The Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology (AFAE) was formed in 1998 by people interested in the awareness, experience, and study of sound and soundscapes. We are an affiliate of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE), the umbrella organisation linking like minded groups from around the world.
The AFAE is a not-for-profit, which is home to a collection of people across Australia who listen and who have a professional or personal interest in fields such as: acoustics, audiology, architecture, bioacoustics, conservation biology, digital design, education, ecoacoustics, ecosystem health, landscape, phenomenology, sound studies, sound art, sound culture and sound design.
The organisation brings together people who aim to promote a culture of listening to raise awareness of issues around listening, sound and sonic environment; and to encourage discussion, debate, education, practical activities and research. We collaborate with conferences, events, organisations and institutions and believe acoustic ecology is a highly valuable interdisciplinary field to explore the social, cultural and ecological aspects of our environment through sound.
The AFAE is a not-for-profit, which is home to a collection of people across Australia who listen and who have a professional or personal interest in fields such as: acoustics, audiology, architecture, bioacoustics, conservation biology, digital design, education, ecoacoustics, ecosystem health, landscape, phenomenology, sound studies, sound art, sound culture and sound design.
The organisation brings together people who aim to promote a culture of listening to raise awareness of issues around listening, sound and sonic environment; and to encourage discussion, debate, education, practical activities and research. We collaborate with conferences, events, organisations and institutions and believe acoustic ecology is a highly valuable interdisciplinary field to explore the social, cultural and ecological aspects of our environment through sound.
Australian Forum For Acoustic Ecology Executive Board 2023
LEAH BARCLAY // President & WFAE Affiliate Representative
Dr. Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, composer and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. She specialises in electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology and emerging fields of biology exploring environmental patterns and changes through sound. Her work has been commissioned, performed and exhibited to wide acclaim internationally by organisations including UNESCO, Ear to the Earth, Al Gore’s Climate Reality and the IUCN. She is currently the director of Biosphere Soundscapes and a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia where she is leading a portfolio of research in acoustic ecology and climate change. |
TOBY GIFFORD // Public Officer & Treasurer
Dr. Toby Gifford is an acoustic ecologist, audio technologist and sound designer. His research focusses on ‘Aural Embodiment’ – the notion that much more of our lived experience is mediated through sound than is typically understood. His Jambot software has received national acclaim, appearing on the ABC New Inventors program. Interactive installations have been exhibited in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Museum of Melbourne, Splendour in the Grass music festival, and the European Capital of Culture Festival in Patras, Greece. He has been artist-in-residence at the Gallery of Modern Art developing live soundtracks for silent films. He is an active acoustic musician, live electronic music performer, and works at the arts/science nexus. His research in Ecoacoustics specialises in soundscape analysis for freshwater ecosystems. |
JESSE BUDEL // Secretary
Jesse Budel is a composer-performer and sound artist based in Adelaide, South Australia. He recently completed a PhD in Music Composition at Elder Conservatorium of Music, The University of Adelaide (with an Australian Postgraduate Award), focussing on adapting soundscape ecology frameworks and methodologies to creative process, applied in the production of works responding to engagement with specific sites, and related ecosystems and soundscapes. In 2017, Jesse was an inaugural Carclew Fellowship recipient, which supported a professional development tour of the US and Canada focussed on acoustic ecology and ecoacoustic research and practice. In 2018, he received acknowledgement for Best Student Paper (Creative Stream) at the International Ecoacoustics Congress in Brisbane. Currently, Jesse is a sessional staff member at The University of Adelaide, and also serves as the Secretary for the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. |
ANTHONY MAGEN // Committee Member & Advisor
Anthony Magen is a Landscape Architect and Acoustic Ecologist navigating the ecotones of culture. This navigation is facilitated through the construction of the built environment in a professional capacity, through pedagogy, soundwalking as an active artistic practice and an ongoing commitment to the World and Australian Forums for Acoustic Ecology. Anthony Magen’s practice includes the presentation of neorealist abstractions in ‘live’ situations, small-scale interventions, audiovisual installations and photographic presentations facilitated throughout Australia. |
ANDREW SKEOCH // Committee Member
Andrew Skeoch is a bioacoustic researcher, naturalist and Australia's best-known nature soundscape recordists. Together with his partner, photographer Sarah Koschak, he established the independent label Listening Earth in 1993 to publish authentic, natural soundscape recordings. This work has now taken him around the world, documenting the sounds of iconic landscapes and threatened ecosystems in remote locations in Asia, India, Africa and the Americas in search of some of our planet’s most beautiful and fascinating sounds. To date, they have published over 80 albums, and Listening Earth has grown to include the work of pre-eminent colleagues. Their CD albums 'A Morning in the Australian Bush' and 'Favourite Australian Birdsong' have each sold over 50,000 copies. Andrew has also contributed sounds to films such as 'Pirates of the Carribean', Disney's 2016 remake of 'The Jungle Book' and Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to 'Rabbit Proof Fence'. Andrew's current research focuses on acoustic ecology, ecoacoustics and the value of listening to the environment. |
VICKI HALLETT // Committee Member
Vicki is a versatile chamber musician, sound artist, music practitioner and educator. She performs as a clarinetist with Sonus Ensemble and the Geelong Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings vary from a chamber music clarinet soloist to her exploratory work with Elephants, Sound Art and Meditation/Practitioner projects. Vicki’s compositional process is constantly evolving and explores the space between hearing music as a cultural experience and the aural vibration within the being. The ongoing quest for sonic immersion and creative compositional devices with authenticity and inspiration leads both Vicki and the listener through an organic landscape of sound. |
Tristan Louth-Robins // Committee Member
Tristan Louth-Robins is an Australian artist working principally in the medium of sound art, composition and acoustic ecology. Ideas of sound and its signification are key elements in Louth-Robins’ practice, traversing the spaces between the visual and aural his work is realised through recordings, installation, visual art and performance. He is interested in sound and its associative implications - including its relationship to the surrounding environment, objects, technology and urban spaces. Since 2011, he has facilitated the Fleurieu & Kangaroo Island Sound Map (FKISM). |
NIGEL FRAYNE (1952-2018) | AFAE Founding Member
Nigel Frayne (1952-2018) was an Acoustic Designer and Soundscape Composer with a background as a rock musician, sound engineer, a theatre sound designer and a graduate in composition and music technology from Latrobe University. His expertise in acoustic design and electroacoustic soundscaping encompasses a unique blend of design and technical skills developed through broad experience. Nigel was director of his Melbourne based company, Resonant Designs. Widely travelled throughout the USA, Europe and Asia as a senior designer for sound and electroacoustic soundscaping, projects have included zoos, museums, aquariums, science and exhibition centres, shopping and arts and leisure precincts. Nigel was the longest serving chair of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology and was a founding member of the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology, serving on the committee until his passing in 2018. |