sound, ecology and storytelling

The project also raises a series of questions. What stories should we be telling in the face of climate change? How can we remain motivated while being pummeled daily with waves of ecological bad news? How is sound currently being used to communicate science in non-visual ways and increase our capacity for Deep Listening? (Oliveros 2005) How might sound engender Deep Listening and reconnection with local ecosystems at a crucial time in Australia’s conservation history? 

The podcast in question is ABC Radio National’s weekly nature podcast, Offtrack (Off Track 2015). Produced and presented by Ann Jones Off Track provides a sonic ‘close up’ of particular Australian habitats, and the scientists, conservationists and species contained within them. ‘Weird Fishes’ visually interprets an Off Track radio interview with PhD candidate Natalie Soars’, where she details her bioacoustic research into sea urchins (specifically Centrostephanus rodgersii) (Soars 2014). 

Sound in this instance not only aids us in understanding, navigating, documenting and existing harmoniously on our fractured planet - it also complements and enhances the mediums designers already tell stories in. Sound is integral to science and storytelling - all three are essential in conservation. While primarily aural experiences may be less familiar than visual ones in a culture flooded with images, the two can work in tandem to create immersive ecological narratives that capture audience attention in profound ways.

Podcasts such as Off Track rapidly attune listeners to a rich soundscape - a stark example of how non-visual representations of science can punctuate a problematic, frenzied, predominantly visual media culture with slow-moving, contemplative post-human stories (Off Track 2015). Theorists such as Bernie Kraus and Jenny Odell posit that the natural world is connected by sound in ways we cannot imagine (Kraus 2012) and that framing these opportunities for careful listening and attunement with biomes is essential to conservation efforts and decolonising our minds and spaces. (Odell 2017) 

‘…infact, staying with the trouble requires learning to be truly present…as moral critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times, matters, meanings.’ (Haraway 2016)

The visual interpretation of radio and sound that I’ve integrated into my practice is by no means an emerging field - this project follows in the footsteps of works such as Radio With Pictures (Radio With Pictures 2012) and SBS interactive animation ‘My Grandmother's Lingo’ (SBS 2016) in using sound, screen and motion graphics to facilitate contemplation. My aim was to create engaging motion graphics outcomes which privilege soundscapes and encourage Deep Listening (Oliveros 2005), providing a reflective, aurally rich alternative to current frenetic, highly visual media approaches to climate news.

Additionally, my exposure to theorists such as Donna Haraway and Anna Tsing has motivated me to approach narratives differently, to embody a methodology that weaves together different perspectives and refutes binary and simplistic views of the world in favour of entanglement. ‘Storying can no longer be put in the box of human exceptionalism...’ (Haraway 2016 p. 39) and I have attempted to integrate this entangled storytelling and preoccupation with particular species into my own design practice. The same fascination and engagement I had with urchins in rock pools as a kid is what I have worked to inspire in audiences in ‘Weird Fishes.’