- This event has ended.
Discovering the Sonic Spaces of Traditional Mongolian Herders: An Application of the Principles of Soundscape Ecology
Sound is all around us. Indeed, anything that moves is a measure of the dynamics of the world around us. Placing sound in a spatial-temporal context is at the core of a new field called soundscape ecology. The research of this field focusses on two complimentary components of sound: sound production (i.e., the biological, geophysical and anthropogenic sound sources that exist at a place) and sound perception (i.e., how it is received, processed, and integrated in our experiences and culture). The measurement of sound is accomplished using microphones and it represents the most time intensive measurement in ecology; we now collect 48,000 samples per second and do so for years to decades. Sound is also a complex phenomenon and the way that we perceive it is part of how humans and other organisms sense changes in the environment. Perception research is being conducted using intensive knowledge co-production methods.
I will use the work that I am conducting in rural Mongolia as a case study to illustrate the various dimensions of sound in this coupled human and natural system where traditional herders use sound as (1) a means to communicate to their herds and to wildlife (representing multispecies communication and a sonic form of traditional ecological knowledge), (2) to praise, through songs and nature sonic mimesis, spirits and their parents, (3) how they use the sounds of daily herding work activities that form a sense of place and herder identity, and (4) how we are using thousands of hours of automated natural soundscape recordings to assess ecological condition of pastoralist landscapes.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://clarku.zoom.us/j/96814467776?pwd=L3RXcm9pN2prTSt5Y1paZWxEZFJldz09
Meeting ID: 968 1446 7776
Passcode: 784595