Tag Archives: soundscape

Conservation Biology Congress 2016

Conbio

River Listening is featured at the 2016 Society for Conservation Biology Oceania Congress in a symposium titled “Continuous monitoring of invisible places: bioacoustics in marine and freshwater environments”

DATE: July 6, 2016
TIME: 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre

Monitoring aquatic species in underwater environments – rivers, lakes and oceans – has proven even more difficult than terrestrial surveys of endangered taxa. Traditional methods of aquatic survey techniques bear a) risks to fish health and habitat integrity, b) introduce bias, because it might cause fright responses in key aquatic species and c) standard surveying only produces a snapshot from the time of surveying – which in many cases does not happen more than once a year and d) it can be very expensive, particularly in areas with remote access. Non-invasive passive bioacoustic monitoring can address all four problems. This special session will explore novel techniques in aquatic bioacoustics that can aid conservation managers. Topics will range from holistic ecosystem monitoring (Linke, Gifford) to descriptions of detailed algorithms with which soniferous aquatic taxa can be detected. The symposium will also include talks on the challenges of using acoustical data for monitoring populations and on protocols for monitoring and mitigating impacts of noise. The final talk by Dr Leah Barclay will cover bioacoustics as a tool for engaging with the public. We hope that this first session in freshwater and marine bioacoustics at a continental or worldwide SCB conference will raise awareness and kickstart increased joint efforts by marine and freshwater scientists to establish bioacoustics monitoring as a key survey method.

02:30 Simon Linke Real-time Ecosystem Monitoring in Freshwater Environments using Passive Acoustics

02:40 Toby Gifford Underwater Soundscape Ecology: Holistic Methods in Freshwater Bioacoustics

02:50 Chris Karaconstantis Automatic Detection of a Soniferous Fish Species (Neoarius graeffei) to Facilitate Continuous Monitoring

03:00 Jan-Olaf Meynecke Monitoring cetaceans in nearshore coastal waters using hydrophones

03:10 Angela Recalde-Salas Imperfect detection: estimating detection probabilities of baleen whales using passive acoustics

03:20 Elisa Girola Changes in song characteristics with various sources of noise in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)

03:30 M. Montserrat Landero F. Can we generate relevant terrain metrics of the seafloor to model species distribution using a low-cost echo-sounder?

03:40 Leah Barclay River Listening: Raising ecological awareness through community engagement

03:50 Discussion

 

World Science Festival

image024

The World Science Festival began in New York in 2008 and is an annual weeklong celebration and exploration of science. The inaugural World Science Festival Brisbane will bring some of the world’s greatest thought leaders to Queensland, showcase local scientists and performers from around the Asia Pacific region, and host the brightest and the best from previous events in New York.

The inaugural World Science Festival Brisbane will take place between 9 and 13 March 2016 and is presented by the Queensland Museum. River Listening is thrilled to be a featured part of the program with our popular River Listening Augmented Reality Sound Installation for the duration of the festival. We are also pleased to present a number of activities on March 12th including a live performance, presentation and series of our signature sound walks (see the program below).

RIVER LISTENING INSTALLATION

River Listening is an augmented reality sound installation reimagining the world beneath the Brisbane River in sound. The installation can be experienced by walking along the river with a mobile device and listening to content that is geo-located along the river. These geo-located soundscapes are layered with hydrophone (underwater) recordings and creative responses to the Brisbane River. This installation is part of our interdisciplinary project exploring the art and science of listening to rivers across the world. River Listening explores rivers as the lifeblood of communities and underscores the value of listening in our current state of ecological uncertainty.

To experience River Listening download the free app Recho and your phone will act as a compass guiding you on a sonic exploration along the Brisbane River. The soundscapes will evolve with new material added every day during WSF. Follow the hashtag #RiverListening on twitter for live updates on site and tweet @LeahBarclay if you have any questions. River Listening launches on March 9th and continues until March 13th.

RIVER LISTENING PROGRAM

Date: Saturday 12th March
Cultural Forecourt, Melbourne Street, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Untitled design (4)

STREET SCIENCE, RIVER LISTENING LAB

10am – 4pm, Booth 21 (near the Festival Lab)

Come and meet the River Listening team (Dr. Simon Linke, Dr. Leah Barclay and Dr. Toby Gifford), learn about the art and science of listening to rivers, experiment with a hydrophone (underwater microphone), learn more about our sound installation and experience hands-on demonstrations of our aquatic bioacoustics technology.

BNEriver2

RIVER LISTENING – Afternoon tour

15:30 – 16:30, Festival Lab

Meeting point details: The River Listening Walking Tour departs the River Listening tent (located next to the Festival Lab venue) at 3:30pm on Saturday, March 12.

River Listening is an interdisciplinary project exploring the art and science of listening to rivers across the world. Join the River Listening team on a 60-minute guided sound walk along the Brisbane River to learn about the project and explore aquatic soundscapes geo-located throughout the Southbank Parklands. To experience the River Listening installation you will need a mobile device and headphones to use the free app Recho. Participants will also have the opportunity to listen to a live hydrophone in the Brisbane river. Please download the free app Recho before the walk.

Leah Barclay

RIVER LISTENING LIVE

5:30pm-6:30pm, Festival Lab

River Listening is an interdisciplinary research project that explores the creative possibilities of aquatic bioacoustics and the potential for new approaches in the conservation of global river systems. The project inspires community engagement through interactive listening labs, sound maps, immersive performances and augmented reality sound installations that have travelled the world. River Listening combines digital technologies, science and creativity to connect communities and inspire environmental engagement. Join internationally renowned artists and scientists Dr. Leah Barclay, Dr. Simon Linke and Dr. Toby Gifford to learn about the project and hear an exclusive live performance for World Science Festival.

BNE-river

RIVER LISTENING – Night tour

18:45 – 19:45, Festival Lab

Meeting point details: The River Listening Walking Tour departs the River Listening tent (located next to the Festival Lab venue) at 6:45pm on Saturday 12 March.

River Listening is an interdisciplinary project exploring the art and science of listening to rivers across the world. Join the River Listening team on a 60-minute guided sound walk along the Brisbane River to learn about the project and explore aquatic soundscapes geo-located throughout the Southbank Parklands. To experience the River Listening installation you will need a mobile device and headphones to use the free app Recho. Participants will also have the opportunity to listen to a live hydrophone in the Brisbane river. Please download the free app Recho before the walk.

 
Griffith3

 

 

Dr. Simon Linke is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University. Dr. Leah Barclay and Dr. Toby Gifford are Research Fellows at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith Univeristy. We acknowledge the support of Griffith University in this project.

Untitled design (1)

Pause Fest 2016, Australia

Melbourne’s first River Listening experience explored the Yarra River and launched during Pause Fest 2016. The augmented reality installation can be experienced by walking along the Yarra River with a mobile device and listening to content that is geotagged along the river bank. As you walk along the path, the sounds of the river system are layered with sonic art and river stories for Pause delegates to discover between sessions. In addition to the Yarra soundscapes, this experience stretched through Federation Square with a sound map connecting river systems across the world.

Leah Barclay

Leah Barclay

Leah Barclay

Leah Barclay Toby Gifford   Leah Barclay

Leah Barclay

YARRA RIVER LISTENING

https_proxy

Yarra River Terrace & Federation Square, Melbourne

Monday 8th – Sunday 14th Feburary // 9:00am – 11:00pm

River Listening is launching in Melbourne, Australia during Pause Fest 2016, a catalyst for innovation, a uniter of industries and a platform for the future. Six years ago, Pause’s founder George Hedon saw an opportunity to start bringing together a new breed of thinkers and Pause Fest is now established as a major international event for those working at the intersection of creativity, technology and innovation.

Melbourne’s first River Listening installation explores the Yarra River. The installation can be experienced by walking along the Yarra River with a mobile device and listening to content that is geotagged along the river bank.

As you walk along the path, the sounds of river system are layered with sonic art and river stories for Pause delegates to discover between sessions. In addition to the Yarra soundscapes, this experience will stretch through Federation Square with a sound map connecting to other river systems across the world.

Listeners will hear Amazon river dolphins as they walk down the steps and pilgrims chanting on the banks of India’s Narmada River as they look towards the sky. These sonic discoveries will explore the value of sound and technology in contributing towards environmental awareness and engagement.

As the recent documentary Racing Extinction highlights: if we can bring the sights and sounds of the natural world to humans who would otherwise never think about them, they might be motivated and inspired to alter their habits enough to take action and respond to the ramifications of climate change.

To experience YARRA – RIVER LISTENING, Pause Fest delegates will download the free app Recho for this exclusive Pause Fest experience.

The soundscapes will evolve with new sounds added everyday during Pause Fest. Follow @LeahBarclay on twitter for live updates onsite and join our daily demo sessions and sound walks by using the #RiverListening hashtag on twitter.

River Listening Augmented Reality Sound Installation – Leah Barclay

Step 1. Download the free app Recho to your mobile device and connect your headphones.
Step 2. Walk towards the first sound, your phone will act as a compass and guide you through YARRA RIVER LISTENING
Step 4. When you approach the first sound it will play automatically, tap the sound once to open it.
Step 5. Wait for 3-5 seconds (to load) and stop to listen to the soundscape.

Leah Barclay
Leah Barclay – River Listening in Paris – COP21, December 2015

WIRA – Video Preview

WIRA is an interactive sound installation that reimagines the world beneath the surface of the Noosa River for Floating Land 2015 at the Noosa Regional Gallery in Queensland, Australia. The installation opened on August 27 and runs until October 18. This is one of the first major create outcomes from River Listening.

This video preview explains the project.

WIRA – Floating Land 2015 from Leah Barclay on Vimeo.

WIRA can be experienced by walking along the river with a smart phone and listening to content that is geotagged from Noosa Regional Gallery to the river mouth. As you walk along the river bank, the sounds of the Noosa River system are layered with sonic art, stories and soundscapes from Floating Land over the last ten years.

Subterranean Sketch #WLD2015

Subterranean Sketch was composed for the Sonic Terrain compilation for World Listening Day 2015. The compilation features over 40 new works using recordings of water as source material for experimental compositions.

Listening to Subterranean Sketch on Soundcloud here, the entire compilation is available from Sonic Terrain here.

This piece draws on a series of short hydrophone recordings from bodies of water across Australia, Cambodia, India and the USA. The recordings were made during the River Listening project, an art-science investigation into the creative possibilities of aquatic bioacoustics and the potential for new approaches in the management and conservation of global river systems.

___

This year’s theme for World Listening Day was “H2O”.

The global water crisis means 750 million people around the world lack access to safe water. Water is rapidly becoming the commodity of the 21st century and the catastrophic effects of climate change often involve negative associations with water. Rising sea levels, devastating floods, melting ice in Antarctica and droughts spreading throughout the globe, all highlight our increasingly unpredictable and extreme relationship with water.

Yet H2O is vital for life, water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, and 60% of our bodies are made of water. Oceans, rivers and lakes are the core of many of the world’s iconic cities and historically civilizations formed around water. Indigenous communities across the globe believe water is at the core of our existence. For thousands of years communities have lived sustainably by holding significant cultural and spiritual value of rivers, lakes and oceans.

#RiverScope

periscope_759

is a new project for World Rivers Day 2015 that encourages people across world to share their rivers LIVE on Periscope.

Periscope is a new app that explores the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes. What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around.

Periscope is rapidly expanding, but its conservation and creative possibilities are yet to be truly explored. We want to connect people across the world to global rivers on World Rivers Day. As an experiment to launch this project, we are also going to explore the sonic possibilities of Periscope with live streaming hydrophones.

periscope-iOS-640x379

Six Degrees of Separation Exhibition

IMAGE

The ”Six Degrees of Separation” Exhibition at the Gympie Regional Gallery invited a select group of artists to explore climate change and environmental art. Leah Barclay was invited to showcase the latest installation from River Listening.

Key Public Events:

16 July – 15 August, Exhibition featuring River Listening

The River Listening installation is presented as a immersive multi-channel listening space where listeners can lie down immersed in sound with a river bed floating above their heads.

August 11th, 1pm, River Listening Artist Talk with Dr. Leah Barclay (also streaming live on Periscope)

August 15th, “Future Communities” Symposium
6pm at the Gympie Regional Gallery

How will climate change effect us?
What might future communities look like?
How can we be prepared for the future?

Join guest speakers Dr Marcus Bussey, Dr Leah Barclay, Dr Tony Fry and Zela Bissett, when these questions and more will be raised at this event held in conjunction with the exhibition “Six Degrees of Separation”, where twelve artists have responded to issues of climate change, whether real or perceived, in a variety of visual and auditory mediums.

River Listening (2015) Dr. Leah Barclay
Interactive multi-channel sound installation

River Listening is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Dr. Leah Barclay and the Australian Rivers Institute that explores the creative possibilities of aquatic bioacoustics and the potential for new approaches in the conservation of global river systems.

The project involves listening labs, field recording, sound maps, performances and installations to experiment with virtual technologies and community engagement in understanding river health and aquatic biodiversity.

This immersive installation draws on hydrophone (underwater) recordings from the Mary River, Noosa River and Brisbane River in Queensland, Australia collected throughout 2014. The additional sonic material draws on fragments from Barclay’s previous rivers projects across Australia, Brazil, India, Korea, China and Europe. This includes the Amazon River Dolphin in central Brazil, water insects at dusk on the banks of the Pamba in southern India, snapping shrimp in Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap Lake and explorations on London’s iconic Thames.

River Listening is a sound installation that reimagines the world beneath the surface of river systems. Aquatic environments we often think of as silent are actually dynamic acoustic ecologies that can help us understand the health of a river. This installation explores rivers as the lifeblood of communities and draws on ten years of collaborations with river systems across the world.

World Listening Day 2015

WLD2015logo-1024x512

You are invited to participate in World Listening Day 2015, an annual global event held on July 18.

The purposes of World Listening Day are to:

  • Celebrate the listening practices of the world and the ecology of its acoustic environments;
  • Raise awareness about the growing number of individual and group efforts that creatively explore Acoustic Ecology based on the pioneering efforts of the World Soundscape Project, World Forum for Acoustic EcologyLa Semaine du SonDeep Listening Institute, among many others;
  • Design and implement educational initiatives that explore these concepts and practices.

This year’s theme for World Listening Day is “H2O”.

The global water crisis means 750 million people around the world lack access to safe water. Water is rapidly becoming the commodity of the 21st century and the catastrophic effects of climate change often involve negative associations with water. Rising sea levels, devastating floods, melting ice in Antarctica and droughts spreading throughout the globe, all highlight our increasingly unpredictable and extreme relationship with water.

Yet H2O is vital for life, water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, and 60% of our bodies are made of water. Oceans, rivers and lakes are the core of many of the world’s iconic cities and historically civilizations formed around water. Indigenous communities across the globe believe water is at the core of our existence. For thousands of years communities have lived sustainably by holding significant cultural and spiritual value of rivers, lakes and oceans.

World leaders believe we need to create a cultural shift in how we think about water. We need a better understanding and awareness of the value of water and we need to make critical changes to avoid the ramifications of the global water crisis. In the words of Sylvia Earle “even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”

World Listening Day 2015: H2O invites you to reflect on water, metaphorically in how you listen, or through creative events inspired by water and sound across the globe. The 2015 theme resonates at a time where we need to shift our collective thinking and actions towards water globally.

World Listening Day 2015 includes the H2O virtual symposium hosted onWaterWheel, an electronic publication, and hundreds of events taking place across the globe.

World Listening Day is co-organized by the World Listening Project (WLP), the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE) and Biosphere Soundscapes. July 18 was chosen because it is the birthday of Canadian writer, educator, philosopher, visual artist, and composer R. Murray Schafer. His efforts leading the World Soundscape Project and his seminal book, The Tuning of the World, inspired global interest in a new field of research and practice known as Acoustic Ecology.

World Listening ProjectMidwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and Biosphere Soundscapes invite you to participate in World Listening Day 2015 on Saturday, July 18, and through the week of July 12th-18th. Some suggestions on how you can participate and organize include:

  • Soundwalks or listening events in your local community, with a particular focus on oceans, rivers, lakes and catchments
  • Field recording trips or workshops
  • Site-specific performance events
  • Concerts curating water inspired compositions (contact us to connect with composers and sound artists)
  • Personal experiences of attentive listening or field recording
  • Educational events that relate to acoustic ecology, field recording, or a similar topic
  • Public talks or lectures about listening, water and acoustic ecology including participation in the World Listening Day H2O virtual symposium on July 17-18.

Use the hashtag #WLD2015 to connect with other local and global groups participating in the World Listening Day 2015: H2O and get involved.

Participation in World Listening Day is rapidly expanding every year. In this sixth year we anticipate even greater activity and interest.

Please join in the World Listening Day 2015 activities by emailing [email protected] about your plans and be sure to include “World Listening Day” in the subject line.

Please fill out the World Listening Day 2015 online participation form so we can promote your projects and include them in our documentation.

Please use our Quick Submission Form if you would prefer to provide brief details about your activities. It will only take two minutes! Thanks!

UNESCO Masterclass Series

In February 2015 a new UNESCO masterclass was delivered as a dynamic blended learning experience for the Asia-Pacific region. Titled “UNESCO Biosphere Reserves as Learning Laboratories for Sustainability”, the program involved immersive masterclasses occurring in Australian Biosphere Reserves accompanied by lectures streamed live online. The program was developed by Leah Barclay in collaboration with UNESCO and provided an opportunity to develop educational tools to bring River Listening into biosphere reserves internationally.

The network of UNESCO biosphere reserves across the Asia-Pacific region offers a unique opportunity for synthesizing experiences and sharing knowledge in response to the ramifications of climate change. This UNESCO masterclass showcased the local and global value of biosphere reserves as learning laboratories for sustainability. It highlighted a series of projects and innovative ideas uniting the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. The initial modules focused on local issues exploring community engagement, partnerships and projects, while the concluding modules focused on global issues across the Asia-Pacific and introduced the opportunities for knowledge sharing, virtual collaborations and the future possibilities of creative technology in responding to climate change.

This masterclass identified a clear need to develop accessible tools that enable biosphere reserves to share their experiences. The Asia-Pacific region could act as a catalyst in inspiring international biosphere reserves to take climate action and one of the most critical tools will be the ability to creatively and collaboratively share advice, ideas and actions from other communities who have had similar experiences. Through this masterclass, the value and future possibilities of UNESCO biosphere reserves was deeply explored to showcase how these sites could have a significant impact in shaping local, national and international climate adaptation responses by engaging communities in interdisciplinary projects.

Underpinning this project is the opportunity to harness the possibilities of mobile technology and community engagement to strengthen the network of UNESCO biosphere reserves. The blended learning experience of this masterclass was developed through a process of research and experimentation to form the most effective tool kit to facilitate accessible education programs. The masterclass proved that embracing the possibilities of this emerging technology will improve cooperation and awareness of the Asia Pacific Biosphere Reserve Network.

The immersive masterclasses in Australia were hosted in Great Sandy Biosphere Reserve in Queensland and Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve in Victoria. These sessions included interactive demonstrations on bioacoustics and creative approaches to ecosystem monitoring. The immersive programs were supported by weekly live streams throughout February and March hosted on www.biosherelab.org through Google+ and YouTube’s live streaming platform. The live stream included a realtime Q&A session that leveraged social media platforms such as twitter and encouraged participants to connect online. Biosphere Lab (www.biospherelab.org) was launched as the online platform to host this masterclass and was developed in collaboration with Dr Leah Barclay, UNESCO and CONNECT Asia. The masterclass content was created by Leah Barclay.

Projects featured throughout this masterclass included Floating Land, an interdisciplinary art event in the Noosa Biosphere Reserve, the international Balance-Unbalance initiative exploring the role of creativity in climate change and a wide spectrum of projects taking an innovative and accessible approach to environmental monitoring. These include Rainforest Connections (www.rfcx.org) a project that protects rainforests by transforming recycled cell-phones into autonomous, solar-powered listening devices that can monitor and pinpoint chainsaw activity at great distance, and Biosphere Soundscapes (www.biospheresoundscapes.org), a bioacoustics project exploring the changing soundscapes of UNESCO biosphere reserves through creativity and digital technology. The masterclass also introduced emerging projects such as Racing Extinction (www.racingextinction.com) a global movement involving a team of artists and activists exposing the hidden world of endangered species and the value of connecting people to the sights and sounds of the natural world in order to inspire climate action.

As technology continues to become more accessible there are exceptional opportunities to explore the possibilities and continue connecting communities. This masterclass was an example of exploring what is possible, and it has been successful in engaging people across the Asia-Pacific region and across the world. The participation was focused mainly through Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia, but the live streams also engaged participants from Mexico to New York and New Zealand to Spain. This masterclass was not about traditional education, but exploring new dynamic models that combine global engagement with immersive experiences and leverage new technologies that are rapidly becoming accessible.

This masterclass highlighted the benefits of technology, creativity, culture and community engagement. It proved that communities must feel inspired, connected and supported when responding to natural disasters and environmental changes. The network of Asia-Pacific biosphere reserves opens up the possibilities for connected communities who value culture and think creatively in response to climate change. Biosphere reserves are highly critical sites as we move towards a future of environmental uncertainty. As learning laboratories for sustainability, biosphere reserves present an incredible opportunity to connect communities across the world in responding to the greatest environmental challenges of our time.  Communities of biosphere reserves must be aware of their local and global value, engaged in participatory projects and inspired to take action. This masterclass demonstrated that technology, creativity, culture and participatory engagement has the capacity to inspire resilient communities and shape a sustainable future.

Hydrophone recording in the Noosa Biosphere Reserve
Hydrophone recording in the Noosa Biosphere Reserve