Sound Research

"When Canadian astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield was as far from home as a human can get, he used SoundCloud to share the sounds of the International Space Station and connect with everyone back on Earth."

"Silence has become a luxury in New York that only a scant few can truly afford, and cultural, technological and economic changes in recent years have added to the din everyone else must endure, creating not just one culprit, but many. "

An incredible example of what can be done with laser-cutting, Amanda Ghassaei's project "Laser Cut Record" features music inscribed directly into cut discs of maple wood, acrylic, and paper, resulting in lo-fi but playable records.

"Those of you sonically inclined might be interested in the latest weekend challenge from Marc Weidenbaum's Disquiet Junto project: "Read a map of the San Andreas Fault as if it were a graphic notation score," and then post the acoustic results to Soundcloud."

"UK artist Ryan Jordan led a workshop earlier this summer in Montréal, building musical instruments out of geological circuit boards, an experiment in terrestrial instrumentation he calls "Derelict Electronics.""

"Bernie Krause has been recording wild soundscapes -- the wind in the trees, the chirping of birds, the subtle sounds of insect larvae -- for 45 years. In that time, he has seen many environments radically altered by humans, sometimes even by practices thought to be environmentally safe. A surprising look at what we can learn through nature's symphonies, from the grunting of a sea anemone to the sad calls of a beaver in mourning. "

""The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind.""

"Music for Forgotten Places sends city residents out into their neighborhoods on a strange journey of exploration and discovery. Located at various forgotten sites are small, hand-made wooden signs, each engraved with a title and a phone number. Upon discovering this mysterious object, explorers can call the number and hear a piece of music composed especially for that place."

"Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a way to use sound waves to levitate individual droplets of solutions containing different pharmaceuticals. While the connection between levitation and drug development may not be immediately apparent, a special relationship emerges at the molecular level."

"60 medical infusion sets, water, fire, metal sheets 20 x 20 x 4 cm", 2013 medical infusion sets, water, fire, metal sheets dimensions variable Installation view: Meetfactory Prague, Czech Republic. Curated by Karina Kottová and Daniel Vlcek. Project management by Ulf Kallscheidt. Project coordination by Venuse Tesnerová. Assisted by Ulf Kallscheidt, Florian Buerki and Anna Fach. Kindly supported by Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council. Video courtesy of the artist.

"How do you go about listening to some of the quietest music ever recorded? Very carefully, writes Jeff Siegel."

Synopsis: this bitter-sweet comedy tells the story of a man who suffers from hyper-acoustic sensitivity, which makes his life in Tel Aviv, one of the noisiest urban locations on earth, a living hell. His quest to live in peace and quiet by politely asking neighbors for basic consideration, or by addressing the boisterous passing-by to re-consider the mere fact they are 'not alone in the world', or even by trying to plea to the authorities: Police and Municipality - or even worse: talking the law into his own hands: all means have proved nothing but his bitter impotency in the face of the irrepressible Israeli "noise-mania". So he decides to act. He constructs a special surveillance apparatus in order to monitor and control the invading street-neighbor-noise, and with the help of a "God-like" megaphone he takes control over the intruding street noise. His fantasy to silence also the noise within his own family life, turns co-existence with him unbearable. It doesn't take long before it becomes inevitable that he would have to pay the price.

Interactive explorarion of sound and typography and letterforms

"LISTEN, my heart takes place in a cinema-a room with no windows, a room dedicated to a magic screen. Tonight, these screens are dark, and we bring to you the sounds of the world outside. This is a cinema for the ear. "

"Developed to explore the relationship between sound and learning, our fall forum on "Sound and Pedagogy" blends the thinking of our editors (Liana Silva), recruited guests (D. Travers Scott), and one of the winners of our recent Call For Posts (Jentery Sayers) to explore how listening impacts the writing process, the teachable moment, and the syllabus (and vice versa)."

THE WORLD LISTENING PROJECT (WLP) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to understanding the world and its natural environment, societies and cultures through the practices of listening and field recording.