Notes on a lecture from David Toop and Lawrence English on acoustic approaches to ecology.
Toop and English discuss technology as a fascillitator for measuring and understanding the world. Certain technology can “expand the bandwidth we are in contact with.” We can tune in to frequencies that are previously inaudible as a way to reveal something about the world. These tools are tools for navigation on a micro or macro-perspecitve. As an approch to ecology, Toop and English beleive that by revealing previously inaudible information we can change the way people relate to the world.
Our capacities for field recording and acoustic ecology is shaped by the technologies we have available. During the discussion, capacity is discussed in regards to listening. When the capacity has widened, we tend to listen to the flaws of previous work. The flaw becomes more audible as the capacity has changed. For example, many old recorders had to cut out low frequencies due to machine noise. Only certain voices succeeded in hitting the right notes to be audible through the machine. The capacities of technology affect the personality of the media. Toop says that “with every stage of technology we become adjusted to the new normal. It becomes neutral. Then 10-15 years later we see it’s personality.” It is interesting to examine how these personalities are fetishized are marketed by the fashion and music industries. Contemporary artists seem more forward focused.
English discusses his field recording practices. Field recording can be a technical craft, but also artistic. English admires the personal touch that is audible in the recorded. These are imperfections that are audible to the listener, that perhaps create intimacy. “Field recording is about sharing a moment… the listener’s listening… coming to the world through someone else’s ears. “
In field recording we become concious of those events often missed. Technology can expand our experience of the world. Recording is to take a space with you. It can examine our potential of what it means to be human.
There was no time for me to ask my question: How do you feel about the sourcing of materials for field recording equipment and can that contradict the ambitions of acoustic ecology?
Toop and English are passionate about the non-human lifeworlds we interact with. Much of their work could be reduced to ‘climate activism’, but it is more complex that that. I appreciate their ethics and I am curious about how they approach these contradictions of acoustic ecology and the sourcing of materials for field recording. Technology can help us; technology can hinder and destroy us. Perhaps by remembering it as a tool we can use technologies without getting lost in their seduction.