Ears Wide Open

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Acoustic Ecology Institute

Number 1
February 2006

CONTENTS

»	Introduction
»	Institute Updates
»	Recent Science Findings
»	Soundbytes
»	Listening on the Web
»	Join Acoustic Ecology Institute

Listening on the Web

Canadian Geographic Features Music of Place - A stunning collection of online resources put together to accompany a print article in the Canadian Geographic magazine explores the ways that people across Canada have translated their sense of place into music. Features include Glenn Gould's famous "The Idea of North" (excerpts of which the CBC has archived online!), Barry Truax listening to Canadian soundmarks from each province, native musics, Audio and video files exploring sonification of satellite data of cities, modern singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer, and a goofy but fun Flash window in which you can create your own mix of a wildlands soundscape. Source: Canadian Geographic, 1/9/06 [PRESS RELEASE] [WEBSITE] [CBC GOULD PROGRAM]

Acoustic Environments in Change - In 1975, some of the pioneers of soundscape studies visited and documented the acoustic environment in five European villages; in 2000, a new crop of students revisited the same towns. This well-designed site shares what they found, in words and sound clips. [WEBSITE]

Scripps Institute Whale Acoustics Center - From the Marine Physical Laboratory, includes descriptions of studies underway, and a library of whale vocalizations, presented beautifully with spectrograms. [WEBSITE]

Smithsonian Preserves Lost Sounds - Back in the prehistoric 1970s, one of life’s little pleasures was the ability to slam down a telephone on annoying callers. Now, thanks to the rise of cordless phones, the best you can do is fiercely poke the off button. The slamming phone, like dozens of once-familiar sounds, is headed for extinction. As technology advances, more noises – the pop of flashbulbs, the gurgle of coffee percolators, the clatter of home-movie projectors – are fading into oblivion. Inside a bombproof vault a few blocks from the White House, Dan Sheehy is surrounded by audio ghosts: the clickety-clack of typewriters, the tumble of glass bottles inside a soda machine, a 1960s-era telephone ring. Here, sonic blasts from the past are entombed in a hodgepodge of vinyl records, compact discs and reel-to-reel tapes. “We are a museum of sound,” said Sheehy, whose job is to preserve America’s acoustic heritage for an obscure branch of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Folkways has digitized most of their historic LPs, including ones that focus on such obscure sounds as medical procedures, the daily life of a 1960s office, the first generation of earth-orbiting satellites, and the Watkins Glen racetrack. Source: LA Times/Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 1/2/05 [READ ARTICLE] Visit Folkways Sound Archive [WEBSITE] (see "Sound", "Science and Nature", "Miscellany")

Prof_Lofi Blog - Bill Thompson, of Aberdeen Scotland, writes this occasional blog on listening, sound art, and being an artist. It comes at a leisurely pace, perhaps a couple of thoughtful posts per month. Recent months have heard Bill musing on the temporary sounds of the wind through the skeleton of a new building rising in his neighborhood (including links to recordings he made on two very distinct sounding occasions), the role of ambiguity in art and sound art, and a reverie spurred by a walk on the beach with his dog. [WEBSITE]