Summary of 2023 WFAE Conference at Atlantic Center for the Arts
From 19 through 26 March 2023 I convened and participated in ‘Listening Pasts – Listening Futures’ a hybrid virtual and in-person conference at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA), in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. This was the first international conference held by the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) in the U.S.A. This event coincided with the 30th anniversary of the WFAE, founded in 1993 during ‘Tuning of the World: The First International Conference on Acoustic Ecology’ at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
Our two conference partners, Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and ACA provided essential support for a pre-conference panel discussion, travel for the three featured keynote speakers, Amanda Gutiérrez (Mexico/Canada), Claude Schryer (Canada) and David George Haskell (UK/USA), and on-site lodging at ACA for 30 people. Over 80 people from 20+ countries of origin attended in person. A dozen students from Stetson assisted with installations, concerts and panel productions hosted on-site at ACA. They were joined by 109 remote participants from around the globe, with an additional 100+ members of the local public at multiple pre-conference events organized by Atlantic Center for the Arts and Stetson. In support of ACA’s community engagement initiatives, conference attendees joined around 30 visually impaired youth participants and staff of the Young Sound Seekers program at Canaveral National Seashore for an afternoon making field recordings together.
On Friday, 24 March, my 10-minute work, ‘The Frequent Listener’ for piano, handheld transducers, and recorded soundscape composition was performed in ACA’s Joan Harris Theater by sound artists Alex Braidwood and Lisa Schonberg. Audio, photo, and text documentation will be available soon.
To conclude the conference, I led the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology’s 2023 Annual General Meeting. We listened to reports from the board’s Executive Committee and representatives of the WFAE’s affiliate organizations. Important resolutions were voted and passed, including approval of new members to the Executive Committee. Raquel Castro from Portugal succeeded me as WFAE President. The new WFAE Treasurer is Claude Schryer, a Canadian composer and retired arts administrator, who played a key role in starting the WFAE in 1933. To support the leadership transition, I will continue as co-vice president with Leah Barclay from Australia. Also from Australia, Jesse Budel renewed his term of service as WFAE Secretary.
Building on the WFAE’s important accomplishments to date, we have improved systems for membership, freely accessible archives and educational resources through the WFAE online library, and a new online open access platform launching soon for publication of the 2023 conference proceedings and future editions of the WFAE’s Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology. In June, conference proceedings will be published on Acoustic Ecology Review, the WFAE’s new open access publishing platform. Recordings of presentations and concerts are posting now on the WFAE’s new YouTube channel. Discussions are underway about the next conference. This bodes well for the future of the soundscape studies and the WFAE at a pivotal moment of environmental awakening.
Post WFAE 2023 Conference Wrap Up: WFAE Newsletter
POST CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE 2023.04.13.pdf
FINAL 2023 WFAE Conf Schedule 2023.03.22 v2.pdf