conscient podcast

e170 sonic research group (part 2)

Episode Notes

(Note: some quotes below have been edited for concision)

• Soundwalking is always like magic. It is a magical experience. It is so simple, Hildi, as you said, and it’s as much about listening to sounds or listening to absences of sound. It's not very typical in our lives. We don't live the kinds of lives that require this kind of presence. And so it’s restorative for me and calms my spirit. But also it's such a reminder each and every time I do a soundwalk of the power of just simply listening and opening up that register with all of its span from appreciation to analytics, to criticality and to spirituality. (Milena Droumeva)

This is part 2 of a conversation with colleagues and friends from the Sonic Research Group at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. This time with Milena Droumeva, Hildegard Westerkamp, Barry Truax, Jacek Smolicki, Freya Zinovieff and myself. 

If you might have heard in part 1, e157, the Sonic Research Group is a bi-monthly zoom gathering of acoustic ecology researchers, activists and artists from around the world about sound studies and our shared passion for listening. 

This second conversation was on recorded on April 30, 2024 and flows freely on a range of issues, for example, Milena Droumeva talked about stages of life: 

• I think stage of life is really important. If you're a young person who has to find a place in the world, or if you're a parent of young children or you're aging or entering a kind of middle age, you have to think about the futures of kids but there's work to do at every stage. 

We also talked about sound and artificial intelligence and I'm sure we’ll revisit this one. In fact, how do you even know that I’m human? This could easily be a synthetic voice, right? Jacek, help us...

• What differentiates us from machines is historical consciousness. Algorithms are operating using biased and skewed data without considering the context within which this data has emerged. Our role as educators is to be reminders of historical context that this whole machinery is digesting and using it to produce futures comes from.. 

Education in sound and listening was a throughline in our conversation as Barry Truax observed:

• I'm still cautiously optimistic that we could still use those same techniques that we've used in the past to create a more creative, analytical and critical listener.

We shared our common interest and passion for soundwalking. Hildegard Westerkamp noted that :

• A group can become a community even though we don't know each other, which creates an atmosphere of willingness to be open and grounded inside ourselves. We can get to that energetic place because we've slowed down.

You can hear more about soundwalking in e22 westerkamp – slowing down through listening, e78 milena droumeva – art needs to get on the street and e113 soundwalk (part 1) - what is my position in listening ? and e113 soundwalk (part 2) - how can we deepen our listening?

We also talked about current affairs such as the encampment at the University of British Columbia that day about the war in Gaza and calls for disinvestment. Freya Zinonieff told us a fascinating story (which you’ll hear at the end of the story made me laugh) 

• A music teacher at Columbia University was teaching John Cage’s 4’.33’’ and made a big fuss about how they couldn't teach that class because there was a loud protest outside the classroom and all she could hear was ‘from the river to the sea’. She said, okay, this just means we can't teach this now because it’s ruining 4’.33’’. We have to continue reminding ourselves and others that listening is a project and we need to learn together how to listen to what is actually there.

We also discussed the sound of air conditioning systems in urban spaces as a symptom of climate change, the media practices of Neo-Nazi groups and more. Enjoy.