Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology

We hope your new year is off to a great start. You may not have heard it, but a lot of things are happening in the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE). Here’s a list that includes some things you can do:

• Now is the time to renew your MSAE-ASAE membership, if you haven’t already. Memberships end annually on December 31. Please visit our “About” to renew or become a new member!
• Publication of the latest issue of Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, our print journal was long-delayed, and mailed to 2011 members last September. Contact info@mwsae.org if you have not received your copy.
• MSAE member and co-chair Jay Needham became the new President of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology (ASAE), last August when Eric Leonardson became President of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE). E-mail Jay at info@acousticecology.us
• Chicago-based composer Christopher Preissing takes over as new MSAE co-chair serving with MSAE co-chair, and WFAE President Eric Leonardson. E-mail Chris at cpreissing@mwsae.org and Eric at info@mwsae.org
• The WFAE’s online newsletter has changed from a bi-monthly to a quarterly publication cycle. The read the January-March front page features Eric Leonardson’s “President’s Report,” and updates on local, national, and international events among our nine WFAE Affiliates, and others in the field of acoustic ecology. Please submit your news for calendar listing, resources, and feature article ideas you may have. Check out the many conference calls for papers, shows, publishing opportunities, grants, residencies, jobs, etc. E-mail Gary Ferrington at wfae.newsletter@gmail.com
  
• In his WFAE Affiliate Report , ASAE President Jay Needham welcomed and thanked new, returning, and outgoing ASAE Board members. Former ASAE President and current MSAE co-chair, Eric Leonardson serves now as ASAE Representative (liaison) of the ASAE and WFAE. Kenya Williams is new ASAE Membership Coordinator. Read about the rest on the ASAE web page.
  
• WFAE’s Journal Editorial Committee is doing double-duty to bring the publication cycle of Soundscape back in sync, by completing its 2012 print journal this spring, while planning its next steps for this year’s journal. MSAE member and SIUC Professor Phylis Johnson is leading the effort, replacing Hildegard Westerkamp as Interim Editor-In-Chief. E-mail Phylis at soundscape-editor@wfae.net
• The Soundscape: Journal of Acoustic Ecology web page was recently updated. Download back issues free, from the first publication in 2000 up to, and including the recent 2011 issue.
• MSAE realizes it mission through local initiatives such as the World Listening Project (WLP), which has and continues to gain worldwide interest and appreciation since it was founded in 2008. Beginning in February the WLP’s website will  feature a series of blog posts about changing soundscapes, new listening practices, new recording techniques, reflections on recent events, interdisciplinary connections to acoustic ecology, and other topics relevant to field recording and concerns with the sonic environment. Several new posts will be published each month. The selected “bloggers” are from around the world, invited by MSAE member and WLP co-founder Dan Godston, who initiated the guest blogging project.
• MSAE co-chair Eric Leonardson was honored to be a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College, where he resides from January through May, 2013.
• MSAE co-chair Christopher Preissing was awarded a Pritzker Foundation Endowed Fellowship for his recent (October-November, 2012) residency at Djerassi Resident Artist Program. He is currently a Fellow at his third artist residency at VCCA: Virginia Center for the Arts, from February through early-March, 2013.
• MSAE member Jay Needham was honored to have his field recordings of Panamanian Neotropical rainforests be part of the Biomuseo, a new biodiversity museum in Panama designed by Frank Gehry.
• There’s more to tell, and we want you to tell us your membership news. For the most up-to-date news please visit and use our Facebook Page, and follow us on Twitter!

Listening Forward to a Happy New 2013!

—Christopher Preissing and Eric Leonardson, MSAE Co-chairs