With the Environmental Listening Sessions, we want to initiate irregular deep listening sessions and aesthetic reflection on the environment. The events aim to explore the acoustic, musical and aesthetic dimensions of environmental experiences and investigate the manifold artistic engagement with the natural and anthropogenically shaped environment, as well as the environmental problems associated with it.

Music and the arts in general have a major influence on the way we experience and understand nature – what significance it has for us and what place humans occupy in it. To this day, the arts determine our emotional and normative relationship to the environment. What significance do noises and sounds have in the environment, how do artistically produced soundscapes represent the environment? In this respect, it seems important to question current musical and sound artistic creation on whether it is capable of establishing new, alternative perspectives and relationships to the natural and technically shaped environment.

The programme will consist of a short introduction to the subject (record, installation, concert), acousmatic presentations and a subsequent discussion. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the events take place online only at the moment. Please select the event you like to attend in the menu above.

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Next Event: 21. 01.2021, TBA

Programme 2020 so far

Unknown Soundscapes: Rivers, Soils, Rocks Wednesday, 19.02.2020, 17:00, ZHdK Toni-Areal, Acoustic Ecology Lab 3.F03

  • Leah Barclay: River Listening (2014 – 2020)
  • Marcus Maeder: Sounding Soil (2017 -2020)
  • Matthias Meyer: Permasense – thawing permafrost on the Matterhorn

Listen to Matthias Meyer’s recordings

Deep in the rainforest: Vulnerable Amazon Wednesday, 25.03.2020, 17:00, ZHdK, Acoustic Ecology Lab

  • Bernie Krause: The Great Animal Orchestra (2012 – 2016)
  • Marcus Maeder: Espirito da Floresta/AmazonFace (2017 – 2020)
  • Ken Gubler: Amazon ZF2 24 Hours

Danger Zone: Nuclear desaster, renaturation, tourism Wednesday, 22.04.2020, 17:00 ZHdK, Acoustic Ecology Lab 3.F03

  • Andrej Tarkosvki/Edward Artemiev: Stalker (Excerpt, 1979)
  • Chernobyl: Two Days in the Exclusion Zone (Clothmap, 2017)
  • Jacob Kierkegaard: 4 Rooms (2006)

Climate Listening Wednesday, 27.05.2020, Open Studio Glattpark, Wrightstr. 74d

  • Chris Watson: Weather Report (2003)
  • Marcus Maeder: Perimeter Pfynwald (2020)
  • TBA