{"id":222,"date":"2023-01-27T09:58:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T08:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/environmentallisteningsessions\/?page_id=222"},"modified":"2023-02-07T20:36:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T19:36:41","slug":"els-7-sihlwald","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.zhdk.ch\/environmentallisteningsessions\/els-7-sihlwald\/","title":{"rendered":"ELS #7: Sihlwald"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to the environmetal listening session #7. The students of the Sound & Environment<\/a> 2022\/23 fall semester’s course at ZHdK<\/a> worked at Sihlwald, a natural reserve at the border of the city of Zurich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sihlwald<\/a> is a nature reserve of national significance. On 1 January 2010, the Federal Office for the Environment awarded the forest the national designation \u201cNature Discovery Park \u2013 Park of National Significance\u201d for a period of ten years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sihlwald natural forest is made up of around 1,100 hectares of beech forest, which originally covered some 80 per cent of Central Europe. It represents a rare example of a large, original forest on the Swiss plateau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In autumn 2016 the \u00abBiodiversity and habitat structures in the Wildnispark Zurich Sihlwald: the establishment of an intensive natural forest study site\u00bb<\/a> project was launched. The project is the cornerstone for the long-term monitoring of biodiversity in the Sihlwald. The project focuses in particular on species linked to late forest development stages and deadwood. Biodiversity is presented on the basis of the inclusion of different taxonomic groups and is linked with forest structures. The project has as its basis the collaboration between the Forestry Department of the canton of Zurich\u2019s Office of Forests, Nature and Land Management, the Wildnispark Zurich Foundation, the University of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences (HAFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). (Source: Wildnispark Zurich)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ronald Schmidt of Wildnispark Sihlwald introduces to the perimeter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As part of our course, we observed four locations in the forest acoustically with automatic and individual recorders during several days and conducted sonification experiments with meteorological data from the Sihlwald. This resulted in sound works that we would like to present in this session. Our sound map<\/a> of Zurich and the surrounding area has also been expanded to include the Sihlwald – we will continue to work on this next semester:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soundmap of Sihlwald as of end semester 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once you have navigated to the map<\/a>, please load a map or satellite image from the top right menu and navigate to Zurich. In the south at the Sihl river lies the Sihlwald – click on the corresponding point in the map and listen to our field recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would like to express our sincere thanks for the support and scientific assistance to Ronald Schmidt at Wildnispark Sihwald<\/a> and Elena Haeler at WSL Birmensdorf.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Works<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xenia Landolf silent listener<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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silent listener<\/em> is a composition based on two field recordings from Sihlwald. For focusing on the acoustic environment of one individual tree, two different sound recorders were placed near its trunk. One recorder captured the atmosphere above the ground, the other was put into the soil of the trees cave, simultaneously recording what lives under the tree, between its roots in the depth of the soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Through its structure a landscape has distinct sonic patches in which different sonic characters can be recognized. Reaching from the deepest roots to the highest branches, a tree is a link between such patches, a gateway between different realms – the aerial and the chthonic, the for us perceptible world and a unknown, mystical one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


By connecting these distinct sonotopes, the result is an attempt to capture the entire soundscape a tree is exposed to, or metaphorically a short impression to what a tree listens to. As organisms with completely different perception and temporality, we can only fantasize about how the tree perceives its environment. As silent listener one is invited to do so and immerse into this different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Livia Zumofen voices of Sihlwald<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Silwald is a nature discovery park in close proximity to the city of Zurich and a nature conservation area of national significance. It\u2019s evolving into a natural forest without human interference in it\u2019s own pace, in it\u2019s own rhythm. Undisturbed habitats for animals and plants are thus created close to the city, and yet the presence of humans can be heard in almost every moment of every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The soundscape composition Voices of Sihlwald <\/em>takes you on a walk through the Sihlwald in 24 hours to experience the unique soundscape of an area of mixed beech forest deep in the Sihlwald down to the entrance of the nature discovery park, laying close to railway tracks, a motorway and the airport of Zurich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field recordings were taken in the Sihlwald and in Langnau-Gattikon in October 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manolo M\u00fcller Chiome<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The basis of this piece were recordings made in Sihlwald, Z\u00fcrich as well as tree data
collected on nearby \u00dcetliberg in October 2022. The musical material unfolds in quite a simple way: by stepping through each sample point of data, the otherwise fixed layers of sinusoids, field recordings and looping chimes are articulated quite clearly through change in frequency, amplitude or spatial depth. Navigating the data and mixing the layers together was performed live, giving rise to a simple three stage structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Aesthetically, this piece presents a blend of artificial reality and pseudo-scientific
pragmatism. The quick-and-dirty mapping of arbitrary data to frequencies of sine waves seems to me quite a good match with the naive musical associations of the wind chimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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