AFAE General News - Reveil 2020, Voices of Nature, Site and Sound, and COVID Soundscapes

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Reveil 2020 (International Dawn Chorus Day)
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Reveil is a collective production by streamers at listening points around the planet. Starting on the morning of Saturday 2 May in South London near the Greenwich Meridian, the broadcast picked up feeds one by one, tracking the sunrise west from microphone to microphone, following the wave of intensified sound that loops the earth every 24 hours at first light.

In 2020 Reveil featured new streams from places where humans and non-humans meet, in soundscapes often radically altered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of these streams come from homes and gardens as people make connections between the domestic spaces where they find themselves.

Themes of connection and collective practices addressing changes in public space inform the program of extended radio projects that accompanies the Reveil broadcast. Supported by Arts Council England originally as a series of site-specific commissions, these have become virtual projects that respond directly or obliquely to the current situation. They help to recollect kinds of sociability that have been lost and point to others on the way. This is imagined sonically as an acoustic commons in the making.

On the Thursday prior to Reveil 2020, the AFAE was involved in one of Arts Front's Little Lunches, with AFAE president Leah Barclay talking with Tristan Louth Robins, Nicole Caroll and Jesse Budel about their featured streams in the event.  The live stream recording of this discussion can be viewed below.

Reveil 2020 was mixed live by Soundcamp in London UK (Grant Smith, Hannah Kemp-Welch) and Crete GR (Maria Papadomanolaki) with guest mixers in South River Ontario CA (Darren Copeland, NAISA) and Sunshine Coast, Queensland AUS (Leah Barclay, AFAE and Biosphere Soundscapes).

For more information on Reveil, visit https://soundtent.org/soundcamp_reveil.html

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Art Front's Little Lunch #25, featuring AFAE members talking about Reveil 2020

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Voices of Nature 2020 (AFAE-AELA Partnership)

"Voices of Nature 2020"  was a national arts celebration presented by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), AFAE and Arts Front to generate dynamic, cross-disciplinary interactions and projects for “Voices of Nature 2020”, and look forward to engaging with the science, technology, art, wonder and acoustic expertise of AFAE members.

“Voices of Nature 2020” explored of the concepts of ‘voice’, ‘standing’, ‘representation’ and ‘agency’ of the natural world within human governance systems. The theme also promoted AELA’s desire to focus on sound art and acoustic ecology as key mediums for communicating and exploring nature’s voice/s.

The program featured a variety of different platforms, including:

• The National Exhibition ran from 12-17 October 2020 at Vacant Assembly in Brisbane's West End, in conjunction with AELA’s week of exploring and celebrating the Rights of Nature.
• A Virtual Gallery featured works by artist from around Australia
• AELA’s first anthology, “Earthwords and Artlings” was  published in October 2020, as part of the Voices of Nature arts celebration.  
• The International Conference, “Earth Laws Asia Pacific”, was held in Brisbane on 14-16 October 2020
• A Public Lecture Series was also held, with topics including:
  • 10 September 2020 – Exploring the Voices of Nature
  • 12 September 2020 – Nature Writing Workshop with Vivienne Glance
  • 15 September 2020 – Listening to Nature – a webinar with Andrew Skeoch and Michelle Maloney
  • 1 October 2020 – Poetry as the Conservation of the Wild
  • 12 October 2020 – DEEP LISTENING in the natural world with Andrew Skeoch

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Site and Sound: Sonic Art As Ecological Practice Exhibition

Site and Sound: Sonic Art As Ecological Practice is a new art exhibition offering immersive sound environments and listening events in a bid to help us come to grips with urgent and complex environmental issues.

Exhibiting at the McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery in Langwarrin, Victoria until April 11 2021, the show features works by 27 sounds artists, including AFAE members Leah Barclay, Ros Bandt and Nigel Frayne, and acoustic ecology pioneer Barry Truax.

More information can be found in articles by The Age and Australian Financial Review, or on the gallery website.

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Other News

Soundscapes in the time of COVID-19: Observations around the globe

Following COVID-19 lockdowns around the globe, there have been numerous observations made on the impact of reduced human activity in acoustic environments:

• In the May issue of The Monthly, Nicola Redhouse's article, 'Quiet Life', discussed the work of various acoustic ecologists during the pandemic.
• The interactive New York Times article, 'The Coronavirus Quieted City Noise. Listen to What’s Left' by Bui and Badger compares urban soundscapes pre and post lockdown.
• Tom Banse's article, 'The Pandemic Gives PNW Whales A Break From The Din Of Underwater Noise' for OPB investigates the impact of reduced ocean traffic during lockdown.
• Douglas Quan's 'Listen up: In these disquieting COVID-19 times, hushed cities are making a loud impression on our ears' for The Star (Canada), discusses pandemic soundscapes with input from acoustic ecology pioneers Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, amongst others.
• Ian Sample's 'Wave of silence' spread around world during coronavirus pandemic' in The Guardian considers the seismological impacts of decreased traffic and machinery use.

Many podcasts, recordings and multimedia projects have also been released, including:

• Interiorities: Sonic Experiment and Documents from Lockdown, by Kate Carr
• 'The Last Sound' on NPR's Invisibilia, hosted by Hanna Rosin and Alex Spiegil
• 'Human Life Is Literally Quieter Due To Coronavirus Lockdown', a short feature by NPR
• Cities and Memories' #stayhomesounds project, inviting people from around the globe to submit sound recordings from where they live during COVID-19.
• Window-Swap features 10-minute audiovisual snapshots from people's homes in isolation.
• Contributions of sounds in isolation on Radio Aporee