Transmitting live from the Ocean below the Antarctic Ice: “Providing an acoustic live stream of the Antarctic underwater soundscape is a formidable challange. After all, more than 15000 km lie between Antarctica and our institute in Germany. Underwater sound is recorded by means of two hydrophones by PALAOA (Perennial Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean), an autonomous, wind and solar powered observatory located on the Ekström ice shelf (Boebel et al., 2006).

The data stream is transmitted via wireless LAN from PALAOA to the German Neumayer Base. From there, a permanent satellite link transmits the data to the AWI in Germany. Continue reading

[Image: David Dunn] Navigating the Space of the Future - Seminar with presentations by: Yolande Harris, David Dunn and Atau Tanaka:: April 15, 2008; 8:30 pm :: Netherlands Media Art Institute, Keizersgracht 264, 1016 EV Amsterdam :: LIVE STREAM.

What does it mean to navigate? What is the importance of location specificity? What does it mean to get lost? The increasing accuracy of satellite navigation strives to eliminate the possibility of human error, but it also produces a sense of dislocation from one’s immediate environment by abstracting location as the coordinates of longitude and latitude. What place is there for one’s body, one’s senses, one’s conscious and unconscious awareness of space, if this knowledge is so apparently made redundant by GPS? Continue reading

Acoustic Space Issue # 7: SPECTROPIA - On Spectral Ecology and Art :: CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline for abstracts - April 21, 2007 :: We are seeking manuscripts for the upcoming Acoustic Space journal to be published for the next Art+Communication Festival. Entitled SPECTROPIA, this year festival edition will take place in Riga, October 16 - 19, 2008.

The print journal, Acoustic Space is a forum for net.radio, sound art and creative explorations in the networked electro-acoustic environments. Now in its 7th edition, Acoustic Space - SPECTROPIA issue investigates the rapid transformation of the usage of the radio frequency spectrum that we are witnessing in the 21st century. Continue reading

Stephen Vitiello creates sound installations that often feature pristine recordings of natural environments and phenomena – the Amazon rain forest or flapping moth wings for example– sonically magnified to expose their internal detail and beauty. His installation work also focuses heavily on the use and implications of space as a compositional parameter. Vitiello has released several CDs and his work has been performed at The Tate Modern, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Kitchen, NYC. His work was also featured in the 2006 Biennale of Sydney and the 2002 Whitney Biennial. He is currently Assistant Professor of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.

On September 21, 2007, Vitiello visited the University of Virginia. We sat and discussed his work for an hour in the university’s Jefferson Rotunda. The recording and transcript of that interview is presented below. Continue reading

Sound and the City: Interdisciplinary Perspectives :: February 22, 2008 :: CRASSH, University of Cambridge.

Over the past year, the Cambridge University City Seminar at CRASSH has explored diverse and enlivening topics in the study of cities, urban space, architecture, and visual and material culture. These topics have ranged widely in time and space, from predictions for the age of the supermetropolis to the use of digital technology in architectural space to an analysis of Mussolini’s use of Rome’s imperial past in the construction of its present.

Out of these encounters emerged an aspiration to allow for a more intense investigation of a particular area within this field. This will find its preliminaryculmination in a one-day conference to be hosted by the City Seminar organisers at CRASSH in Lent term 2008. Continue reading

Air Detritus is derived from sounds that were collected from the air and water detritus of Central Park, New York. Sounds were collected via a 2-way radio submerged in a pond, and on land. The act of recycling materials into a new piece, and re-using objects and sound fragments seems a way to re-imagine the world, a symbolic treatment that enacts the idea of sustainability as an elusive but critical goal of consuming fewer materials. As a consumer working with digital tools, I have accumulated many old monitors, hard drives, cords, and interfaces that are quickly obsolete. The molded plastic and metal have a perverse dialectical relationship to the data of ones and zeros that are transported and stored. This piece is a moment of reflection upon these relationships, and our relationship to the world. - Miya Masaoka Continue reading

“Ecological Art is an art practice, often in collaboration with scientists, city planners, and architects that results in direct intervention in environmental degradation. Often, the artist is the lead agent in that practice.” Aviva Rahmani, 2006

Virtual Cities and Oceans of If - An International Virtual Residency and Event on Global Warming hosted by Aviva Rahmani on TalkShoe.com. Virtual Cities and Oceans of If addresses global warming and political conflicts by demonstrating, analyzing and interpreting the local impact of global warming at international real world sites. Aviva Rahmani talks with artists, scientists, and others every Tuesday morning at 10 am. Guests are ecological art practitioners and affiliates. Continue reading

We are very pleased to announce the startup of the Ear to the Earth Network, an international network of musicians, composers, sound artists, visual artists, scientists, environmental activists, and members of the public who are concerned about the environment. The focal point of the Network is its website.

The activities of the Network include an annual festival of environmental sound, images, and multimedia in New York City. The Network also produces forums and other events, fosters research and documentation, and enables an exchange of information, sounds, materials, and ideas within a growing community worldwide. And by providing access to the sounds of the world, the Network provides a vehicle for paying ongoing attention to the state of the world. Continue reading

Born in 1944, John Lifton studied architecture at University College London. He was one of the first people to become interested in the impact of information technologies on architecture. In 1968, the year he graduated, Lifton was involved in the creation of the international Computer Arts Society, and he exhibited in the landmark Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London. The following year he was a founder of the London New Arts Lab and the Institute for Research in Art and Technology, a base for experimental performance and mixed media work, where he set up the first free computer facility specifically for artists. Continue reading

Composer Hildegard Westerkamp works exclusively with environmental sounds. I first came across her work while producing the New American Radio series (1987-1998). We included A Walk Through the City (1981) and Cricket Voice (1987) - both described here. Cricket Voice, which uses recordings made on a trip to the so-called “Zone of Silence” in the Mexican desert, and particularly the cricket’s night song, remains one of my favorite environmental compositions.

Hildegard Westerkamp was born in Osnabrück, Germany in 1946 and emigrated to Canada in 1968. After completing her music studies in the early seventies Westerkamp joined the World Soundscape Project under the direction of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver. Continue reading