I just came across Open Planet, which is a library of beautiful video footage that is free to use for educational, environmental and impact storytelling. It’s a cool idea, and a great resource for storytellers, which opens up the use of some fantastic footage for anyone who wants to use video to discuss environmental issues. … Read more Open Planet Videos
I’ve been a member of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group (AWSRG) since early 2019 and as part of the group’s way of adapting to the current COVID times the AWSRG will be presenting some monthly seminars over Zoom. I have the honour of presenting the first one on 20 October which will be about … Read more AWSRG Online Seminar
Sunday 5 May was International Dawn Chorus Day 2020, and I did an audio livestream from my place near Collector (just outside Canberra) for 90 minutes around dawn to capture and share the sounds of the dawn chorus with others around the world. I have been aware of International Dawn Chorus Day for a number … Read more Streaming Audio for International Dawn Chorus Day 2020
The Guardian recently produced a fantastic short podcast series discussing the issues of noise in the ocean and the effects of anthropogenic noise on the wildlife in the ocean. The series is presented by Chris Watson and you can listen in at: Episode 1: https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2019/may/03/oceans-of-noise-episode-one-science-weekly-podcastEpisode 2: https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2019/may/03/oceans-of-noise-episode-two-science-weekly-podcastEpisode 3: https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2019/may/03/oceans-of-noise-episode-three-science-weekly-podcast
The New Yorker has put together a neat short video discussing some of the health issues for humans and animals from noise pollution. You can check out the video at the link below: Watch this video on The Scene.
I currently have a sound installation called Beneath the Surface at Enlighten Festival which runs each evening from 1 March until 10 March in Canberra. The festival is based around projections onto the national institutions based in the parliamentary triangle including the National Library of Australia, Questacon, National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Australia and … Read more Beneath the Surface
I remember an episode of Mythbusters where the team set up a few different greenhouses with different sound or lack of sound and found that the plants growing in the greenhouses with more sound generally grew better. A new study has just been released which shows that some flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by … Read more Can plants hear?
CBC Radio from Canada released a nice radio interview with Hildegard Westerkamp last year which has some good insights into her philosophy. Westerkamp is an influential sound artist and acoustic ecologist, who is mainly known for her soundscape compositions. The piece touches on the importance of listening and being in the moment (much like mindfulness), … Read more Hildegard Westerkamp on the radio
Yellowstone National Park have done a cool thing by releasing a whole library of sounds that were recorded in the National Park into the public domain. The library includes a bunch of biophony including bird and bear calls, and geophony including geysers. You can access the library online at: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/soundlibrary.htm They also have a short … Read more Yellowstone Sound Library
The Discovery of Sound in the Sea website has some great information and resources about underwater sound, particularly with regards to sound in the ocean and its effects on sea creatures. Included on their site is a really clear simple explanation of the SOFAR channel which you can check out at: Sound Travel in the … Read more SOFAR Channel Explanation