I’m happy to announce that I have been invited to present in the International Conference of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, “Ideologies and Ethics in the Uses and Abuses of Sound”, hosted by the University of Eastern Finland, Cultural Studies Department and the Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology (FSAE). The conference will happen on June 16-19, in Koli, Finland.

My presentation proposal concerns the recent activities of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE).

Confirmed invited and keynote speakers are (in alphabetical order):
Steven Feld, Charles Hirschkind, Bruce Johnson, Anahid Kassabian, Andra McCartney, R. Murray Schafer, Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp. (more…)

I am creating an installation and five performances in Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art with Chad Clark, Brett Ian Balogh, and fellow members of Chicago Phonography for the MCA’s Here/Not There series.

Opening at 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 21 Chicago Phonography in “Here/Not There”

Museum of Contemporary Art

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I have been invited to speak about the World Listening Project at the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology (CASE)’s 4th International Soundscape Retreat & Symposium: Negotiating Space/Place In the Changing Soundscape. It happens on Gabriola Island, British Columbia from June 12-14. Hildegard Westerkamp, Barry Truax, Charlie Fox, and Eric Powell are also speaking. I will also play my work in the soundscape concert to be held on Saturday, June 13.

For full details please visit www.acousticecology.ca.

The World Listening Project has built a public sound installation for the Synesthetic Plan of Chicago, co-curated by Annie Heckman and Daniel Godston, in the Visitor Information Center, at the Chicago Cultural Center (77 E. Randolph Street).  My Flickr photostream shows the construction of the WLP’s installation entitled the “Acoustic Mirror of the World.” (more…)

The May-June, 2009 issue of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) online newsletter published my report about Megalópolis sonoras: Identidad cultural y sonidos en peligro de extinción (Sound Megalopolis: Cultural Indentity and Sounds in danger of extinction). I attended the conference from 23-27 March 2009, held in Mexico City at the Fonoteca Nacional.

http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/WFAE/library/newsarchive/2009/03_may_june/index.htm

Find links to my report (PDF and HTML), the papers, and reports by Nigel Frayne, Hildegard Westerkamp, Vivienne Spiteri, Randolph Jordan, and others listed under the Observations and Commentary section. Or, you may use this direct link to download the PDF of my report.

On Wednesday the May-June issue of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology’s online newsletter was published with my report about the Sound Megalopolis conference in Mexico City.

The announcement (re-posted)

The May-June WFAE Newsletter
Now online: http://www.wfae.net/newsletter/

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6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15

I will be participating in a panel discussion with the founders of the World Listening Project—Brett Balogh, Chad Clark, Daniel Godston, and Jesse Seay—in the Art + Design Lecture Series, hosted by Columbia College’s Art + Design Department.

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Here is my brief report from Megalópolis Sonoras: Sonidos en peligro de extinción (Sound Megalopolis: Cultural Indentity and Sounds in danger of extinction) conference organized by the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and the recently founded Mexican Forum for Acoustic Ecology. The conference began on March 23rd at the gorgeous Fonoteca Nacional in the beautiful Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City, and concludes on March 27th.

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My photos of last Sunday’s Chicago Phonography performance in Exquisite City are now on my Flickr photostream. (more…)

[This is an edited version of the July 28th blog post on my MySpace Music profile, and a follow-up to the July 9th post here.]

On July 1st I began work on new project called the World Listening Project. It was formed by small group of musicians and sonic artists with the initial goal of collecting field recordings from every country in the world and then presenting them on a web-based sound map for the Chicago Calling Festival (October 1–11, 2008). The festival director, Dan Godston cited R. Murray Schafer’s ideas and the World Soundscape Project as inspiration, as well as the work of Bernie Krausse of Wild Sanctuary. We’re excited have Bernie and Katherine  providing their ideas and support to the World Listening Project as we begin.

On the left is a proposed logo for the WLP, designed by Noé Cuellar.

Many sound mapping sites and interfaces exist on the web, among those I’ve noted often are SoundTransit, Locus Sonus Audio Streaming Project Map, and the recent Mississauga Sound Map. With this in mind our initial mission, as stated above, is now under discussion. Rather than being solely a field recording and sound map website, a broader range of practices, areas of investigation, and modes of presentation are being considered. The discussion on revising the WLP’s mission is public. Your participation may help if you subscribe to the World Listening Project’s (Yahoo! Group) listserv.

Among the ideas for project may include research and initiating geo-tagged audio projects, such as on Freesound.org. The WLP can promote investigations into the meaning, methods, and relations of information gathering through sound. We are also registering a non-profit organization to support this effort. Happily, we have many noteworthy artists and thinkers participating in this discussion. And, the membership of the listserv continues to grow.

I can mention many more fields of knowledge and practice that the World Listening Project can encompass, but I’d like to keep this post brief. Your participation can play a important role influencing the future of practices involving sound and listening in and of the world. If you wish to learn more about the discussion, or even join the worldlistening Yahoo! Group, please visit this link: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/worldlistening/