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"The world of "field recordings" is cinéma vérité for the ear: the sounds of natural phenomenon, occasionally from far-flung places, documenting the unreachable, the unexpected and the heretofore inaudible. Listening to these recordings of chattering animals, bustling ecosystems and roaring weather systems can be an experience that blurs the boundaries of music and chance, documentary and art, new age and noise, the real and the imaginary."

Mark Peter Wright is an artist, researcher and lecturer working at the intersection of critical theory and contemporary art. His practice explores the relationship between humans, animals, environments and their associated technologies of capture: critically and playfully generating debate through exhibitions, performance and collaborative events.

"The melodious call of many birds comes from a mysterious organ buried deep within their chests: a one-of-a-kind voice box called a syrinx. Now, scientists have concluded that this voice box evolved only once, and that it represents a rare example of a true evolutionary novelty."

"Crumpling a thin sheet produces a characteristic sound, comprised of distinct clicking sounds corresponding to buckling events. We propose a physically based algorithm that automatically synthesizes crumpling sounds for a given thin shell animation. The resulting sound is a superposition of individually synthesized clicking sounds corresponding to visually significant and insignificant buckling events. We identify visually signifi- cant buckling events on the dynamically evolving thin surface mesh, and instantiate visually insignificant buckling events via a stochastic model that seeks to mimic the power-law distribution of buckling energies observed in many materials. In either case, the synthesis of a buckling sound employs linear modal analysis of the deformed thin shell. Because different buckling events in general occur at different deformed configurations, the question arises whether the calculation of linear modes can be reused. We amortize the cost of the linear modal analysis by dynamically partitioning the mesh into nearly rigid pieces: the modal analysis of a rigidly moving piece is retained over time, and the modal analysis of the assembly is obtained via Component Mode Synthesis (CMS). We illustrate our approach through a series of examples and a perceptual user study, demonstrating the utility of the sound synthesis method in producing realistic sounds at practical computation times."

"Neuroscientists have found that there are audiovisual mirror neurons in the monkey premotor cortex that discharge when the animal performs, sees, or hears a specific action. Scientists of human motion have shown that auditory stimuli are important in the performance of difficult tasks and can, for example, elicit anticipatory postural adjustments in athletes."

"A modern-day zen garden opened this past Friday, October 1st, at the Fort York Historic Site in Toronto, Canada. Contemporary artist Krista Kim brings her vision of wellness to the world via CONTINUUM: a meditative 20-minute generated animation aimed at improving mental health through active self-care participation. "

"Wild Concordanse is this sensitive dialogue that dances between the animal and plant worlds. Lulled by the delicate curves of a perpetually moving nature, the exhibition is lived and revealed, in harmony, through the universe of two women artists, Karine Bonneval and Sarah Battaglia."

"The dream of creating a visual music comparable to auditory music found its fulfillment in animated abstract films by artists such as Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye and Norman McLaren; but long before them, many people built instruments, usually called "color organs," that would display modulated colored light in some kind of fluid fashion comparable to music."

"Thought to be lost for years, this playful film combines abstract geometry and textures to create a visible soundtrack, and even features the fingerprints of the director himself."

"Classical music has been shown to reduce stress in kennelled dogs; however, rapid habituation of dogs to this form of auditory enrichment has also been demonstrated. "

"Scientists have recently made some remarkable discoveries about non-human sounds. With the aid of digital bioacoustics - tiny, portable digital recorders similar to those found in your smartphone - researchers are documenting the universal importance of sound to life on Earth. By placing these digital microphones all over Earth, from the depths of the ocean to the Arctic and the Amazon, scientists are discovering the hidden sounds of nature, many of which occur at ultrasonic or infrasonic frequencies, above or below human hearing range. Non-humans are in continuous conversation, much of which the naked human ear cannot hear. But digital bioacoustics helps us hear these sounds, by functioning as a planetary-scale hearing aid and enabling humans to record nature's sounds beyond the limits of our sensory capacities. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers are now decoding complex communication in other species."

"Andante" was created by MIT's Tangible Media Group as a way to promote an understanding of the way that music is rooted in the body, an experience that transcends more than just the ears. The group, led by Professor Hiroshi Ishii, gives physical form to abstract digital information, providing delightful visuals to more complicated processes."

"Acoustic communication is crucial to humans and many other tetrapods, including birds, frogs, crocodilians, and mammals. However, large-scale patterns in its evolution are largely unstudied. Here, we address several fundamental questions about the origins of acoustic communication in terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods), using phylogenetic methods."

"Experiment let the primates choose what they wanted to hear, with rumbling vehicles thought to mimic elements of their own communications"

"In the late 1970s, a harbor seal named Hoover began catcalling passersby at the New England Aquarium in a thick Maine accent. A new study confirms seals' uncanny ability to copy human speech."

"Marie Caye is a French design researcher, experience designer and artist who's currently studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. For one of her latest projects, the Pigstrument, she's researching what the possible musical culture of pigs could be."

"The mating call of the Brazilian white bellbird (Procnias albus) is now officially the loudest birdsong on record: averaging out at a peak of 125.4 decibels, it beats out rock concerts and chainsaws, and is way beyond the level (85 db) considered safe for human ears."

"Researchers attempting to document the sounds made by giraffes recorded almost 1,000 hours of audio at three different European zoos, even leaving their recording equipment in the enclosures at night. And there, near the edge of human hearing, the researchers picked up the unusual low sounds giraffes make at night -- the mysterious hum. "

"After translating the slithering, sliding ways snakes move into robots for more than a decade, Hatton became fascinated by how spiders use silk to swing, make safety lines and interpret vibrations in their webs."

"Microphones capture ultrasonic crackles from plants that are water-deprived or injured."