Sound anthropologist Dr Tom Rice takes us on an immersive audio tour of an imaginary zoo, and asks us to think about it as a sound world. What happens if we make a conscious effort to listen to the zoo and its animals rather than just look at them? Can listening make us feel closer and more connected?

In an Anthropocene age of habitat destruction and biodiversity loss, an acoustic mindfulness of other lifeforms can help humans recalibrate their relationship to the natural world. It’s argued that looking at animals can produce a sense of detachment from them, and that having animals displayed for our viewing pleasure is an expression of a relationship in which humans are given power, and a sense of superiority. If that’s the case, can listening create a more sympathetic and empathetic orientation towards animals? 

Using animal sounds recorded at British zoos, in this podcast you’ll discover animals in an entirely new way, and think about our impact on them. What is the animals’ sound world like? What impact do our human sounds have on them? And we’ll do an experiment. One way to think about the decline in biodiversity is not just about diminishing numbers, you can also imagine a fade in the audible presence of animals. When a species dies out it also fall silent, so sound is a powerful way to draw attention to the value and fragility of biodiversity. Imagine a fade, taking decades, until finally there’s nothing, only silence. Would that be a loss do you think? 

Tom Rice is a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Exeter. His research specialism is in sound and in 2018 he started a project called Listening to the Zoo with a small group of colleagues. The team worked with Bristol and also Paignton Zoo in Southwest England, to try to think about the zoo as a sound environment, and find out whether attending to different kinds and qualities of sound could produce new perspectives on the zoos and their animals.

This podcast was produced as part of the Listening to the Zoo project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Transforming Social Science research call.  

It was written and presented by Tom Rice, with input from Alex Badman-King, Sam Hurn and Paul Rose, all from the University of Exeter, and also from Adam Reed at the University of St Andrews. The sound designer was Eve Streeter.


Main image: Professor Sam Hurn recording Hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas)at Paignton Zoo.

Listening to the Zoo

Pink (+): In Carnation EP
01 Fuchsia
02 Impatiens
03 Phlox
04 Begonia
05 Geranium
06 Hibiscus
07 Pale Rosette

Pink (+): In Carnation is a Patreon exclusive for now.
Get it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/69697489

Pink (2020) is here: https://bardont.bandcamp.com/album/pink

Years ago in Toronto I found a pink Barbie Jam With Me keyboard abandoned at the side of the road. At home I found the battery terminals were finicky, but, like many electronics people throw in the trash, it wasn’t truly broken. “Hey girl, take a look at this cool keyboard!” a bubbly voice still greeted you when the batteries were jammed in just right.

The Barbie Jam With Me keyboard is inset with glitter and plays on four settings: piano, flute, synth, and organ, and includes a drum pad, sound effects, preset tempos like “cha-cha” and “disco,” a microphone with an echo setting, a built in speaker, and a memory card holding three snippets of pop songs from the early 2000’s.

Begonia

Sara and Chris conduct two ghost hunts. In the first, they remotely access a nearby haunted museum via very expensive bleeding-edge VR technology. Sara downloads a free ghost hunting app to investigate Chris' apartment while Chris sits on a chair. They also beg for money so they can hire a producer, but they don't have a Patreon yet. Features an advertisement by Kristel Jax (@brigittebardont)for Casper, an online therapy service provided by ghosts.

Episode 1: Ghosts

im not a traffic expert  ╮(ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)╭ what can i say
available on my bandcamp in bio xx

Girl…Who said i had a license?

Read More on THUMP: http://thump.vice.com/en_ca/track/skin-sheds-rooted-past-calluna-vulgaris

https://skinnoise.bandcamp.com/

@deepseamining

SKIN - Roots Suffocate

All tracks by @new-chance
Mastered by @hudsonalexander 
Illustration by Seth Scriver
2018. Toronto.

It Says New Chance

Buy / Stream

New Chance - Chasing The Sunset [Preview]

Bio:
Maria is a New York-based abstract turntablist and multidisciplinary artist from Peru by way of Houston, Texas. She has pioneered a singular style of improvisation on the turntable involving perfect and destroyed vinyl and styli. She is an author, a teacher, a DJ, and an outspoken critic of the institutions of fine art of which she finds herself, against all odds, a part-- this latter characteristic is amusingly exemplified in her recent work in painting, which she expands upon in this episode. 

Recording Notes:
This interview was recorded at Cafe le Gamin in Maria’s rapidly gentrifying Greenpoint neighbourhood. We met for lunch while Maria was briefly home in New York between stints in Italy, Germany, Istanbul and the Rauschenberg Captiva Residency. The chance, or accident, so fundamental to Maria’s practice turns up here in the shape of the clatter of cutlery, the city’s drony din, and the cafe’s regular custom.

I want to warmly welcome Cale Weir back to the pod, who joined me in producing the music for this episode. We worked from Maria’s autodidactic Masters Thesis, Of Technique: Chance Procedures on Turntable. Despite her kindly encouragement of our efforts, Maria may not totally approve of the results, nor of the liberties we took in attempting to execute her techniques (I cannot get away from my little digital modulators, and Cale was working with his antiquated CD-Js)  but that we took her instructions in our new direction would seem to be in keeping with the spirit of her work. Truth be told, I just haven’t got the manual dexterity Maria has to grapple with the fragility of the turntable as instrument.

Links:

Artist:
Artist’s Website: www.mariachavez.org
Maria’s IG: @chavezsayz
Maria’s Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/MariaDChavez
Documenta 14: Between a Gunshot and a Whisper: https://www.documenta14.de/en/public-radio/14725/between-a-gunshot-and-a-whisper

References:
Oneohtrix Point Never’s Software Label: https://softwarelabel.bandcamp.com/
Judd Foundation Wind Instruments documentation: http://mariachavez.org/1913-2/
Every Time A Ear di Soun, a Documenta 14 Radio: https://www.documenta14.de/en/calendar/11085/every-time-a-ear-di-soun-a-documenta-14-radio-program-presentation
Gagosian: https://gagosian.com/
Pauline Oliveros: http://paulineoliveros.us/
Phil Niblock: https://phillniblock.com/
University of Texas solo show (String Room): https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2017-04-28/maria-chavez-string-room/
Merce Cunningham Dance Company: https://mercecunningham.org/history/
Dia: Beacon Museum: https://www.diaart.org/
Playing in a gigantic Richard Serra sculpture: https://www.diaart.org/
Jasper Jonhs: https://www.moma.org/artists/2923
Goldsmiths: https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=11082
Resident Advisor: https://www.residentadvisor.net/
Francisco Lopez (get this man an agent!): http://www.franciscolopez.net/

PC 12: MARIA

are you having nightmares

NOEXIST007 is the seventh official album released through the multi-tasking and loosely defined collective No Exist. It's the first compilation, and curated by nomadic No Exist artist Così e Così. The genre-bending arch of new and/or unreleased songs reflect current issues surrounding sexual politics, tech-dread, and the conflicting methods of survival in our age of brutality and beauty.

Comprised entirely of artists Così e Così has met and worked with across the globe, it features from Montreal Valeda, long-time collaborator YlangYlang, and from Toronto Cares, and Brigitte Bardon't, who is behind the mental health awareness podcast Drone Therapy. Representing on the other side of the ocean from Paris is the young producer Désiré (appearing here with his duo Euphonic Alliances Ltd.), newcomer John Poubelle (with a powerful "punk fragile" album-opening track), and the veterans of doom poetry: Winter Family, who split their home between Paris and Jerusalem.

Also featured is up-and-coming talent from Turkey - Okay Vivian, and producer Jtamul, along with additional Turkish artists braun.aar currently based in Klagenfurt, and Robogeisha currently based in Berlin. Closing off NOEXIST007 is Melbourne artist Nothinge, who has been on the fringes of the No Exist collective since the beginning, with the paradoxically creepy yet tender ballad of robot love, "I'll Be With You Again".

NOEXIST007 is a dark and textured musical foray into the depths of the unknown, as per course for No Exist, but offers pockets of light and journeys across either side of the spectrum. 

https://noexist4vr.com
D/L: https://noexist4vr.bandcamp.com/album/noexist007

John Poubelle: soundcloud.com/johnspoubelle
braun.aar: soundcloud.com/braunaar
YlangYlang: https://soundcloud.com/ylangylang
Così e Così: https://soundcloud.com/cosiecosi
Valeda: soundcloud.com/user-valeda
Okay Vivian: soundcloud.com/okayvivian
Brigitte Bardon't: https://soundcloud.com/bardont
Cares: https://soundcloud.com/cares
Jtamul: soundcloud.com/jtamul
robogeisha: soundcloud.com/robogeisha101001
Euphonic Alliances Ltd.: soundcloud.com/euphonic-alliances-ltd
Winter Family: https://soundcloud.com/winterfamily
Nothinge: https://soundcloud.com/nothinge

Okay Vivian - Summers Inside My Mind

live from the bottom of the well 
∤ Brigitte Bardon’t aka Kristel Jax makes disney princess noise and Drone Therapy Podcast, where drone music tracks comedic, sincere explorations of mental illness and treatment. She lives in Toronto and hosts Infinite Poolside sometimes. 

Brigitte Bardon't:
2020 Pink @industrialcoast
2019 Radio Songs @already-dead-tapes

Drone Therapy Podcast x iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp (aka Dying But Fine Podcast)

Begonia

Brigitte Bardon't

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