Forestial Voices: a Compositional Sound Study Comparing the Voices of Birmingham Institute of Forest Research Second Generation Forest and the Ruskin

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Working with Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST), contrasting forests, Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BiFOR): second-generation research forest, and Ruskin Land: a natural woodland, I will form an in-depth sonic investigation of forests ecosystems, creating multiplecompositions including improvised performances with BEAST using recorded micro-sounds and ambisonic recordings of forest movements.Forests are part of a collective of sound for organic beings and animals called biophony (Krause 2015). Tree systems have a complex network of sounds needing a separate study to define their impact on our soundscape. Tree movements resonate into the wider soundscape, simultaneously sounds underground and within organic beings (Sheldrake, 2020) add to the collective voice that tell the life of a forest (Tsing, 2015). I will use BiFOR data that measures growth and movement inside trees and comparable data taken at Ruskin Land to map areas of the forests and to create performance scores.Comparing two forests through the medium of sound and artistic response, I am to deepen our understanding of the forestial choir (the collective voice of a forest) adding to our understanding of our place in the living world (Haraway, 1985) and challenging what it means to listen (Westerkamp, 2019) to a forest.Questions1. How can listening to the forest help reframe our understanding of it?2. Do the forests have differences in their voices?3. How can artistic response provide a pathway to understanding forests?4. Will comparing previous research on houseplants reveal similar sensitivity levels?ContextThis research project sits within a multidisciplinary field built around Krause's underlying connection between sound and environment, deep ecology (Næss, 1987) acoustic ecology (Westerkamp, 2002) and deep listening explored through the World Soundscape Project (Schafer, 1968). It encompasses sonic arts, immersive sound, and soundscape studies (Dangles, 2018) combined with plant voltage sonification as organic electronic music (Mileece, 2003) and writing music for plants (Garson 1976). It expands on BEAST's current research with a secondary research field in Geography and Environment.MethodologyThe research questions will be answered through a practice as research methodology.1. Contact microphones recording tree movement and growth on different parts of trees2. Durational recording in different seasons and times of day to compare tree movement3. Forest listening to understand what to record, map sections of the forest and design performance scores4. Use BEAST to map the voices of the forests to recreate the ecosystem and for improvised performances.Impacts1. Better understanding of the forest sonic ecosystem.2. Selected compositions will contribute to an installation using BEAST. Combining existing Welsh-based networks to exhibit at public galleries across Cardiff and Birmingham, offering a hyperreal experience impacting public knowledge of forest ecosystems.3. Academic contribution to soundscape research4. Creating music and experiences will provide a new way of interpreting data without the use of sonificationBy bringing BiFOR and Ruskin Land research into the artistic realm, my contribution to the arts and humanities will impact how we think about forests and our relationship with living organisms.