AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY (ASAE)

ASAE to Edit Soundscape: Journal of Acoustic Ecology. As long planned, the WFAE’s Soundscape Journal is now being edited by a different affiliate each year.  The American Society for Acoustic Ecology is preparing this year’s edition; Steven Miller and Jim Cummings are acting as guest editors.  Due to a desire to get the issue out by the fall, we do, unfortunately, have a rather short timeline for submissions.  It is our hope that some of you may have existing, unpublished writings that are relevant to the theme, and so not cause undue pressure to quickly produce something new to meet our deadlines - although feel free to do so if you wish!  We need to hear from you by July 10 with any possible feature articles, shorter submissions for the Perspectives, Sound Journal, or Soundwalks sections, or reviews (of CDs, DVDs, or books).  In addition to written pieces, we are planning to post a collection of related sound pieces for download online (and MAYBE as a CD). Please see the Opportunities section below for full details. Submitted by Steven Miller.

Chapter Report: New York Society for Acoustic Ecology.

NYSoundmap quiz on WNYC radio. Members Edmund Mooney and Andrea Polli presented soundseeker.org live on the Brian Lehrer show in March. The segment included a quiz inviting callers to guess the sounds. Listen Here.

Solar powered NYSAE. The NYSAE Sound Garden, coordinated by member Andrea Williams, will be presented at Solar One, CitySol, July 12th-15th in Stuyvesant Cove Park in NYC and will include: solar sonic sculptures, performances, soundwalks and installations by members and friends.

Free radio and free music at The Tank. NYSAE hosted a night of free radio and free music by Eric Leonardson and Anna Friz at The Tank, NYC in May. Transmission artist Anna Friz favours instruments that breathe and oscillate; employing accordion, concertina, harmonica, theremin, radio samples, ambient field recordings, and voice to conjure unusual sonic spaces. For Chicago sound artist Eric Leonardson instruments lie in the detritus of everyday life. He employs a self-made instrument that he calls the Springboard, an electroacoustic percussion instrument made from inexpensive and readily available materials. Joining them was legendary saxophonist Jack Wright and percussionist Andrew Drury. Members of NYSAE, Edmund Mooney, Andrea Williams and Andrea Callard also presented field recordings; and free103point9 streamed a live webcast of the show.

Two new Giant Ear))) shows. "Saved By the Bell" exploring architectural acoustics of religious spaces produced by NYSAE member David Watson and "In Memoriam" produced by member Todd Shalom. Giant Ear)) is webcast every Sunday from 7-9PM. Listen Here.

Note to American Readers. Those who are not members of the ASAE are encouraged to join our listserv and begin to share in what promises to be an exciting 2007.  The ASAE is gearing up to edit the Soundscape Journal this year, and as more members join the ASAE, we will reach critical mass in more regions, which the New York and New Mexico folks can attest leads to rewarding synergies. Visit the ASAE Listserve web page to learn how to join the discussion group. Submitted by Jim Cummings, Chair ASAE

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FINNISH SOCIETY FOR ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY (FSAE)

Meet the board the new Board. Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology elected a new board this spring. Many of its members are old soundscape activists. Their background might not be familiar to our readers, so maybe an introduction is in order.
    Chairperson Heikki Uimonen is an ethnomusicologist. His PhD thesis was " Towards the Sound. Listening, change and the meaning in the sonic environment". He is currently working as research scholar in a 3-year project "Music Culture and Corporate Cultures" in Finnish Academy. Heikki also plays guitar dobro and mandolin in a group Mikko Perkoila & Kennel.
    Simo Alitalo is a sound artist and a radio producer. He is currently working on his doctorate in Artistic Research at Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Working title of of his project is "What do we know through hearing."
   Helmi Järviluoma is a professor of Cultural Studies at the Department of Finnish Language and Cultural Research in the University of Joensuu. She is a pioneer in Acoustic Ecology in Finland. Without exaggeration one could say that she brought Soundscape studies to Finland. Her research project "Acoustic Environments in Change" imported the soundscape studies into Finnish academia and educated quite a number of young scholars.
Her dissertation was in ethnomusicology and it analyzed how group of folk musicians create their identity.
    Kaarina Kilpiö is a Doctor of Social Sciences and her research interests cover history of soundscapes, music in advertising and ethnomusicology. Her dissertation "Consumer Tunes: Music in Finnish advertising films from 1950s to 1970s" was highly praised and it received the Association of Finnish Advertisers annual research award in 2005.
    Ari Koivumäki is a principal lecturer of sound design in Tampere Polytechnic, School of Art and Media For the years 2000-2005 he acted as a dean of the department. Ari´s Licentiate thesis in the Theatre Academy was about how to express and construct a sense space in radio drama. The aim of his future research is to unite theory and praxis for the benefit of sound design.
    Petri Kuljuntausta is a composer, performer and sound artist. His recent composition project Northern Lights LIVE, based on soundscapes of the northern lights and feedback sounds, was performed at the ISEA2004 festival. Petri is the author of two books History of Finnish Electronic Music, On/Off, and in 2006 he published his second book, Äänen eXtreme ('eXtreme Sound').
    Meri Kytö is a soundscape composer. One of her recent works is a soundscape composition for Poetic Contemplative Collective's Hotel New York. Meri has been secretary-treasurer of FSAE for many years and her efforts guaranteed that 100 Finnish Soundscapes project was successfully completed. Meri Kytö has studied Musicology in Turku University and her masters thesis analyzed vocal construction of gender in Iannis Xenakis´s Cassandra.

To Sonify or not to Sonify. In mid-June Harri Huhtamäki of Radioatelier, YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Co.) organized a course in Helsinki on different aspects of sound design in radio and in film. Harri is also a founding member of FSAE. Many active members of FSAE also attended the course. The lecturers were Jim McKee from Anurans and Tao Jing from Beijing.
    During four days we watched quite a few movies by director Zhang Yimou with sound design by Tao Jing. Watching these fantastic kung fu films I came to think that sound design relates soundscape studies in same way as reverse engineering relates to engineering.
    Anyway to all those interested in sound in cinema I can warmly recommend film "House of Flying Daggers" by Zhang Yimou with sound design by Tao Jing. Also worth noting are films "Hero" and "Curse of the Golden Flower". Report submitted by: Simo Alitalo

CANADIA SOCIETY FOR ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY (CASE)

CASE Web Site. We are in the process of revamping the CASE web-site and will be including on this new version articles by Canadians in the area of acoustic ecology, the soundscape and related fields. If you are interested in having any of your research and/or articles included on our web-site, please e-mail case@magma.ca. One of the priorities is to make the CASE web-site a space not only open for those wanting to network and to find out about soundscape and acoustic ecology events in Canada but also to provide a space for articles by Canadians who have done research in the area of acoustic ecology and/or related fields. There will of course be links to work being done in the international community as well. Stay tuned for the web-site launch date and please let us know what you would like to see included on the CASE web-site. We'd love to hear your ideas!

Report on the 3rd Haliburton CASE retreat "The soundscape in our landscape". The CASE retreat brought together new and old members of CASE once again in the beautiful environs of Haliburton Forest for a weekend symposium on March 23-25, 2007. Keynote presentations featured composer/soundscape educator R. Murray Schafer, Vancouver poet and doctoral student Andrea Dancer, music/media artists Kristi Allik and Robert Mulder from Kingston and a much anticipated visit from bioacoustician Bernie Krause. There were other activities such as soundwalks and listening exercises as well as a site visit to the location of Murray Schafer's Patria cycle of environmental theatre works.
    The presentations were many and varied and brought about lively discussion afterwards. A highlight for many was the presentation by Bernie Krause. He had different ears and different concepts for talking about the soundscape. Bernie's focus is on the biophony, the sounds of wild life (animal to animal) which is so different from the focus on the human (or human to animal) social organization of the soundscape. One morning during the retreat Bernie, and a few others got up very early to record the Haliburton forest at dawn. The recordings made from this were extraordinary! Bernie identified many of the bird-life in the forest and later played the recording for everyone to hear. While each presentation provided it's own unique view on the acoustic environment, the 'show-and-tells' provided everyone with a window into the work each of the participants are focusing on. And what better way to end the retreat then to learn to sing the wolf song from Murray Schafer on the last day of the retreat. We howled like the wolves on Bernie's recording!
    One of the wonderful things about the Haliburton retreat are the informal exchanges and interactions that take place in between the planned events. This of course happens at many conferences, but at Haliburton it is particularly the case because the numbers are just right for informal conversation with a large sampling of people. This along with the time spent as a group in a quiet and relaxed setting makes possible wonderful networking and learning possibilities. For many, the retreat was a chance to spark the spirit along with the mind. Submitted by Nadene Theriault-Copeland.

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JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR SOUND ECOLOGY (JASE)

    As usual, our regional activity report brings you the activities of the Soundscape Association of Japan (SAJ). On May 27, 2007, SAJ held its annual meeting and symposium at Kyoto University, with the title Sounscape Woven by Words – Aural Imagination and Contemporary Society. Speakers of the symposium were Masami Yuki , the chair of the symposium/Kanazawa University, Randy Taguchi, a writer, and Masafumi Komatsu, Kyoto Seika University
     At first, Yuki explained what is "environmental literature", which is not only "literature aiming environmental conservation" but also "literature dealing with, as well as based on, the relationship between the writers and their own environment where they were born and grew up". As an example among Japanese writers, Michiko Ishimure, a well known writer in Minamata, was introduced with her works. Yuki also introduced Randy Taguchi’s work as an example of Japanese environmental writers of younger generation.
    Taguchi, as the second speaker, made her comment on what is "song" and "music" based on her own experience. Komatsu explained several theories on the relationship between music and words and presented his practice of improvisational playing musical instruments accompanying recitations of poems. Finally, Masayuki Nishie, president of SAJ, made his profound comment on the three presentations. Submitted by Keiko Torigoe.