Just published on the City Creatures blog, my words on acoustic ecology and “ethical listening.”

This blog post coincides with the Forum on Ethics and Nature, where I will be guiding a morning soundwalk this Friday, May 2, through Mary Mix McDonald Woods at the Chicago Botanic Garden (registration required). I will also lead a soundwalk through a portion of the Botanic Garden as part of the optional mid-day activities at the Forum.

The City Creatures blog began in 2012 to address human encounters with animals in the city. My piece serves partly as an introduction to acoustic ecology, while exploring the human-animal connection and embark on a “utopian excursion” to playfully suggest what “ethical listening” might be. It is not definitive, nor a doctrine, simply a way to pique curiosity and hopefully inspire a little more thought about a fundamental aspect of daily life, based on my personal experience.

Perhaps it can help develop better understanding of a practice and an attitude toward the use and experience of sound, and our relationship with our acoustic environment. My list is a sort of game, a way for you to play and build upon the ways that we actually but unconsciously listen.