Ghost Structures

Transformateur destiné à utiliser les petites énergies gaspillées

Internet router

Terraformers (Waiwera rock fall, rain, slater bugs)

"I see and hear life as a grand improvisation. Quantum Listening is listening in as many ways as possible simultaneously – changing and being changed by listening... [staying] open to the world of possibilities for interplay in the quantum field with self and others – community – society – the world – the universe and beyond."[1]

Out of sight, beyond the threshold of everyday human perception, between hearing and listening, there is an incredible volume of happenings taking place around us. 

This work explores the vibrant mesh of geological and ecological relationships within Waiwera beach’s liminal tidal zone, and the unseen non-human relationships at work beyond human awareness. Nestled between the mouth of the Waiwera River and the coast’s ancient, stratified sandstone cliffs, this geothermal town is one of constant environmental change and liveliness. Documented at low tide in an area of shore only accessible during this time, these listenings capture a brief but endlessly complex moment within the beach’s history. 

The work was recorded with the use of contact microphones — a medium that translates physical rather than air vibration into sound. These listenings make audible the movements amongst, within and across this place as felt by its geological entities, and the movement of its non-human inhabitants amongst them. Among those recorded are the footsteps of hermit crabs, the slow erosion of sandstone against the wind, the hush of sand against the incoming tide, a small migration of sea snails... 

In technologically mediating this vibrant coastal ecology as a mesh of interconnected sound from the perspective of its abiotic entities, I draw attention to the cacophony of tiny ecological happenings at work; and in listening deeply, reflect on the complexity of existence beyond our perception, of which we are but one part.

I invite you to spend time with the recordings and to listen to the assemblage of voices present.


[1] Pauline Oliveros, in “The difference between hearing and listening | Pauline Oliveros | TEDxIndianapolis”, 11:37, YouTube video, November 13 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHfOuRrJB8.

Signalling The Tide, Grounded In The Rock

My favorite recording location did not disappoint this evening in early march. I have heard about cod drumming, and suspect that this is it. However I wasn't prepared for this intense sound of several individual species making noise at the same time. 

There are some anthropophony in this recording. Mainly noise from small vessels, but some faint sounds from cars passing over a bridge 600 meters to the east.

Hydrophones - Aquarian H2AXLR
Recorder - Zoom F3

Intense sound from the deep

A small collection of field recordings made with magnetic coil microphones. Specifically the LOM Elektrouši  mics. 
These are basically made from coils of magnetic wire connected to unbalanced leads. When the mic is inserted into a magnetic field, it induces a current through the leads picking up the fluctuating patterns within the field.

Placing the mics by the speakers while my kid plays minecraft, or something...

Recorded on 1 April 2024 with an Aquarian H2a hydrophone (9m cable) and Zoom F3 from a pedestrian bridge over the Wambuul Macquarie River at Shibble Bridge near Dubbo. This is a regulated inland river. Water flow is controlled by an upstream dam and downstream weirs. On this day, the river was very low, with the water level about 7 metres below the bridge. There's some underwater activity evident, probably fish—most likely invasive European carp, but the dominant sound is the whine of a pump running about 600+ metres downstream. Hundreds of these licensed pumps can be heard on this river, pumping water for stock and domestic purposes and irrigation of crops.

Whining river - Wambuul Macquarie

Listen to sound samples from a field test with the DPA AIR1 Universal Miniature Fur Windscreen on a 4060 Lavalier Microphone. You can hear the 4060 without wind protection, with wind protection accessories, and finally, with the AIR1 Universal Miniature Fur Windscreen.

DPA AIR1 on 4060 Lavalier Mic - field test

LOM mikroUši captured the ultrasonic sounds and tuned them down for human hearing.

Ultrasonic Sounds recorded by LOM mikroUši

This is a field recording of a mangrove creek near Englewood, Florida. Recorded with a stereo pair of hydrophones.

Lemon Creek Mangroves, Hydrophone Recording 2.5.2020

A sound artist, Fulbright scholar, and Guggenheim fellow, Robert Millis has authored or co-authored books (Indian Talking Machine and Victrola Favorites) produced compilations and documentaries for the Sublime Frequencies record label, (including Paris to Calcutta: Men and Music on the Desert Road and This World is Unreal Like A Snake in a Rope), composed for radio (“The Gramophone Effect” for Documenta14) and film (the cult horror film Session 9), and released numerous recordings as a solo artist, as Climax Golden Twins, as Telescoping or as Idol Ko Si. Recently he was part of A Slightly Curving Place at Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt. http://robertmillis.net/

This work is about wind up gramophones, Victrolas and Edison cylinder players. I use them as chambers for feedback resonances alongside deconstructed fragments of 78rpm records, and reconfigured surface noise. Related to my Related Ephemera LP, recently released on the Helen Scarsdale Agency, it’s about fragility, overtones, texture, and memory; an insomniac falling asleep.

A few found sounds, a Japanese sho, and a guitar make appearances, but otherwise all the sounds were derived from old phonographs and recordings. Some sections were performed live, and some assembled in my studio. Ko Ishikawa played the sho.

Wayward in Limbo #64 – Robert Millis

Steve Barsotti is a sound artist and educator who lives in San Diego. He has ventured into various approaches to art making including photography, printmaking, performance, invented instruments, improvisation, object recording, location recording, phonography, electro-acoustic-pull-strange-sounds-from-everyday-objects, and there is sure to be more. The common thread has always been a close examination of easily bypassed details; image from angles that you would not normally see, sounds that can only be heard through contact mics and amplification, sonic qualities of materials that are used in everyday life. 

He was a member of the Seattle Phonographers Union, a field recording wielding group of improvisers. The Union is described as " moving beyond habitual experience of sound and uncover what is foreign in the familiar and familiar about the foreign; to explore what we hear and relearn what we know" They have been performing together for 20 years. (www.seapho.org)

Placing the mics by the speakers while my kid plays minecraft, or something...

Steve Barsotti

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