi-
prison population in Australia. Representing after entering prison (Kendall et al. 2019). ties. In Australia, acoustic ecology has
nearly 30% of prison population, they Connection to Country is central to most emerged as a socially-engaged, dynamic and
are currently 21.2 times more likely to be narratives of Indigenous wellbeing. In interdisciplinary field concerned with the
imprisoned than non-Indigenous women order to increase Indigenous wellbeing, ecological, social and cultural contexts of
(Australian Law Reform Commission 2017). the focus of many efforts in native title, our sonic environments. Acoustic ecology
The majority are mothers, experiencing health, education, environment and cultural evolved from research investigating the
the trauma associated with separation heritage lies in strengthening connections value of listening to  natural environments
from family, community and Country, and to place, belonging and Country. The and the negative implications of exposure to
their incarceration creates a ripple that Listening to Country pilot in BWCC there- noise on our health and wellbeing (Schafer
affects entire communities (Walters and fore represented an original experimental 1977). Acoustic ecology incorporates other
Longhurst 2017). This is part of the “torment creative approach to promoting cultural understandings around the value of listening
of powerlessness” (Referendum Council maintenance and wellbeing among mothers, including Steven Feld’s “acoustomology”
2017) that Indigenous peoples experience daughters, sisters, aunties and grandmothers with sound as a distinctive medium for
in Australia: the continued legacy of forced living off Country in prison. knowing the world (Feld 1996) and Pauline
removal, marginalisation and incarceration The emerging outcomes demonstrate Oliveros’ “deep listening” where sound
that began with Australia’s establishment potential for our acoustic ecology approach facilitates expanded consciousness and
as a penal colony; and the systemic racism to be used for healing and rehabilitation healing with transformational changes in the
that pervades our contemporary institutions beyond the prison walls and in communi- body and mind (Oliveros 2005). 
(Fforde, et al. 2013; Paradies 2006; Henry, ties. The process of creating an immersive From an Indigenist research perspective,
Houston & Mooney 2004). audio work with the women was under- this echoes the practice and principle that is
Current prison programs are failing to pinned by a number of key principles and becoming more widely known as dadirri—
address the specific needs of Indigenous processes. Acoustic ecology formed the listening to the world around us, the Country.

41
Research (continued)

environmental soundscapes that we brought safety and ownership, where the women
in from outside, yarning together about what felt less control over the creative process.
feelings and memories these evoked, and The process of deep listening and recording
then exploring what sounds or environmen- was challenged by the industrial soundscape
tal soundscapes might connect the women of the prison environment, with slamming
to their Country, or their “belonging place.” doors, air-conditioning vents, loud alarms,
It was important to include the broader idea two-way radio chatter, and interruptions all
of belonging for those women who did not disrupting the potential for quiet focus and
know their Country or ancestry. reflection. And yet there were also many
We then visited the locations the women moments of meaningful engagement and
selected and made environmental field connection, where the women described the
Binaural microphones recording the dawn recordings at different times of day. This soundscapes that they heard and composed
chorus in the rainforest on the Sunshine Coast included dusk soundscapes with a crackling as making them feel calm, relaxed and
camp fire, dawn chorus in the rainforest, free. Listening to the final soundscapes in
Dadirri comes from the Ngan’gikurunggurr laughing kookaburras by a river, local water- the prison suggested the process had been
and Ngen’giwumirri languages of the falls, ocean waves and dolphins underwater. beneficial with comments such as the sound-
Aboriginal peoples of the Daly River region The field recordings were edited into short scapes made them forget they were in prison
(Northern Territory, Australia). Aboriginal soundscapes from each location (over 15 and feel “spiritually alive”.
healer and health worker Miriam-Rose sites) and brought back to the prison to The final work was produced in surround
Ungunmerr (2017) introduced this term to begin the process of listening and collabora- sound, using a quadraphonic array for
frame the philosophy and concepts behind tive composition with the women. We also playback in the prison to enhance the sense of
her work and ways of being the world. As a made recordings inside the prison of words, immersion. The work also exists as a binaural
practice, dadirri means listening with more poetry, breathing, heartbeats, clapsticks and mix (for headphone playback) and a stereo
than the ears, it is whole body listening. footsteps that were layered and sculpted version for use in knowledge translation
The researchers were conscious of using with the environmental soundscapes. This settings. The women provided the research
sound intentionally to promote “acoustic process was not without its tensions. For team with permission to share the work
agency” (Rice 2016), where participants security reasons, we were unable to bring a outside the prison, but as the soundscape was
might take control of the sonic environ- laptop into the prison, and so the composi- produced for a very specific purpose inside
ment and resist the oppressive industrial tion process in the prison was done with the prison, the version that is shared publicly
soundscapes of the prison. On a larger drawing, brainstorming and constructing has been adapted with changes including
scale, LaBelle (2018) frames the burgeon- “sound maps” using paper print-outs. This, filters on voices so the participants cannot
ing movement towards political resistance in turn, created tensions around cultural be identified. During future iterations of the
through sound and sonic cultures as “sonic
agency.” Indigenous storywork is grounded
in the idea that meaning making occurs
through the storytelling, and our bodies
are the story itself (Hughes 2013, Archibald
2008). Working with story in Aboriginal
health research means moving past toxic
stories and telling our stories in ways that
make us stronger (Abadian 2006, Wingard
and Lester 2001). Arts-led and poetic inquiry
were central to our methodology, where
creative acts such as drawing, sound maps,
poetry, storytelling and yarning enhanced
and expanded our immersive listening and
acoustic ecology processes (Prendergast,
Leggo, and Sameshima 2009).
The team used these principles and
approaches over a two-week period with a
group of women at BWCC, a reception and
remand centre located just west of Brisbane,
where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
women make up nearly a quarter of the prison
population. The participant group fluctuated
in size between one and twelve, depending
on a range of outside factors that included
health or legal visits, transfer to other centres,
or release. The process involved listening to Recording footsteps during Listening to Country workshops in BWCC (February 2019)

42
Research (continued)

been working for several years as volun-

teers in Queensland prisons to reconnect
incarcerated Aboriginal men, women
and young people with family, Country
and culture. The team was supported
by an advisory group that included the
Brisbane Council of Elders and Dr. Claire
Walker (Wiradjuri), Director of the Murri
Dhagun cultural unit of Queensland
Corrective Services.
2. The research discussed in this chapter was
completed with support from Queensland
Corrective Services. The views expressed
herein are solely those of the author and
in no way reflect the views or policies of
Queensland Corrective Services.

References
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When it is Toxic.” Pimatisiwin: A Journal
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Health, 4 (2): 5-28. http://www.pimatisiwin.
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accessible as possible inside the prison and Archibald, Jo-Ann. 2008. “An Indigenous
will shift away from headphone listening Notes Storywork Methodology. In Handbook of
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diffuse the sounds. This could include listen- and the resulting knowledge translation, methodologies, examples, and issues, edited by
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We are still in the early stages of analys- tion and family wellbeing. Dr. Bianca
Kendall, Sacha, Stacey Lighton, Juanita
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Sherwood, Eileen Baldry, and Elizabeth
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it seems that this process certainly has Art Program at Griffith University. Dr.
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Listening to Country workshops in BWCC (February 2019)

44
Research (continued)

Emerging Researcher Profile

By Jesse Budel

Ral Ral Creek at Calperum Station (photo by Jesse Budel, 25 May 2019)

I
am a South Australian composer, sound to soundscape ecology and creative practice. Station in South Australia’s Riverland on
artist, curator and arts facilitator whose Ecotonality allows a reconsideration of the May 24–26, 2019. Funded by Country Arts
work is informed by acoustic ecology macro- and micromorphological relation- SA and part of the international Biosphere
and ecoacoustics perspectives. ships of ecosystems in creative works, which Soundscapes program developed by Leah
My recently-completed PhD project, engages the ethical concerns of site-specific Barclay, the Lab brought together artists,
Ecotonality, or Adapting Soundscape Ecology practice and impact of creative work on scientists and community members who took
to Creative Practice: Ecological Sound ecosystems and soundscapes. part in field recording workshops, creative
Art Responses to Four South Australian The creative framework was tested through work listening sessions, expert presenta-
Ecosystems, presents a creative framework four creative site-specific works, each in tions and group discussions. A highlight of
connecting and adapting the principles, response a different South Australian site— the Lab was a visit to the TERN (Terrestrial
frameworks and methods of soundscape Mobilong Swamp (swamp ecosystem), Long Ecosystem Research Network) Supersite
ecology to ecological sound art practice. Island (riparian ecosystem), Featherstone tower in the Calerpum Mallee, which has
Ecotonality considers the adaptation of Place (urban ecosystem) and Farina (desert monitored the mallee canopy since 2011,
soundscape ecology research, fieldwork and ecosystem)—and each employing multi- with ongoing long duration acoustic record-
analysis as it relates to creative concerns of channel surround sound arrays and acoustic ings occurring daily since 2013.
project conception, data collation, creative instrumentation. These creative projects act Another is the Featherstone Sound Space,
material preparation, compositional assem- as case studies, creatively expressing various Australia’s first permanent, urban surround-
blage, artistic realisation and post-project perspectives related to place, ecosystem and sound installation exhibition site. Located in
reflection. Additionally, the framework soundscape. Featherstone Place at the heart of Adelaide’s
appraises roles of human and non-human My practice and research have continued in CBD, the Featherstone Sound Space draws
agency (via Karen Barad and Timothy several new projects around South Australia. inspiration from sound artist Jordan Lacey’s
Morton), and the inherent role and implica- One is the Riverland Biosphere Soundscape concept of Sonic Ruptures, which are urban
tions of technological mediation, as related Lab, which I facilitated held at Calperum sound installations intended to improve

45
Research (continued)

the affective qualities of urban acoustic

environments. Following a 2018 trial instal-
lation in collaboration with BASEM3NT
Creative Studios, Zephyr Quartet and Krix
Loudspeakers, the Featherstone Sound
Space has received funding from Arts South
Australia to install permanent infrastruc-
ture and to develop a year-long exhibition
program. In 2019, the Space will feature
8 installations, four by myself and sound
artists Tristan Louth Robins, Jason Sweeney
and Sasha Grbich, and four new commis-
sions by emerging and established South
Australian sound artists.
A longer-term project is Equilibrium, a
three year Country Arts SA-funded project
exploring the acoustic environments of
mental health units across regional South
Australia. Through a collaborative, explor-
atory process, contemporary artists Vic
McEwan, John Simpson, Tristan Louth-
Robins and I will investigate and creatively
engage with communities in mental health
units and public spaces between Whyalla,
Berri and Mount Gambier.
For more information, visit
www.jesse-budel.com.

Dawn chorus recording at Riverland Biosphere Reserve (photo by Jesse Budel, 26 May 2019)

Aerial shot of Farina performance at Farina (photo by John Toogood, 22 June 2018)

46
Research (continued)

Field Report: Sonic Mmabolela 2017, South Africa

By Vicki Hallett

S
onic Mmabolela 2017, conceived and
directed by Francisco Lopez, was a
workshop/residency for 11 selected
international sound artists and composers.
When I saw the call out for Sonic Mmabo-
lela, I knew I had to apply. For a number
of years I have used sounds of the African
Forest Elephant from Cornell University’s
Elephants Listening Project, as the basis
of my compositions and performances
(examples of this work are available here:
http://vickihallett.bandcamp.com/track/
elephant-trail-vicki-hallett-ep and https://
vimeo.com/180280970).
I have an interest in acoustic ecology,
scientific research and analysis. My projects
use these features to become the basis of
compositions and live performances where
my aim is to create conversation and greater Figure 2: Recording on the Bridge to Botswana. Limpopo River, South Africa.
understanding of cultural and biological Photo by Vicki Hallett
diversity of ecosystems through sound.
With an opportunity to go to Africa, work, presentations and discussions about water, as well as microphones and contact
record in the field at such locations as the creativity and the role of listening. microphones. Although I did not see an
famous Mabolel Rock and Hippo Pool, as Throughout the residency there were elephant, 3–4 months before the residency,
well as have the opportunity to work with opportunities for recordings ranging from elephants did cross the border and went
Francisco and other renowned artists and a short snapshots to long-duration overnight through the Mmabolela region. All that
chance to develop my field craft further, my recordings. Our day often started out at remained for me to see was the spoor
decision was made. 3:30am so that we were set up before the amongst which I placed hydrophones in
Mmabolela is a private reserve located on start of the dawn chorus. In the afternoons, the ground in the hope of obtaining some
the border of South Africa and Botswana we headed out to record and attend a concert sounds, even long-range infrasound (see
(see figure 1). The area has abundant wildlife (recording and listening to the dusk chorus). figure 3).
including plains game, hippopotamus, croc- There were opportunities to record My experience was completed with the
odile, baboons, birdlife and insects. overnight too (see figure 2). once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to perform
The workshop involved field-work My choice of recording equipment a dusk concert at the site of the famous
(diurnal and nocturnal), concerts, studio included hydrophones in the ground and Mabalel legend. Generally the story goes like

Figure 3: Setting up overnight recording

at abandoned elephant site.
Figure 1: Location of Mmabolela Nature Reserve. Map data © 2018 AfriGIS (pty) Ltd, Google Photo by Barbara Ellison

47
Research (continued)

Figures 4 & 5 (below) –Playing with hippopotami. Photos by Barbara Ellison

this: the Chieftain’s daughter and child went our connection for a few more moments, Watch and listen to Vicki’s Mabolel Rock
down to the Rock. The crocodile jumped up I then thanked him melodically for allow- Concert:
and ate the Mother. The child went search- ing me to visit. We maintained an intense
Audio: https://vicki-hallett.squarespace.
ing, calling the words “Ma (Mother)–Bolela visual connection before he disengaged and
com/recordings
(Speak to me)”. re-joined the family group. I felt no fear,
Teaser video: https://vimeo.com/262969538
On arrival at Mabolel Rock, we were just a sense of calm and being at one with
greeted with the sight of a hippopotami the immediate environment. What a spine-
pod. I sat calmly and quietly by the edge tingling extreme performance!
of the Limpopo River, seeking permission I was also privileged to be asked by fellow
to approach and play. Once I was out on participant, Mike Vernusky, to record his
the Rock, I again sat peacefully and sought south africa composition. These two perfor-
permission to be in the space. I played a mances became final outcome presentations.
Call based on my transcriptions of hippo- Sonic Mmabolela 2017 was an incred-
potamus sounds and guide calls recorded ible opportunity to record in Africa and
earlier in the residency. As I started playing, work with a diverse group of artists. I had
one particular hippopotamus moved in to extensive field-recording opportunities in
within 20–30 metres of my rock (see figure an environment brimming with activity
4). As I played spacious ‘Calls,’ he (or she?) along with time to develop my field craft and
interacted with me snorting the ‘Responses’. the chance to perform live in memorable
When I turned my back, responding to some locations.
birds, he snorted insistently to recapture my Vicki Hallett’s participation in Sonic
attention (see figure 5). The intensity of the Mmabolela was assisted by a Professional
moment was felt by the intimate audience on Development Grant from the City of Greater
the bank and I could hear audible reactions Geelong.
from them. We were all a part of this special Find out more about Vicki’s creative work
moment. The hippopotamus and I resumed and research here: www.vickihallett.com.

48
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T
he Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) is a events were held in October 2016 (RONA16) and October
national not-for-profit organisation whose mission 2018 (RONA18). RONA18 featured an international Rights
is to increase the understanding and practical of Nature Symposium, a session of the Australian Peoples’
implementation of Earth centred governance (or Earth Tribunal for Community and Nature’s Rights (‘Tribunal’),
jurisprudence) in Australia, with a particular focus on law, a National Art Exhibition held at Brisbane’s Spring Hill
economics, ethics, education and the arts. Earth jurispru- Reservoirs, and several regional arts events connected to the
dence is a new legal theory and growing social movement. RONA18 week.
It proposes that we rethink our legal, political, economic
The goals of the arts program, from 2019–2022, are to:
and governance systems so that they support, rather than
undermine, the integrity and health of the Earth. • C
 reatively bring awareness to the complexity and
The need for new governance systems has never been beauty of the living world--and the threats it faces--by
greater: as we face a climate changed world and transition sharing and promoting environmental sound arts,
away from our destructive reliance of fossil fuels, human acoustic ecology, and ecoacoustics as the ‘voices of
societies need to create new ways of working together and nature’.
nurturing the wider Earth community. AELA works to • C
 reatively draw a wider audience to reflect on changes
build long term systemic change, so that human societies across ecological timescales through past and present
can shift from human centred to Earth centred governance. sounds and soundscapes; and to imagine what may
Our vision is to create human societies that live within their exist, or not exist, in the future.
ecological limits, respect the rights of nature and enjoy
productive, sustainable economies that nurture the health of • C
 onnect with and amplify AELA’s bi-annual Rights
the wider Earth community. AELA is run by volunteers who of Nature Australia (RONA) Conference and Peoples’
are committed to the philosophy and practical implementa- Tribunal, which celebrate the rights of the living
tion of Earth Jurisprudence. world and advocates for the Rights of Nature and
From 2020 to 2022, AELA will be collaborating with the eco-representation.
Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology to co-host a range • C
 onnect with and explore AELA’s bioregional
of arts activities and events under the theme of “Voices of governance initiatives, which advocate for creating
Nature”. This theme will encourage both the exploration new legal, governance and cultural frameworks for
of the concepts of voice, standing, representation, and living within our ecological limits and building local
agency of the natural world within human governance custodianship and stewardship ethics.
systems, and also AELA’s desire to focus on sound art and
• C
 reate opportunities for the AELA Earth Arts
acoustic ecology as key mediums for communicating and
Collective and other artists to learn about AELA’s
exploring nature’s voice(s).
Earth centred governance programs and to practice
Central to the AELA’s Earth Arts Program is the biennial
and collaborate with acoustic ecology practitioners and
Rights of Nature Australia (RONA) week, which features an
associated ecoacoustic scientists and artists.
international conference, public lectures, Peoples Tribunal,
art exhibitions and other events. RONA biennials are Please visit https://www.eartharts.org.au for further
scheduled for October 2020 and October 2022. Previous information on how to contribute and participate.

50
Easter Piano Mill 2019. Photo by James K. Lee

51