People and Projects
This section is devoted to individuals who are actively engaged in a variety of endeavors within the field of acoustic ecology. We welcome news of projects related to the ecology of sound.
The Acoustic Ecology Institute, which focuses largely on sound-related environmental issues and is run by Jim Cummings, has become a fairly major player in the emerging issue of dealing with ocean noise. A year ago, AEI was contracted by Greenpeace to do a major research review on seismic surveys at sea, and more recently AEI has become the point organization on commercial seismic surveys within the Ocean Noise Coalition; Jim is pulling together monthly reports that summarize surveys being planned worldwide by the oil and gas industry. These surveys use airguns which are very loud, and which have recently been found to increase the background ambient noise levels at distances of hundreds to thousands of kilometers, likely masking communication of ocean creatures. In late November, Jim moderated a panel on Ocean Noise at the 8th International Wildlife Law Conference, held in New Orleans; he was joined on the panel by the head of the Marine Mammal Commission, an NRDC lawyer, a Columbia University geophysics researcher, and an acoustician allied with environmental organizations. For more on AEI's ocean noise work, see:
http://www.AcousticEcology.org/ocean.html
http://www.AcousticEcology.org/oceanseismicplans.html
ASAE members may also enjoy the AE.org News Digest, which features briefs on a wide variety of sound-related news items:
http://www.AcousticEcology.org/news.html
Jim Cummings
Acoustic Ecology Institute
45 Cougar Canyon
Santa Fe, NM 87508
505-466-1879
Fax 505-466-4930
Sounds of the everyday, sounds of the unusual, sounds of the exotic.
Some of you may be unaware of our project part of which is making a collection of field recordings (as well as images) during a year long trip from Italy to China. Selections of these recordings are being included in our virtual Cabinet of Curiosities available on www.silkthreads.org. The collection is being shaped and influenced by requests received from people who contact us while we travel, some wishing to relive sounds they remember from their own travels, some asking us to collect sounds that they would really love to hear.
More details about the project are included in the Press Release below and it would be great to hear from you with you own personal requests and comments.
Denise Bryan & Adrian Wilkins
Silk Threads - A Journey Along the Silk Roads and Virtual Museum is an exiting web project that is growing by the day. Artists Denise Bryan and Adrian Wilkins are travelling from Italy to China along the ancient Silk Roads. During their journey they are collecting images and sounds that are added to their virtual museum, which can be seen and heard online. The project is made all the more exiting by the fact that the Artists are inviting people who log on to www.silkthreads.org to contact them with requests for items to collect. So far they have received requests as diverse as unusual vegetables, the sound of water lapping against the sides of gondolas, improvisations and the sound of Velcro in Iran! In this way people are influencing the way in which the collection takes shape. In the 17th and 18th Centuries rich people made collections of exotic objects from Europe’s new trading posts and colonies, these were then displayed in ‘Cabinets of Curiosities’ in their homes. We hope that this project will produce a 21st Century ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ that will be on show to everyone via the Internet. Unlike collections in the past nothing will have been removed from its country of origin, only photographs, illustrations and sound recordings will be displayed on the website.
People that the Artists meet along the way also have the opportunity to request sights and sounds that they would like to share with ‘the rest of the world’. In this way the site will act as an educational tool raising awareness of the regions that the journey will take Denise and Adrian through. The collection reflects contemporary life in countries along the Silk Road.
In August 2004 the artists started their journey in Venice. From here they travelled to Ancona and then to Cesme in Turkey by boat. Since then they have travelled across Turkey and into Syria. You can see what they have collected so far by logging onto the website. Now they are back in Turkey again planning their next move. They expect to travel through the following countries Iran, India, Pakistan, China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. They hope arrive back in Istanbul some time in November 2005.
There are specific links to the education departments of the British Library and The Silk Museum in Macclesfield (UK), young people are able to email Denise and Adrian and ask them what life is like along the Silk Road today.
Denise Bryan is a visual artist. Since graduating with an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, her practice has involved making objects and using photographic images, she has also used video and recently made a performance piece at Modern Art Oxford. Her work has been exhibited in the UK, Europe and the USA. As well as lecturing in Fine Art she has been involved in numerous educational and community arts projects. Denise’s work deals with issues that she has become aware of through travelling. She will use this trip along the Silk Road to explore the idea of colonialism as collecting, travel as collecting and issues relating to a post colonial/communist world.
Sounds recorded while travelling have a great potential for creating new works. Over the last few years sound artist Adrian Wilkins has been making recordings in countries that he has visited including Morocco, Mexico, Germany, Egypt and Turkey. These sound recordings evoke memories in a very different way to those evoked by photographs. Until recently Adrian’s worked as an Estimator within the construction industry. He will be using the Silk Threads project as an opportunity to develop his work as a sound artist, exploring the connections between travelling, memory and sound, as well as making more detailed sonic studies in the areas visited.
Thank you to the following for supporting this project.
Arts Council England
The British Library
The Silk Museum Macclesfield
Maxell UK
Lifesystems
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