Claude Schryer

Conscient Podcast: e145 bear – what do you think about grieving our dying planet and sitting with this sadness?


when I got up on September 25th 2023, while searching for my glasses in the dark, I touched a little mechanical bear


(bell and breath)

Vancouver, September 25, 2023. 

You can hear the city in the background as I record this. 

When I got up this morning, searching for my glasses, I touched this little mechanical bear…

(Cranking up and unwinding of windup toy)

It startled me a bit but it was also enchanting and surprising in a good way. I enjoyed listening to it come to a halt.

That morning I was thinking about something  I published on my website on September 20th. I’ll read it to you.

On September 20 2023, I decided to step back from being ‘me’, in the sense of letting go of old habits and patterns and adopting other new ways of being and living. This being said, I will continue to respond to invitations when my presence is useful. 

What do you think about that, little bear? 

(Winding up and release of wind up toy)

Now this statement reminded me of traps of how I fall into tarps all the time and maybe you do too?

Episode 111 of this season presented two traps and I’ll play back excerpts from that episode to you now. The first trap is essentially wanting the world to stop and get off. Stop the world I want to get off.

Observer: I notice that you’ve fallen into a trap called ‘exit fixation’ which is where people feel a strong urge to walk out on an existing commitment. For example, when someone realises that the path they are on is full of paradoxes, contradictions, and complicities. Often their first response is to find an immediate exit in hopes of a more fulfilling and/or more innocent alternative or maybe even  an ideal community with whom to continue this work. 

Me: Like an escape?

Observer: Ya, something like that

The second trap is about wanting to erase the past and to find some kind of spiritual haven, which, of course, is an illusion : 

Observer: It’s called spiritual bypassing and it happens when spiritual ideas or practices are used to sidestep, avoid, or escape sitting with analyses of historical and systemic violence and the difficulties of one’s complicity in historic and systemic harm. Do you know what I mean? 

Me: Yes I think I do but I don’t think I do this.

Observer: (interrupting) maybe not consciously but spiritual bypassing often manifests itself alongside with cultural appropriation which is something you think about every time you record a soundscape with that microphone of yours, right?  

Me: I see what you mean. You’re quite a good observer. 

Observer:  thank you but right back at you. Think of me as a guardian angel.

Me: Or the devil… 

Observer: Whatever (laughter) Now one of the dangers with spiritual bypassing is to project interpretations of ‘oneness’ that erase the realities of historical and systemic inequalities, and interpretations of ‘Enlightenment’ that tend to reinforce exceptionalism and you tend to do that…

Me: Yes, sure, I do, but it’s all part of being an artist.. 

Observer: (interrupting) True but that does not necessarily make it right, does it? Something to think about…

Me: (interrupting) That’s a lot to think about, to learn and unlearn.

What do you think of that, little bear?

(Winding up and release of wind up toy)

Do you think it’s ok to lose one’s mind in a mad world?

Do you think it’s ok to embrace failure as a path towards learning and unlearning?

What do you think about grieving our dying planet and sitting with this sadness?

(Winding up and release of wind up toy)

*

Written spontaneously on September 25th 2023 in Vancouver, this episode brought me comfort. Maybe it will bring you comfort as well?

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the reseed podcast.

The post e145 bear – what do you think about grieving our dying planet and sitting with this sadness? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e145-bear-what-do-you-think-about-grieving-our-dying-planet-and-sitting-with-this-sadness/

Conscient Podcast: e144 drifting : can you go with the flow?

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français


while drifting on a river in a kayak i listened


(bell and breath)

(kayak drifting on a river)

*

CREDIT

One of my ‘happy places’ in life is drifting down a river on a kayak. It’s an opportunity to slow down and regenerate with earthly elements. To let go and be carried away. This recording was made on July 13, 2023 on the Preston River in Duhamel, Québec.

This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull 28 days of programming from September 7 to October 4 2023 showcasing local artistic practices. 

With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to canadaland.

The post e144 drifting : can you go with the flow? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e144-drifting-can-you-go-with-the-flow/

Conscient Podcast: e143 defeatism – what are not ready to see?

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français


I felt defeated by the ecological crisis, and by myself, so I created an episode about defeatism hoping to defeat my defeatism


TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

(bell and voice)

Note: [ ] = filtered voice

I got up this morning feeling defeated. 

[ I got up this morning feeling…]

You might know this feeling of … powerlessness. 

[This feeling of…]

You know, producing more podcast episodes, like this one, exploring art and the ecological crisis. It does seem rather… pointless.

[Producing more podcasts… ]

I sometimes feel like the best thing I can do for our troubled world is to be quiet and do no harm.… 

[To be quiet and do no harm]

Rebecca Solnit, We can’t afford to be climate doomers (female voice) :

Some days I think that if we lose the climate battle, it’ll be due in no small part to this defeatism among the comfortable in the global north, while people in frontline communities continue to fight like hell for survival. Which is why fighting defeatism is also climate work.

[Which is why]

Am I one of those comfortable people in the global north struggling with defeatism? 

[am I a… defeatist? ]

Yes. I am. I produce this weekly podcast in safe, luxurious conditions while the majority world fights like hell for survival. While the majority world suffers like hell the consequences of my generation’s excess. 

[the majority world fights like hell …]

I’m a hypocrite. I’m complicit. My work is pretentious and …

[I’m a defeatist]

So, what does defeatism sound like anyway?

Well, it probably sounds like this. A privileged male voice talking about his feelings about defeatism.

[ what does defeatist sound like? ]

Britt Wray, Generation Dread (female voice)

Some people believe that it is already too late to prevent societal collapse. They speak about the “earth as hospice,” and suggest we use what time we have left to summon the courage to face the music, as the ship we’re all on sinks.’ …

[facing the music, as the ship we’re all on…]

In my August conscient blog I wrote that : 

I see no point shuffling the deck chairs. We have already hit the metaphoric iceberg and the good ship modernity is sinking. 

So, where do we go from here?  

How does one defeat defeatism? 

[where do we go from here? ]

In the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Moving with Storms report I was reminded of the seven steps forward and-or aside, in particular this teaching about honesty and courage to see what you don’t want to see:

Commit to expanding your capacity to sit with what is real, difficult, and painful, within and around you. In what ways are your projections, idealizations, expectations, hopes, fears, and fragilities preventing you from approaching aspects of the Climate and Nature Emergency that are unpleasant for you and/or that challenge your sense of reality and/or self-image? What are you not willing or ready to see and how does this unwillingness impair your ability to respond to the Climate and Nature Emergency ?

[ What are you not ready to see? ]

*

CREDITS

Warm thanks to Kelly Langgard for lending me her voice to read the Rebecca Solnit and Britt Wray quotes (Kelly’s voice is also featured in e142 consent). Thanks to Rebecca and Britt for use of their words and to the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective for use of an excerpt from the Moving with Storms report. 

This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull.

With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to Post Carbon Institute.

The post e143 defeatism – what are not ready to see? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e143-defeatism-what-are-not-ready-to-see/

Conscient Podcast: e142 consent – do keep listening

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français


i asked a forest for permission to record it and got a response from a tree


TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE

(bell and breath) 

(Wind in forest soundscape)

Today’s episode is a fictional conversation between a tree and myself. It came to me while I was doing a consent and reciprocity exercise in a forest… like this one.

(Recited slowly and thoughtfully) 

Me (M): Forest, are you ok if I record  you today for my podcast?

Female voice (F): It’s nice of you to ask. 

(silence)

F: What’s a podcast? 

M: Ah, well, they’re stories told through recorded sound that humans listen to. 

F Hum. We communicate through our mycorrhizal networks and symbiotic relationships with other living beings. For example, we regularly exchange nutrients through fungal mycelium. What kind of story do you want to tell your community? 

M: I’m preparing an episode about listening to life in a forest – in this forest – and I wanted to ask for your consent before recording these sounds and sharing them. 

F: ok. Everyone is welcome to visit our home, as long as they are respectful and do no harm.

M: Thank you. I would also like to make a gesture of reciprocity to the forest, like an offering of food or maybe a song.

(Silence)

F: or maybe leaving us alone? But good food and song are always welcome.

f: Where did you learn about consent and reciprocity?

M I learned it from a course I took at UBC called facing human wrongs. One of the exercises during this course was to make contact with the land before entering and asking for safe passage…

F: What do you mean by safe passage? Safe passage for whom? 

M: Right. Let me explain. We learned that there are some human communities who still understand that there is no dualistic distinction between objects and subjects, or humans and nature. 

The rivers, the mountains, the trees, the other animals and, you know, the forests themselves are experienced as conscious entities who were much older relatives and who, like human beings, required engagements based on trust, respect, consent, reciprocity and accountability.

F: I can relate to that: trust, respect, consent, reciprocity and accountability. These are part of some of our system of values of forests but there is so many humans don’t know about trees and forests, our culture and our relations.

M: We also learned that asking permission and making an offering of reciprocity was a way of entering into a relational experience between living beings, as opposed to, say, consuming an object, owning a property or enjoying a benefit. 

F: and… how can I say this… how do you think that you can enter into a relational experience with a forest simply by asking permission?

(silence) 

M: Well, to be honest, I don’t know.

F I agree, human, that you don’t know, at least, you don’t know yet, but maybe you will one day?

F: Do keep listening and thanks for the visit. 

*

CREDITS

This is my second attempt at a two person play (the other is e111 traps). With thanks to Kelly Langgard for playing the role of tree and helping me give it shape. Thanks also for editing advice from Sabrina Mathews, Azul Carolina Duque and Flora Aldridge.

This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull 28 days of programming from September 7 to October 4 2023 showcasing local artistic practices. 

With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to Toronto Arts Foundation

The post e142 consent – do keep listening appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e142-consent-do-keep-listening/

Conscientious Podcast: e141 filature – what does gatineau sound like?

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE (this episode is a mix of English and French, below is the complete English version)

(bell and breath)

Claude (C ): Steven Morin, I invite you to take a sound walk with me. 

Steve (S): Excellent. Shall we? 

C: So you’re a local councillor here? 

S: Yes. From Hull-Wright.

C: Me, I’m an artist in residence here at DAIMON then I create works for the radio-hull 2023. Then I decided to take a walk with a friend, you, in French and English. The idea of a sound walk is to pay attention to all the details. For example, our feet are making a rather soft sound at the moment. It just rained here in Gatineau. You can feel all the details of life through sound.

Claude: And it’s going to be a bilingual conversation because Gatineau is multilingual and I’m bilingual. In fact, my family, my grandfather lived in Hull at the time. So there are lots of stories that we can tell. 

C: I’d start with what you’re hearing right now, Steven. 

S: I can hear the leaves in the poplar over there. You hear construction because you always hear construction in the city center. I hear birds. I think it was a chickadee. I hear the wind. I hear the wind by itself, I think. I hear the wind in the leaves. I hear the highway and then Montcalm. Someone with a chainsaw, it sounds like. 

C: So that’s the idea. But what’s interesting about the sound walk is that you can also interact with the soundscape. So you listen to it, you perceive it, you’re sensitive to… for example, the car that’s just gone by. You can perceive all sorts of things with sound. For example, there are bustards ahead. We’ll see if they make a sound. We’re so used to seeing that our sense of hearing is sometimes a little less developed, so a sound walk is a way of sharpening our… 

S: With geese, you can hear them in the sky, but you don’t think about them as much when they’re on the ground. 

C: For example, the building here is interesting. The spinning mill was an old factory, the Hanson I forget the name of.

S: Hanson Mills. Socks, among other things? Yes, among other things. 

C: Then it was converted into an artist center in the ’80s and now it’s AxeNéo7 and Daimon. I find it interesting that there’s a cultural center in a former industrial site, that it’s a way of giving new life to the building and the neighborhood.  

(soundscape of children playing)

S: Ruisseau de la Brasserie was really the center of a whole industrial environment. It was the beating heart of Gatineau industry. The axes were made right there. The distillery was right there and a lot of things happened on the creek. So, when we think of industry and culture, when we talk about places, obviously it’s often post-industrial spaces that aren’t necessarily suitable for housing, so we use them to make cultural spaces. The spinning mill was a perfect example. 

(urban soundscape)

S: But it’s clear that in this place, if there was an era. I try to imagine it, and then I hear it in my head: the hammers, the big machines, the saws, and so on. That’s not the case anymore. I mean, there’s no heavy industry of that kind here. The sounds would be completely different. It’s fascinating to imagine what it would have been like back then. Also, you have to remember, just before World War II, there was a big homelessness crisis of what we called the homeless at the time, who were here, who were centered on the West Side. So there would even have been camps. Are those industrial sounds? But it would have been families left in poverty, in this industrial system that left them behind. It would also have been a family place. But not in the same way as now. 

(soundscape of children playing)

C: When I came here earlier, there were a lot of children playing with their bikes. I did some sound recording, and for me it’s also a discovery, because I don’t know Gatineau very well. I’m an artist from Ottawa who comes here to listen… and to take part in Radio-Hull. And I find it really interesting to get caught up in Gatineau’s atmosphere, culture and spaces.

(sound of foot on the road)

C: But speaking of sound, that’s a nice one. Yeah. Tell me what just happened here.

S: Cars going through puddles, everybody knows that sound.  So typical of after the rain. Yeah. Yeah. But also, I mean, it’s asphalt. It wouldn’t be the same if this were, you know, mud. It wouldn’t be the same if this were grass. A car going through puddles definitely has to do with asphalt. And we forget to think… I always think it’s interesting to keep in mind what was here before we built cities and what were the sounds that were possible then it’s I mean, I don’t think about just sounds, I think about all the spaces, the trees. Of course the sounds come with that. How would this place have been different? It would’ve been totally forested. So you would’ve had a different perspective on everything. It would’ve sounded very different. The sounds of a forest, you know, it would’ve almost certainly been a maple forest. So what were the sounds of that, right?

C: Well, right now we’re above what kind of tree this is, but it’s not the poplars from earlier. It’s a more gentle leaf.

S: This is a Manitoba maple. A really big one, surprisingly.

C: Now on my way here this morning, I was playing with this sound.

(sound of gate)

S: Another sound everybody knows.

C: But this, this is so rich. And it’s a gate. And we’re gonna go through this gate and back to la filature…

S: This makes me think it’s school: The sound of school. Absolutely. I mean, ’cause I never worked in a factory, but I think people worked in factories, that’s the sound of the factory closing all those probably more of a sound of beep as you slide it rather than closing like that. But that for me is the sound of school. Every school has a fence like this. Right. The click click and the,

C: Is it cool in a good way or a bad way or just whatever, right?

S: I love school, I’m a parent, but I love school. When as a kid maybe I would’ve had a different idea of it.

C: You see as an artist, to me, this is a very interesting sound that I would play with, right? I would say, okay, this is a barrier. So what is the notion of what is, who’s being left out? What, what, what’s being protected? The sort of conceptual side, but then just the sound itself and it’s, it’s the richness of, of the shaking and, uh, sort of, it’s really interesting artistic material.

S: And funny, this is obviously metal, but I don’t think you can hear the metal. Yeah, you can hear the metal in the after shake, but during the, this sound isn’t necessarily clearly metallic. 

C: Alright, Steven, let’s continue. What I’m going to do with this sound walk, this is a special way of doing the sound walk, is I’m going to insert sounds and do a little bit of composition with it so that your, interventions will bewith closeups of the sounds, which is a, a fun way to play with the notion of a space because that’s what artists do is, is interpret and be playful with aesthetic experiences so that audiences can have different sensations and different ways of, in this case, listening to…

(sound of a cart passing by)

C: What do you hear? 

S: I hear a plane

C: So it’s going to pass over us. stereophony to pick it up. 

S: It’s obviously something specific. In this part of Hall, there’s a certain height that planes are at because they’re landing or departing from the Ottawa airport. That’s one thing we hear. The other thing we hear is ‘biplanes’, often small fun planes, coming out of the Gatineau airport. They’re lower, but a different sound comes with them. But it’s still a very specific pitch.

C: Interesting. You’re good. You pay attention to the details, because it makes a difference to know where a sound comes from, at what height is it clearer if there are clouds or not? It’s all really important and interesting details, I think. So I promised at the start of our walk that I’d tell you a little story. My father, Maurice, who has sadly passed away… His father’s name was Maurice and I remember we used to come here to Hull on Roy Avenue, which isn’t far from here. I have a childhood memory of a fire, a wood-burning stove, because in those days, most people heated their homes by wood-burning stoves. Good morning, sir. 

S: Can I hear the fridge? Very typical of a convenience store. 

C: Is it? How’s that? 

S: Listen? Do you know that sound? Are you in a convenience store, sir? 

C: Can we come in? Okay, this fridge here. Wow. Hi, I’m just taking a sound clip for a sound walk. 

S: He’s just taking a sound clip. OK?

C: Want to record the fridge. 

Convenience store owner: Go ahead.

C: Cheers. Tell me more Steven. 

S: You hear the fan that is very typical of the fridge. Low ceilings. The small areas, it’s very typical. I love depanneur. It’s something that we take for granted. 

Owner: For Youtube? 

C: It’s for a radio station.

Owner: Ah, radio station 106.5 ok cool. Thank you.

C: You’re welcome…  

S: I think we need to think about the role of the convenience store as a community center. Convenience stores are an endangered species. I used to live in Montreal, but that’s the case in Hull too. Convenience stores have played and will continue to play a central role. It’s what they call the third place, where people gather because there’s something to do, they talk to each other, they recognize each other, they see each other. These are becoming very important community places, especially with the shrinking of public space and state-owned spaces. These third-place spaces are super important. I think we need to think hard about the role of convenience stores. 

C: And the sound of convenience stores. 

S: That’s part of it. You know, the smell you get in there. The vision, it’s an addiction. It’s a convenience store. Everybody knows it. When you walk in, but a very typical sound. You know, the ‘sloche’ machine has its noise. It’s a refrigerator, it makes a noise. There’s always the crooked lights that make noise. All the cash coming through the counter, it makes a noise. A sound. 

C: Steven, it’s fascinating. I’m so glad we were able to discover this. There’s another sound phenomenon that happens here, and that’s dogs. 

S: Hello, hello. Hello. 

C: The little dogs make a particularly high-pitched sound and when there are three of them like that together. I call it an interesting sonic presence. 

S: I’d say so. You can also hear the noise of the machines, the buildings around. I don’t know if I can hear them, I don’t think it’s air conditioners or heating, but you can hear this background noise that’s really ‘white noise’. I think we still need to think about sound and noise pollution, because we’re in a poor neighborhood next door. The sounds would be very different. In my opinion, there’s always something to be said for that. When you think about the city, you always have to think about that. 

(cricket sound)

 C: Well, we’ll be back. We’ve done a bit of a tour of the building. The spinning mill, which is spinning, I think it has to do with thread and mending and all that. We’re going to go into the building for a moment, and then we’ll finish with a sound sculpture that’s on site, here in front of the Daimon Artist Center. 

C: Hello Philippe, you know, part of the Radio Hall team, so I’ve been very well received here… so inside, here, it’s just to feel the difference between the outside and inside space. So, what do you hear here inside? 

S: It’s silent. It’s more than silence. It’s what we call it. We stop the noise. Everything is organized to stop the noise.  Very typical inside buildings. We’re going to lower the noise, so the walls, it’s as if they’re eating the noise. You hear people talking, playing with wires, someone like that, pieces of metal, which is still someone talking. A telephone, I think. There’s a noise. It’s the sound of light. 

C: Then there’s a fan over there that makes a little sound here. Yeah, that’s it. S: That’s what I was hearing. You can hear people.

C:. the contrast between an indoor and an outdoor space, something that’s really interesting, something that happens to us every day and that we don’t pay much attention to. But it’s a really nice experience to just stay inside. Outside. 

(silence)

C: There’s a sculpture in front of the building here by a Montreal artist. I’ll find out his name. 

S: There isn’t. There isn’t a little sign. 

C: It’s Adam Basanta. It’s called Triad. Then I’m going to put my mic on like this. I invite you to listen. 

S: Super interesting experiment. And if you do two different ends. 

C: I can tell you about it. 

S: Sounds like different frequencies. But tell me about this one. 

S: You want me to tell you about here? That’s interesting. Yes. Wow! 

C: Let’s sit here and try it out. I’ll go to the other end. Go ahead. 

S: Hi Yes, you can hear me. It’s a fascinating noise in here, but there’s actually something in this pipe here. I imagine it changes the sound slightly. It’s fascinating the interplay of frequency and length. There’s a mathematical game going on here, which we ignore or listen to, because it’s so natural. But length changes frequency. 

C: Well, we’ll stop here, since there’s a work of art that has helped us listen more closely to the space here. Thank you for the sound walk. It’s going to play, obviously. a Radio-hull 2023, but also on my conscious podcast because it’s part of the series I’m exploring, on the sounds of modernity. So we talked about all that this morning. Thank you very much Steven Moran. 

S: It’s always a pleasure to talk about Hull, and then it’s fun to see too. 

C: See you soon. Thank you, Steven.

*

Recorded at La Filature, Gatineau, August 30, 2023. Warm thanks to Steven Moran for his collaboration. 

This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull 28 days of programming from September 7 to October 4 2023 showcasing local artistic practices. 

With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Canadian Red Cross.

The post e141 filature – what does gatineau sound like? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e141-filature-what-does-gatineau-sound-like/

special edition : ‘unlearning through sound’ – my presentation to 2023 FKL ‘sound sustainability’ conference

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français

Note: This blog is an informal ‘script’ for a paper I gave on October 6, 2023 about my ‘Sounding Modernity’ project to the XI International Symposium on Soundscape, organized by the FKL-Forum Klanglandschaft in Lugano, Switzerland.

Note: Below is a recording of my delivery of the paper. I ended up deviating quite a bit from my script! I also answered a question about representation/diversity at conferences and whether listening was enough to address complex ecological issues.

Good morning

I’m speaking to you from the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations otherwise known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I’m happy to be present a paper today through Skype at this important gathering of acoustic ecologists from around the world. Some of you might recall that I had the pleasure of speaking to you from this same room two years ago about radical listening as climate action

So thanks to Stefano Zorzanello and the production entire team there for this opportunity to talk about a passion of mine, sound and sustainability, or as I like to call it these days ‘sound and the end of the world as we know it’.

Je vais vous parler en anglais mais si vous avez des questions en français à la fin il me fera plaisir d’y répondre. 

I was excited to submit a proposal to this conference because it explores how to ‘initiate an interdisciplinary dialogue that examines the use of the acoustic paradigm, eventual or current, in the times and places we are living in, with the idea of a sustainable present and future in mind.’

There is a lot to unpack here with this statement.

  • What is meant by sustainability here?
  • Does it imply continuing life within the assumptions of modernity or is a sustainability a radical new way of life?
  • And from what perspective are we listening?
  • How can listening help us prepare for a catastrophic future? 

I submitted my proposal a category called ‘Storytelling with sound : the language of media and audio-based narration’ which invites us to think about ‘what specificity does sound have in these narrations and which models can contribute to developing ethical forms of storytelling?’

These are very exciting questions for a soundscape composer and podcaster like me, who sometimes feels isolated doing this work. So, thanks for listening today and hopefully we can continue the conversation afterwards. 

The fourth season of the conscient podcast began on January 1 of this year, is called ‘Sounding Modernity’ and explores what modernity sounds like, how it affects us and how to ‘create the conditions for other possible worlds to emerge in the wake of what is dying’.

And this concept of ‘possible worlds to emerge in the wake of what is dying’ came to me from article by the same name by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, a group of scholars and researchers led by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, who is author of Hospicing Modernity, which is a book I strongly recommend. Vanessa and her colleagues work on decolonization work has had a very strongly influenced my life and I’m grateful for this wisdom. 

It’s also interesting to note that the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective was formed here in Vancouver, which, as many of you know, is also the home of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University so it’s interesting for me to see how Murray Schafer’s theory about the soundscape and all those assumptions, is now being reconsidered in the context of decolonization and emergency preparedness in a province that is suffering from massive fires and floods like many other places in the world. 

So, what I’ll do today is walk you through some examples of my ‘Sounding Modernity’ project today with a focus on what I have unlearned in the process. 

I’ll speak for a few minutes and then I’ll invite you for questions and comments. I look forward to this exchange because one of the objectives of the Sounding Modernity project is to stimulate conversations with listeners about their experience with modernity and what we can to address complex issues that we face

But first let me clarify what I mean by modernity? 

I don’t mean modernist art or modernism as a style of art. What I mean the modern era based on extractive capitalism, overconsumption, endless growth, systemic racism, white supremacy, separation from nature, and so on. I’m interested in both a critique of modernity’ such as the lifestyles, structures, sites, beings, creatures, habits around us but also on how to leave the worse aspect of modernity behind us. 

And one of things learned from my colleagues at the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collectives is to walk a tightrope  between naive hope and desperate hopelessness, with honesty, humility, humor and hyper-self-reflexivity. And the humour part, in particular, is difficult because of the gravity of the issues we face – it’s easy to become demoralized – but it is critical to have the energy to face the truth and get on with the hard work of changing our ways. 

And I’ll give you an example of changing our ways. I’ll read you a statement I include at the end of each podcast episode notes :

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

So this accountability is why I did not fly to be with you this week in Switzerland. This is also why I donate funds with each episode a ‘gesture of reciprocity’ for those in need. I also try to recycle technology, use green energy, etc. 

So let’s start with the first episode which I published on January 1, 2023 called e101 tension – how do you feel now? I’ll play you the YouTube version. It takes 5 minutes.

How do I feel now? Well thanks for asking. I feel pretty nervous doing this presentation alone in Vancouver but after that episode I do feel a bit less tense. So, this is the first of 52 episodes. 

I also wrote monthly blogs about my learnings and unlearnings from this project. For example, here is an excerpt from my February blog from a colleague who took a course called Facing Human Wrongs with me:

Episode 1 (e101) was a great start and stirring for me. I wanted it to last longer (even though my answer to your question was that I felt restless and annoyed). The gift of silence and breathing throughout and especially towards the end are so much appreciated. I am curious if these silences appear in the middle, how much are we conditioned not to trust the silence/devices and to sway towards checking our phones/devices to see whether the soundtrack stopped or is still playing. This can be an episode by itself.

I published a new episode every week, exploring a different issue or sound every time and asking a question at the end of each episode, for example:

  • e102 aesthetics asks how can we ‘de-modernize’ art? 
  • e103 heat asks what does decarbonization sound like to you? 
  • e104 time asks what does a very small moment in a much larger space sound like?

And so on. Some use raw field recording while others are soundscape compositions, some are radio plays, some are interviews, some are comments on quotes or a mix of all these styles. Every week I had a blank slate in front of me and a Sunday midnight deadline, so it was fun to get them done and not look back. 

I promised at the outset that each episode would be only 5 minutes, with a French and English version and I kept this promise until … well, e112 listening – how can listening help? which is selection of quotes from my learning and unlearning journey that I presented as my keynote speech at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology ‘Listening Pasts – Listening Futures’ conference on March 24, 2023 in Florida. Let’s listen to the beginning of the YouTube version:

I came up with 5 conclusions in this episode:

  1. face reality and learn how to unlearn
  2. develop and implement a radical theory of change through the arts
  3. transition out of modernity
  4. change the story
  5. connect our efforts

After that 12 minute program I went back to 5 minutes episodes that explored a wide range of questions, includingwhat are the privileges in your life?  what does ecological loss sound like where you live? where does your shit go? And so on.

I was fortunate to receive many interesting responses, including one on March 20th, 2023 from composer Hildegard Westerkamp about her experience with e111 traps – what are the traps in your life? which is a fictional conversation between myself and an observer of me about some of the trappings of modernity. Here is what Hildi said from my April conscient blog

Proselytizing certainly is one of my traps as well, spiritual bypassing the way your Observer defines it, is probably also one (although I do not do much field recording anymore). Other traps are hanging on to old patterns – they give the illusion of stability – or having expectations even when my mind thinks that I have let go of them, suddenly one is confronted with even subtler, hardly noticeable ones. That’s why, always returning to a practice of listening, can help to recognize the traps at least, perhaps even eliminate them.

I replied to Hildi that:

Spiritual bypassing is a tough because we think that these are ‘good things’ but it all depends on the point of view. I have found that gentle but deep self-reflexivity is helpful. Some old patterns also are good to let go of, leaving place and space for other places and spaces, but some are worth keeping… Traps, however, abound. Noticing them is the first step.

Skipping ahead now. At the midpoint in the project, I created a 57-minute summary of the first 26 episodes called e127 halfway – towards what are you halfway? which was intended to be broadcast on framework radio in Estonia.

One of my favorite quotes in this episode is from a listener who on May 16th wrote to me that :

So grateful to have been able to listen and stay close to your work. It’s wonderful to witness, feel and sense into the different layers and movements over the course of the episode and throughout the arc of the season so far. It’s almost as if the story of Sounding Modernity is being stitched by the sounds, walks and episodes and shapeshifting it into this surprising creature (sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes visible, sometimes fictional…). I wonder how else the story of Sounding Modernity will further weave itself (both in/out of control) as you continue to loosen even more of your grips on it, slowly and gently. I like how humor mixes with pain and poetry mixes with interviews, and ocean mixes with toilet shitty waters. The playful and surprising diversity is fun. It’s even clear that you are both struggling and having so much fun, which adds honesty and trust in wanting to go with you on the inquiry. As you approach the middle of your journey, what might be needed at this time to invite further and what might be ready to be released into new soils? May more sounds reveal/be revealed.

Not surprisingly, many more sounds did reveal themselves over the summer and into the fall. Here is what I responded to this listener’s comment:

Your point about how Sounding Modernity might unfold in/out of control is a good one as I approach the midpoint in the project on July 1. I’m coming to terms with its failings, surprises and unanticipated unlearnings. The isolation in particular has been bewildering.  I think I have already ‘lost my grip on it’, in a good way. I have essentially given up on it being a ‘exploration of the sounds of modernity’ – which was quite pretentious anyway – but rather, as you suggest, has become a portrait of my struggles and discoveries through the sounds of modernity. 

One of the most impactful episodes for me was e128 revisited – what does decolonized listening sound like to you’? Let me tell you the story. 

On June 23, 2023 I had the pleasure, and the privilege, of attending ‘Listening to Lhq’a:lets’ otherwise known as the city of Vancouver, at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Learning at the University of British Columbia.

A group of artists, all women, spoke about their week-long residency, organized by indigenous sound scholar and UBC professor Dr. Dylan Robinson. They shared a wide range of sensory engagements through listening to Lhq’a:lets: how our bodies listen through the haptics of vibration, about  hearing and feeling the voices of our non-human relations, about how we can perceive the built environment with new perspectives – the air, waterways and earth that surround us. 

They spoke about their encounters with the trans-mountain pipeline, their dialogues with animals and birds, their encounters with haunting vibrations and their thoughts about the past, present and future sounds of this region. 

What they did not talk about was themselves, their accomplishments or the type of technology they used to extract and manipulate the sounds. None of that. There was also no reverence for say R. Murray Schafer or the World Soundscape Project, nor any nostalgia about the good old days when, say, the term ‘soundscape’ was invented. There was no disrespect either. They were listening from a different position. 

So I heard stories, poems, anecdotes, images, silences and prophecies… It was uplifting. 

This is a good example of an unlearning moment. I let go of my old listening habits and experienced a new way of listening.

So, to conclude, it’s October 6th, 2023 today and I have 12 more episode to publish. Last week’s episode is called e140 saturation and asks you, ‘how can we tap into our boundless streams of love, connection and meaning?’ I suggest we listen to the beginning: 

(bell and breath)

(sound of two climate shows at once then fade out)

I was talking with a colleague recently about how few people listen to ‘end of the world as we know it’ podcasts, such as this one.

And I think it’s because they’re so … fucking, depressing and grim. We are constantly reminded how awful things are and how much more awful they will become, with no credible way out. 

Saturated

I used to think that art could help us with these entangled crises but I’m starting to think the role of art is more about the relationship between consolation and hope as my friend and colleague Azul Caroline Duque suggests. 

Consolation and hope. 

The last episode of this project will be broadcast on December 31, 2023 is called full circle. It asks you ‘how can we support those who are frightened by the ecological crisis and in need of a calm presence?’

I want to thank all the voices, human and non-human, that I have recorded during this project. I also want to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, whose funds helped me pay my collaborators and work in good conditions. 

Voila. Sonder la modernité. Sounding Modernity. 

Do you have any questions or comments?

The post special edition : ‘unlearning through sound’ – my presentation to 2023 FKL ‘sound sustainability’ conference appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/special-edition-unlearning-through-sound-my-presentation-to-2023-fkl-sound-sustainability-conference/

Conscient Podcast: e140 saturation – how can we tap into our boundless streams of love, connection and meaning?

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français

my response to a colleague’s concern about feeling saturated by the omni presence of eco-awareness information

TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE

(bell and breath)

(sound of two climate shows at once then fade out)

I was talking with a colleague recently about how few people listen to ‘end of the world as we know it’ podcasts, such as this one.

And I think it’s because they’re so … fucking, depressing and grim. We are constantly reminded how awful things are and how much more awful they will become, with no credible way out. 

Saturated

I used to think that art could help us with these entangled crises but I’m starting to think the role of art is more about the relationship between consolation and hope as my friend and colleague Azul Caroline Duque suggests. 

Consolation and hope. 

So it’s no wonder that we are:

Saturated

I also understand the impulse to become enraged as Joan Sullivan tells us in e106 fire – what can we do about our collective indifference? :

We’re just carrying on with our lives as if you know, la la la and nothing, nothing bad is happening. So there was this sense of rage. I mean, like, honestly, it’s surprising how strong it’d be in a violent rage just sort of coming outta me. I wanted to scream… 

Saturation

So how do we channel our apathy and our rage?

Dr. Jennifer Atkinson’s Facing It podcast talks about the

emotional burden of climate change and why despair leaves so many people unable to respond to our existential threat’.

Do you feel unable to respond to existential threats?

Dr Atkinson reminds us that

our future remains unwritten, and by embracing the unknown we are better able to reframe our thinking in empowering ways’.

She explains that :

‘the so-called negative feelings that arise in response to ecological disruption (grief, anxiety, anger) can be seen as signs of emotional health, while ‘undesirable’ states, like uncertainty, are potential doorways to transformation. Climate anxiety might even be seen as a kind of superpower.’

Saturation

In Generation Dread, Dr. Britt Wray reminds us that the age of eco-anxiety is upon us and that the afterglow of climate disasters radiate psychiatric trauma throughout the globe. 

She also notes that

‘on the flip side, the tumultuous feel­ings that are on the rise are completely valid, need tending to, and present a great opportunity for justice-oriented personal, environ­mental, and social transformation.‘

So where do we go from here? 

How do we address our feelings of…

Saturation

Dr Wray also suggests that

the positive in all this is that the torment comes bearing gifts. If you explore its depths, you’ll find a valve somewhere inside you that taps into the most existential part of yourself. Once you open it, a boundless stream of love, connection, and meaning will always be at your back, fuelling what you do.’

Once you open it a boundless stream of love, connection, and meaning will always be at your back, fuelling what you do.

(sound of two climate shows at once then fade out)

How can we tap into our boundless streams of love, connection and meaning ?

Saturation

*

CREDITS

With thanks to Jennifer Atkinson and Britt Wray for using their words. They are both inspiring leaders for me.

This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull 28 days of programming from September 7 to October 4 2023 showcasing local artistic practices. 

With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Indigenous People’s Solidarity Fund, in solidarity with National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The post e140 saturation – how can we tap into our boundless streams of love, connection and meaning? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e140-saturation-how-can-we-tap-into-our-boundless-streams-of-love-connection-and-meaning/

Conscient Podcast: e139 stream – this episode. is about listening. to this stream. for 5 minutes. enjoy.

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français

while introducing a 5 minute recording of a bubbly stream I realized that the stream was flowing within me

TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE

(bell and breath)

(In a hushed voice)

This episode..  

(silence)

is about listening… 

(silence)

to this stream… 

(silence)

for 5 minutes…

(silence)

Enjoy

*

CREDITS

This episode was recorded by Lac St-Anne near Duhamel, Québec on August 18, 2023. I was on an e-bike ride in the backcountry when I heard this beautiful bubbly stream. When I kneeled in the mud to record the slate for the recording I realized that the introduction was all I needed. The rest of the recording is silent. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Ki Culture.

The post e139 stream – this episode. is about listening. to this stream. for 5 minutes. enjoy. appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e139-stream-this-episode-is-about-listening-to-this-stream-for-5-minutes-enjoy/

Conscient Podcast: e138 rouge – fishy, where are you?

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français

a soundscape composition about soundscape composition at Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto

TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE

(Bell and breath) 

(various field recordings from rouge national urban park)

Me (at Rouge Park) :

Lake Ontario, Rouge Park, Water, Train sound coming, go.

On August 21, 2023 I joined composer Wendalyn Bartley and ecologist Leo Cabrera on a visit to the Rouge National Urban Park, which is centred around the Rouge River and its tributaries in the Greater Toronto Area. 

We were there to listen to soundscapes, such as what you’re hearing now, a train passing by.

At the end of our listening session Leo asked me to explain how I create soundscape compositions, so this episode explores that question, accompanied by…

(Sound of woman talking about ‘fishies’)

soundscapes. 

So what is soundscape composition? 

Soundscape composition is a form of electroacoustic music characterized by the presence of recognizable environmental sounds and contexts … 

Claude (during field recording) 

Rouge National Park, August 21, about 7pm, I’m waiting for a train.

And context is important here. 

For example, what do you hear now? I heard a swan, birds, voices echoing under a bridge, a bike just went by, there’s rumble of the city  in the background, and a baby crying, there’s some young people arriving and … and I hear someone dragging their feet a bit, making a lovely little sound.

(train passing)

Of course, I hear trains and now we’re in another space. What about this place? What’s the story here? 

And what would happen if I changed the story by cutting the low frequencies from this swan and these waves? 

And what if I made the train a bit more distant … and put it to the left?

And what if I place that mom talking to her son about fishies in reverberation a little… on the right side.

And how would you feel if there is no sound at all? 

You see, to me, soundscape composition and art in general, for that matter, is a game of illusion. Artists are constantly playing with our senses of perception and our understanding and interpretation of reality. 

So what I’m doing is inviting you to listen to reality – at least what my microphones captured that day – but also to fantasy, which are my manipulations of those sounds and it’s an interesting liminal zone but it’s also a very privileged space because not everyone who can afford to create and listen to soundscape compositions this way, right? 

I’m thinking in particular about living beings – human and non human – who cannot lower the volume of say, a rumbling train passing by their home every few minutes like this one I recorded in the park. 

(loud train passes)

Also, what about sounds that have disappeared from our acoustic environment? 

How can we remember and mourn sounds that have become extinct? 

What efforts  can we make to bring some of them back? 

How can soundscape composition help with that? 

Now as I told Leo, my approach to soundscape composition is to ask a lot of questions… about the ethics of field recording, about positionality, about  the added value of an artistic intervention in a given acoustic space.

I also ask myself to whom am I accountable when I record and how can one create sound art that does not perpetuate cycles of extraction and exploitation that are quite literally killing us. 

So many questions….

What do you think?

I’ll end this episode with an excerpt from a conversation I had during the summer of 1990 with the late composer R. Murray Schafer, author of the Tuning of the World book and leader of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser university in Vancouver in the 1970’s. 

Murray and I were talking about microphones and listening:

If the microphone replaces your ear, there’s something wrong. And as you see in a lot of our listening, the microphone has replaced the ear. The mere fact that for instance, we demand presence on all recorded sounds and they’re all close mic-ed, is a recognition of the fact that the microphone, which is an instrument for getting closeups, is respected more than our own sort of hearing experience. The fact that we can no longer listen to the distance. Now, if you’re going to get involved, really, with ecology in the environment, you have to rediscover how to listen to the distance, because an awful lot of the sounds you’re talking about are distant.

I agree with Murray that we need to question our use of technology, for sure, but also learn to listen at a distance, with or without microphones. 

Listen… at a distance.

(Woman talking)

Fishy, where are you?

*

Thanks to Wendalyn and Leo, my colleagues on the board of directors of the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology (CASE)  for joining me during this field recording trip. My thanks also to those who were recorded that day and a tip of the hat to Murray Schafer who continues to be present in our lives through his words and music.

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).  

The post e138 rouge – fishy, where are you? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e138-rouge-fishy-where-are-you/

Conscient Podcast: e137 ritardando – do slowing down sounds slow you down?

i’ve always been comforted and relaxed by sounds that gradually slow down

TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE

(bell and breath)

Slowing down sounds slow me down

(layering of slowing down soundscape compositions from my simplesoundscapes podcast (2016-2019: 

e06 cycles (from first generation, not published) 

e42 fidgetah, let us pay attention for a minute or two to the spinning

e42fidget – red, yellow and blue

e109 lake – slow slower stop

e11 arrivalthe modulation of propeller as metaphor)

Do slowing down sounds slow you down? 

CREDITS

This episode really does help me slow down. I hope it has a similar effect for you. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Stop Ecocide International.

The post e137 ritardando – do slowing down sounds slow you down? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Powered by WPeMatico

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias.

While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e137-ritardando-do-slowing-down-sounds-slow-you-down/