When people are asked what kind of neighbourhood they want to live in they often say they want a quiet neighbourhood. But by quiet, they do not mean silent! People want to hear the sounds of children playing, birds in the trees, and glasses clinking at cafés but may not want to hear sounds of traffic, construction, or planes overhead. They may want to preserve the sounds of the past or hear something completely different. The Future Soundscapes project connects with local residents to record (on their phones) sounds they want to hear more of and sounds they want to hear less of. The sounds are collected, categorized, and a soundscape of the future neighbourhood co-created with the collaborative inputs of local residents. The project has happened in Gothenburg Sweden and most recently in Utrecht Netherlands. Coming soon to Berlin and Oslo Norway. Today we dive into the why and how of Future Soundscapes and get to hear what happened in Gothenburg and Utrecht.

I’m your host Steve Williams, also known as drusnoise, and today’s episode will be a bit different. Usually I am interviewing an artist about their approach to sound, music, and sustainability. Today I will be talking about my Future Soundscapes project and sharing some excerpts from Gothenburg and Utrecht. I think it is a fascinating approach to futures and I hope you find it interesting too. Definitely send me a DM and let me know in the comments too. My email is info@drusnoise.com

Links and references

Future Soundscapes https://sustain.fm/fss

drusnoise https://drusnoise.com

Academic paper on Future Soundscapes

Listen – R. Murray Schafer documentary by National Film Board of Canada https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/

Jordan Lacey. Sonic Rupture https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/sonic-rupture-9781501338571/

Centre for Sustainable Urban Futures https://urbanfutures.se/en

What does it mean to give voice to nature? To the weather? How can we connect with ecological systems through sound and performance? And what does it mean to attune to nature? Today I am excited to explore these questions – and more. Juan C. Duarte Regino is an artist-researcher, currently a Ph.D. candidate at Aalto University. Central to his investigation is the relation between the atmosphere, the act of listening, and the profound concept of attunement. His background is in New Media, Design & Production, and Audiovisual Communication. His mission looks beyond conventional, extractive, or deterministic approaches to understanding the relationship between nature and technology. Instead, it ventures into ancient and indigenous knowledge that harmonizes with ecological perspectives on our weather systems, giving voice to the natural agencies at play within the realm of weather. So as you can imagine, Juan is a perfect fit for this show.

Bio

Juan C. Duarte Regino is an artist-researcher, currently a Ph.D. candidate at Aalto University. Central to his investigation is the relation between the atmosphere, the act of listening, and the profound concept of attunement. His background is in New Media, Design & Production, and Audiovisual Communication. His artistic endeavors over the last decade have gained recognition and have been showcased at prestigious events and venues internationally. His mission looks beyond conventional, extractive, or deterministic approaches to understanding the relationship between nature and technology. Instead, it ventures into ancient and indigenous knowledge that harmonizes with ecological perspectives on our weather systems, giving voice to the natural agencies at play within the realm of weather. His research revolves around the exploration of the symbiotic relationship between nature and technology through environmental sound. His work presents artifacts to resonate with atmospheric energies. In his approach, he proposes diversified technologies for attuning to nature. By doing so, Duarte Regino pushes the boundaries of artistic expression and enables a deeper understanding of our environment and its intricate interplay with technology.

Links

www.juanduarteregino.com https://juanduarte.bandcamp.com/

Hildegard Westerkamp - Kits Beach https://www.hildegardwesterkamp.ca/sound/comp/3/kitsbeach/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg96nU6ltLk Sterne, J. (2019). Multimodal scholarship in world soundscape project composition: Toward a different media-theoretical legacy (or: The WSP as OG DH). Sound, Media, Ecology, 85-109. John Durham Peters - The Marvelous Clouds Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo20069392.html Augury: https://juanduarteregino.com/Augury

Sound is one of our most powerful senses. But it is just one of our senses. Sight, touch, smell, and taste are powerful too. And even more powerful when they are combined with sound. Today we talk with Melissa Ingaruca Moreno about her work with light, fungi, meditation, and sound. Melissa is an award-winning futurist and researcher in multispecies design based in Berlin. Her project ‘Endarken’ integrates fungal bioluminescence and sonification of nature with glimpses of darker futures. This is a future of designed light-darkness for multispecies cohabitation with a focus on healing and I am excited to chat with Melissa about how all of these ideas – and senses – fit together.

Bio

Melissa Ingaruca Moreno is an award-winning futurist and researcher in multispecies design. Endarken is a research-through-design project of Melissa Ingaruca Moreno´s PhD “Multispecies Cities and Emerging Technologies”, that re-imagines the future of nocturnal urban light for more-than-human wellbeing in Berlin via a series of participatory design workshops.

Links and references

Endarken Futures: Darkness as Healing https://melissa-ingaruca.medium.com/healing-in-darkness-endarken-futures-part-i-0d680189ea55

Endarken project overview https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lU7Elq6W2ZzZJMHAKe_IJvEYliCPB0Y4/view

Instagram @endarken_cities

Floating University https://floating-berlin.org/

Falchi, F. et al. The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness. Sci Adv 2, (2016).

Dunn, N. Dark Design: A New Framework for Advocacy and Creativity for the Nocturnal Commons. International Journal of Design in Society 10, 9–23 (2016).

Falchi, F., Cinzano, P., Elvidge, C., Keith, D. & Haim, A. Limiting the impact of light pollution on human health, environment and stellar visibility. J Environ Manage 92, 2714–2722 (2011).

Falcón, J. et al. Exposure to Artificial Light at Night and the Consequences for Flora, Fauna, and Ecosystems. Frontiers in Neuroscience vol. 14 Preprint at https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.602796 (2020).

Yang, L., Xiao, L., Guo, Y. & Yan, Y. A review of the effects of artificial light at night in urban areas on the ecosystem level and the remedial measures. (2022).

Gallan, B. & Gibson, C. New dawn or new dusk? Beyond the binary of day and night. Environment and Planning 43, 2509–2515 (2011).

Zielinska-Dabkowska, K. M. & Xavia, K. Protect our right to light. Nature 568, 451–453 (2019).

Pollastri, S. et al. More-Than-Human Future Cities. in ACM International Conference Proceeding Series 23–30 (Association for Computing Machinery, 2021). doi:10.1145/3469410.3469413.