Abstract

INvironments is a podcast centered around how soundscape recordings can be used as a method to study changes in natural ecosystems. More specifically, the podcast investigates soundscape ecology by exploring its various methodologies and how they form ecological knowledges. The basic idea for soundscape ecology and its “auditory link to nature” (Pijanowski et al., 2011, p.203) is to provide supplementary indicators of ecosystem health and biodiversity by analyzing and comparing the frequency spectrum of a sound recording from a given environment. While the discourse and methods of recording in soundscape ecology stem from specific trends in the field of acoustic ecology and the works of the World Soundscape Project (WSP), the notion of “soundscape” in this context is not fixed, but still open to interpretations. As a result, the epistemologies formed about ecosystems via soundscape ecology hinge on considerations of what the soundscape is, how it influences who is listening, and how the listening inevitably affects the recording.

In this research-creation podcast series, I investigate which normative discourses of “soundscape” become reiterated through soundscape ecology, and consequently, which get left behind. Comprising of 4 episodes, the series traces a genealogical story of soundscape ecology while gradually becoming a more self-reflexive examination of my own normative listening positionality. Discussing the motivations and practices behind the recording of soundscape ecology reveals how a variety of interrelated interpretations of soundscape recordings could supplement this scientific data-gathering. However, more rewardingly, embracing wider listening positionalities can open the field up to wider forms of community engagement through ecological awareness. In examining how variations in listening positionalities and their associated methods for recording ecosystems, we may yet find a stronger and more nuanced framework for how ecological epistemologies are formed through soundscape ecology.