Brandon Mechtley, photo credit: Chrissy Chubala

Dan: How did you first get interested in phonography?

Brandon: I had a bit of a background in music performance when I was a kid, and upon my last year of college, studying Computer Science, I was getting a bit frustrated and realized I wanted to be doing something with sound again. I sent emails to about 10 professors I’d never met before in engineering and music, and it turns that the person who would end up being my adviser, an electrical engineer who was working with composers and choreographers (”what?!”), was the only one to respond. I worked with him from that point about 4 years ago until now on signal processing related to environmental sounds, and I guess it turns out that once you start listening to something for long enough, you start to gain an aesthetic appreciation for its richness and nuances.

The more practical reason is that I’ve had some unsuccessful attempts at composing musical sounds and figured that a true audiophile doesn’t need headphones or loudspeakers anyway. I also go to sleep to a recording of chirping frogs, so natural sound environments have always had a special place in my heart.

Dan: What are you studying at Arizona State University? Why did you choose that academic path?

Brandon: Right now I’m working on my Ph.D. in Computer Science with a concentration in Arts, Media, and Engineering (AME). I’m working on understanding how people socially construct and are affected by acoustic environments. Specifically, I’ve collaborated on some work on segmenting and comparing environmental sound recordings and am working on a website, soundwalks.org, that aims to be an acoustic map that can infer what a place might sound like based on its acoustic traits (nearby sounds) and semantic features (such as roads, major landmarks, etc.)

I think the academic route has worked well for me, because out of college, I was pretty specialized in one discipline and probably would have ended up working as a database programmer for a large company until my soul had sufficiently faded away. I don’t think I would have known how to bridge my passions in computer science and acoustics as well as I do now. Luckily, the AME program has helped foster some of my more interdisciplinary interests so that I actually have an idea of how support them later in my life.

Dan: You have a background in design and engineering. How do you bring your background to recording and sound ecology?

Brandon: Acoustic ecology lends itself well for being balanced between holistic and more quantitative ways of understanding. A soundwalk helps us intuitively understand our environment, but we do have a natural barrier of only being able to listen to recordings or go on soundwalks for 24 hours a day. I’ve tried it, and it’s painful. Any kind of summarization or large-scale comparison, whether it be through a visual map (”where are the birds?”) or a generated soundscape, is either going to require a lot of editing work or some automation. We’re hoping that a tool that can help people extract some useful information from hundreds of thousands of recordings, combined with the easy recording capabilities of most smartphones, will inspire people to make recordings on a regular basis and stir up discussion about our soundscapes.

Dan: What are some things that you like about the area where you live?

Brandon: I’d be lying if I didn’t say the greatest thing about Phoenix is that it is only a short drive from great hiking and camping, two hours away from Flagstaff and Sedona, and six hours away from San Diego and Las Vegas. That being said, the valley is an amazing case study for anything involving sustainability or environmental science, as you have an enormously sprawling, homogeneous city surrounded by the Sonoran Desert, which is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.

Dan: What are some characteristics of some of your favorite soundscapes out there?

Brandon: I love heading out East of Apache Junction to the base of the Superstition mountain range where street lights never shine, you can hear your neighbor breathe, you can make out individual crickets, and you can hear the occasional scurrying animal. I love the sound of cities, but, besides a handful of places, a lot of Phoenix lacks the noise of people, replaced instead by the sounds of commuting.

Dan: What are some things that you like about soundwalks?

Brandon: I can’t think of many people that don’t like to go out on a walk to get out of their heads, but it’s pretty easy to get stuck thinking or talking at length about our concerns from the day. I especially enjoy going on soundwalks in the city, because it helps me learn how to be resilient and stay in the moment in even the most stressful of environments. It’s like moving meditation.

Dan: What are some of your plans for the Soundwalks.org website?

Brandon: Soundwalks.org is being developed as a social network around an acoustic map in order to emphasize our commitment to discussing soundscapes rather than only re-experiencing or exploring them. We’re trying to make use of people’s existing comfort in using social networks to help them learn about their auditory environments. Additionally, through these discussions (either implicitly through conversations and comments or explicitly through activities such as tagging or rating), we get a lot of information about the recordings that can help us communicate more relevant information to the users.

Dan: What kinds of plans are being made for the Southwest Society for Acoustic Ecology?

Brandon: SSAE is brand new, so we’re just getting off the ground and organizing things for the coming year. For World Listening Day, some of us explored where people go to hide from the 111 degree summer heat, and hopefully we will get a chance to schedule more community soundwalks in the future. We have a pretty interesting mix of people that do everything from practicing science and engineering to performing, DJing, and composing, so hopefully we can plan some shows or workshops in the coming year. We will also be getting a website up shortly.

Dan: It was good meeting you during last month’s “Listening to the Future” American Society for Acoustic Ecology symposium, thanks for coming to Chicago! For you, what were some highlights of the symposium?

Brandon: The greatest thing about the ASAE symposium was just being able to meet and chat with such everyone in person. We really have a great group going that is filled with kind, passionate people. Chicago itself is amazing as well–it’s interesting how you can walk just a few blocks and be in an entirely different type of neighborhood. Although the neighborhoods are quite different, there are always elements that connect them such as sounds from traffic or the L.

Dan: What are some other projects you’ve been working on?

Brandon: I’m collaborating with a friend, Dan Roth, on a media platform, mobia.tv, that aims to bring local performers to the forefront by allowing people to view series of geotagged performances on their smartphones. With all the great new affordable video cameras out there, we’re hoping that location-specific media can help out independent artists and local businesses and help make people more engaged in issues surrounding their communities.

I also have a few sonic pieces I’ve been working on involving some explorations of the human voice and enjoy clockmaking.

video link: Binaural recording of boats along Chicago Harbor, just South of Navy Pier

The American Society for Acoustic Ecology

“Listening for the Future”

July 9–11, 2010

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A report about Listening for the Future will be published in the September/October World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) Online Newsletter. NYSAE member, Edmund Mooney will report on Listening for the Future in the next Soundscape, The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, to be published at the end of this year.

Listening for the Future was the American Society for Acoustic Ecology’s first-ever national symposium and retreat. Visit our ASAE symposium announcment and check back for the proceedings to be published soon.

View photos and listen to some of the sounds on our Facebook page.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

You are invited to participate in the first World Listening Day, which happens on Sunday, July 18, 2010. The purposes of World Listening Day are:

• to celebrate the practice of listening as it relates to the world around us, environmental awareness, and acoustic ecology;
• to raise awareness about issues related to the World Soundscape Project, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, World Listening Project, and individual and group efforts to creatively explore phonography;
• and to design and implement educational initiatives which explore these concepts and practices.

World Listening Day is being organized by the World Listening Project (WLP), in partnership with the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE). July 18 was chosen as the date for World Listening Day because it is the birthday of the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, who is one of the founders of the Acoustic Ecology movement. The World Soundscape Project, which Schafer directed, is an important organization which has inspired a lot of activity in this field, and his book The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World helped to define many of the terms and background behind the acoustic ecology movement.WLP and MSAE invite you to participate in World Listening Day.

Here are several possibilities-

• You can organize a soundwalk or a listening party when people play field recordings.
• You can organize a performance event that involves field recordings and other artistic expressions that explore our soundscape and how we can listen to our sonic environment.
• You can participate in a private / solitary way, by paying attention to your soundscape.
• You can facilitate an educational event that relates to acoustic ecology, field recordings, or a similar topic.
• You can contact organizations that are participating in World Listening Day, to see if you can get involved that way.

If you would like to participate in World Listening Day, please email worldlistening@gmail.com, and be sure to include World Listening Day in the subject line.

World Listening Day includes the following organizations, projects, and individuals:

A World Listening Day event happens at the Chicago Underground Library –
• a soundwalk that happens inside the building and around the neighborhood
• a performance led by composer and instrument builder Douglas Ewart
• a listening party, with field recordings of nature sounds and urban sounds being played. Participants will include Eric Leonardson, Fereshteh Toosi, Norman Long, Jimmy Bennington, Dan Godston, and other TBA individuals.

This event is organized by the World Listening Project and the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. Free and open to the public, BYOB, bring your own food!

Chicago Underground Library
621 W. Belmont, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60657

Please email worldlistening@gmail.com for more info.

photo by Eric Leonardson

Join members of the American and Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and World Listening Project for a soundwalk at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Participate in Listening For the Future: The American Society for Acoustic Ecology Symposium and Retreat. Learn how to explore a natural environment through sound.

Time: 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Date: Saturday, July 10

Location: Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education, 20 N Lake Street, Miller, IN 46403

Vocalo.org 89.5FM is pleased to support the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology as a media sponsor for the Indiana Dunes Sound Walk.

A brief presentation by members of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology will be given at the Douglas Center before the soundwalk in Miller Woods. The soundwalk concludes with a discussion for participants.

Read about the soundwalk and other events in the park’s newspaper, Singing Sands.

Download the Park Newspaper (with park map) – The Singing Sands Summer 2010

To learn about the World Listening Project please visit: www.worldlisteningproject.org

Transportation

The Paul H. Douglas Center is an approximately 10-minute walk from the Miller station on the South Shore Line.

Trains depart from downtown Chicago three times in the morning, arriving in time to attend the soundwalk. (Travel time: approximately 1 hour and 8 minutes.) To view the weekend train schedule between the Millennium Park station, 151 E. Randolph Street, downtown and Miller station visit http://www.nictd.com

Eastbound Weekend/Holiday

Origin Station: Millennium Station

Destination Station: Miller

Schedule Generated: Fri Mar 19 18:27:08 2010

Qualifications for REDUCED FARES

Children 13 Years and Younger, Seniors 65 and Older, Passengers with
Disabilities

f = Flag Stop d = Train Departs after Discharging Passengers

Schedule provided by www.nictd.com
IntelliSchedule

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District

Westbound Weekend/Holiday Schedule

Origin Station: Miller

Destination Station: Millennium Station

The bimonthly WFAE Newsletter is now online for May-June, 2010. This publication is a supplement to the annual Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology. Its mission is to make available in a timely manner, news, events, and announcements from the WFAE Board, WFAE Affiliates, and other sources.

Each newsletter includes:

• Affiliate Reports
• Events Calendar: Updates on current world-wide events in acoustic ecology.
• Opportunities: Call for papers and projects
• News Clips and Sound Bites: Headlines from the world press related to sound issues.
• Research Feature.
• Resources: Books, video, web, and other media.

The WFAE Newsletter is a commercial free publication of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

About the WFAE:

The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE), founded in 1993, is an international association of affiliated organizations and individuals, who share a common concern with the state of the world’s soundscapes. Our members represent a multi-disciplinary spectrum of individuals engaged in the study of the social, cultural and ecological aspects of the sonic environment.

The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology encourages your participation in the growth and development of regional affiliate groups around the world. Learn more about becoming a member by visiting the WFAE web site: http://www.wfae.net

WFAE members receive the annual publication Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology.

Kickapoo River Bluffs 2009, photo by Paul Gaudynski

Nature Sound Recordists Campout

Wildlife at Crex Meadows

Friday, April 30–Sunday, May 2, 2010, Crex Meadows Wildlife Area, Northwestern Wisconsin

Contact: Rich Peet richpeet@comcast.net, or Rob Danielson type@uwm.edu

Each year since 2003, a group of ten to twenty people has gathered for the purposes of sharing and recording natural sounds. The group has included sound artists, composers, birders, biologists, naturalists, media educators, filmmakers, news reporters and trackers. All have shared an interest in learning what nature has to give to their ears and the best methods for detecting and capturing these experiences. The primary learning tools have been shared excursions, in-field demonstrations, collective camping and conversation. We have enjoyed the presence of recordists with many years of experience and great intimacy with the natural surroundings as well novices eager to soak-up everything about the techniques and the environment as they can. Everyone has been welcomed and all have left fulfilled.

Crex Meadows Map

Chicago Sound Artist Paul Dickinson, photo by Paul Gaudynski

For Spring 2010, a group will be gathering at the largest Wildlife Area in the state of Wisconsin, Crex Meadows. Crex Meadows is 30,000 acres of wetland, pine barrens, and woodland. The area is additionally surrounded by many square miles of State and County Forest as well as nearby Fish Lake Wildlife Area and the St. Croix River, a Federally protected Wild River. A seven-hour drive from Chicago and a two-hour drive from Minneapolis, the site will be at the height of activity during Spring songbird migration. We are currently determining the exact date from the first 3 weekends in May. We’ll have cabins with bunk beds and a mess hall for preparing and sharing meals. The fee for the three-day event will be very reasonable.

Contact Rich Peet richpeet@comcast.net or Rob Danielson type@uwm.edu and they will include you in the planning process.

bird habitat at Center for Green Technology

Experience nature in the city

10 a.m., Saturday at the Chicago Center for Green Technology
445 N. Sacramento Blvd. (between Lake St. and Chicago Ave.), Chicago, IL 60612

Contact: Dan Godston at dgodston@gmail.com, or call 312-543-7027

You are invited to join members of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and World Listening Project for a soundwalk on Saturday, April 17 at the Chicago Center for Green Technology. A soundwalk is a practice of focused listening in which one moves through a soundscape with complete attention to sound. Free and open to the public, all ages, this soundwalk is being facilitated by Dan Godston, Chad Clark, and Norman Long.

We meet at the Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT) at 10:00 a.m. for a brief tour of the premises before the soundwalk begins. This soundwalk, co-organized by World Listening Project and CCGT, takes place both inside and outside the building — through the Resource Center, on the CCGT roof, past the rain cisterns, through “elementhouse,” the 2007 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Solar Decathlon entry, to the eastern part of the property by the solar berm and green roof test plots, and through the prairie-wetland.

The Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT) is the first rehabilitated municipal building in the nation to receive the LEED™ Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council. Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated the building in 2002 and it has gone on to become a national model for sustainable design and technology. CCGT serves as the most comprehensive green design educational resource in the Midwest. CCGT promote and advance sustainable homes, workplaces and communities to enhance the quality of urban life. CCGT work to facilitate this through educational programming and training, research and demonstration and by acting as a resource network.

The WLP conducted a soundwalk at CCGT last August; visit this link to view pictures taken at CCGT.

For more information please email dgodston@gmail.com or call 312.543.7027.

the elementhouse behind CCGT

rabbit sitting on a solar panel -- on the solar berm behind CCGT

a view of CCGT, from the prairie-wetland

view from the CCGT roof (facing northeast)

the prairie-wetland to the east of CCGT

view of passing train from the prairie-wetland

house models inside "elementhouse"

path in the prairie-wetland

view from the CCGT roof, facing east toward the Chicago skyline

view from the CCGT roof, facing southwest

Elliott Berger, Secretary

Many people are learning and talking about Gordon Hempton’s One Square Inch of Silence book and project at Olympic National Park. The MSAE is proud to have Elliott Berger as one of its members who also serves on the board of the One Square Inch Foundation. Visit their website to learn about the project and how you can help.

Sunrise, Hurricane Ridge, ONP

Millennium Park, Chicago

A message to American Society for Acoustic Ecology members from Michelle Nagai, Membership Coordinator/Treasurer:

Greetings Members, and Happy New Year!

The time has come to renew your membership in the American Society for Acoustic Ecology.

Our membership year coincides with the calendar year. Please follow the link below to renew your membership for 2010. Note that it’s now possible to make your membership payment via PayPal, or through the mail with a check or money order.

The membership form can be accessed here directly:http://acousticecology.org/asae/documents/ASAE_MemberForm_2010.pdf

And the PayPal link can be accessed here: http://www.acousticecology.org/asae/

For those with memberships active in 2009, you’ll be receiving a copy of Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology very soon. The current volume, edited by the Australian affiliate of the WFAE, will be mailed at the end of the month.

And there is some good news to report: In 2009 we had more members than ever before. We also welcomed our newest chapter – BASE (Bay Area Sound Ecology).  Other chapters might also be forming soon in Rhode Island and the Pacific Northwest – stay tuned!

Looking ahead, we’ll hope to be joined by some of you as we head to Finland for a symposium hosted by the Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology and the WFAE. The conference, “Ideologies and Ethics in the Uses and Abuses of Sound”, looks to be an engaging and compelling gathering of affiliates from around the globe. More details are here: http://www.joensuu.fi/soundscapes/index.html

If Finland seems a long way off, perhaps you might consider joining us in Chicago in July. The founding members of the ASAE, along with leaders from each of the existing and planned chapters, will come together for a series of meetings, workshops and public events. This is a major undertaking for our organization, and an exciting moment of opportunity as we gather (for the first time) at the national level. More details on this will be forthcoming. In the meantime, please do get in touch if you have ideas to contribute or would like to be involved in planning and organizing this event  - we want to hear from you! The contact person for this is Eric Leonardson at info@mwsae.org.

Thanks again for your ongoing support and participation in the American Society for Acoustic Ecology and the larger global community that we belong to.

All best wishes for a peaceful and sound new year.

Sincerely,
Michelle Nagai
Membership Coordinator/Treasurer
American Society for Acoustic Ecology

Mailing:
ASAE Membership
224C Harrison Lane
Princeton NJ 08540

Email:
asae.member@gmail.com