February 5, 2023

Hi there,

I re-read the gift of failure document this week. I recommend it.

In particular, I took to heart how the article begins:

We chose the word “gesture” for the title of our collective to underscore the fact that decolonization is impossible when our livelihoods are underwritten by colonial violence and unsustainability. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, our health systems and social security, and the technologies that allow us to write about this are all subsidized by expropriation, dispossession, destitution, genocides and ecocides. There is no way around it: we cannot bypass it, the only way is through. …

How we fail is important. It is actually in the moments when we fail that the deepest learning becomes possible and that is usually where we stumble upon something unexpected and extremely useful. Failing generatively requires both intellectual and relational rigour.

Like falling off a bike and getting back up again? 

What did I learn since my last blog? For example, I wrote in the January 29, 2023 conscient newsletter : 

One of my learnings from this project is letting go of expectations and the need for validation. Rather, without pretence and with humility, it is better to present one’s artwork as an offering and through this creative work, to deepen connections and relations.

I also learned to be (more) patient this week. 

A good friend told me that my podcast does not take 5 minutes in one’s life, it requires much more: time to prepare, absorb and reflect on the content and even more time and energy to respond. This friend mentioned that we are already over solicited and our attention is precious. they said, ‘I don’t have the headspace’…

Message received and thank you.

e104 time 

from Flora Gomez in Toronto

I really appreciated the train sound and the invitation to reflect on what it means to be a small moment in a much larger space. A lot to unpack there in such a very subtle proposal.  

My response:

Yours is the first comment on this episode, which so far, is closest to what I originally intended with this project, e.g. a field recording that sounds and feels like modernity (train passing), followed by moment of transition (revealing an urban space after the train passes) and concluding with a point of arrival (mountain forest) accompanied by the wise words of France Trépanier. Thanks for your feedback and for the opportunity to ‘unpack’ this episode. 

My friend and colleague in music, Peter Hatch (Saltspring Island BC) writes:

Congrats on your new initiative – I liked e104 especially I tried e105 as audio only first – it was much more intriguing with video added, for me. I love your use of ‘incidental text’ (or none) in these, and their brevity. (Who can’t afford 5’?)

Peter goes on to add my first audiovisual response to an episode: 

A couple of weeks ago I made a train recording that I was happy with (using Rode Go II mics) in Bellingham. Related to your topic, it seemed a nice metaphor for our western (linear) view of time.  Fittingly, it was a coal train. Here it is if you’re interested: https://vimeo.com/792706570/602c02ba6c.

Peter also adds that e104 time reminded him of a passage (important to him) from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: 

Time as objective reality has never made much sense to me. It’s what happens that matters. How can minutes and years, devices of our own creation, mean the same thing to gnats and to cedars? Two hundred years is young for the trees whose tops this morning are hung with mist. It’s an eyeblink of time for the river and nothing at all for the rocks. The rocks and the river and these very same trees are likely to be here in another two hundred years, if we take good care. As for me, and that chipmunk, and the cloud of gnats milling in a shaft of sunlight—we will have moved on.

Thanks for setting the pace on creative responses, Peter!

e105 rope

From France Trépanier, artist (desert sonora, usa)

This morning I listened to episode 105 ‘rope’ of the conscient podcast. I listened to it while walking in the Sonora Desert and looking at the impressive San Jacinto Mountains. I felt the tension of the rope with the movement of the water. I also felt the immense tension that the mountain created, pushing a large layer of land upwards. Then the silences… like the silences of the mountain that occupy a completely different temporal reality and which, in this moment, cultivates immobility in its meditative state. In short, a very inspiring episode! Thank you.’ 

My response:

Glad to read about your experience with é105. é105 is open to all interpretations. By the way, it reminds me of… e104 time, where you said:

‘with hindsight, we will realize that this was a very small moment in a much larger space, and that we are returning to very deep knowledge.’ 

Thank you for this reminder that there are much larger spaces and silences whose temporal reality eludes us. 

The post blog – the gift of failure 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.

———-

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 :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/blog-the-lessons-of-failure/

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good for us.

22 January 2023

Thanks so much to those who have taken the time to share public or private comments. Here are some of my learnings and unlearnings in relation to these gifts.

e102 aesthetics

A colleague (USA) wrote:

I found it very intriguing and appreciated how you tuned into and out of different frequencies in episode 102. Since listening, I’ve found myself trying to do something similar with my body, noticing what sounds I tend to tune into and out of.  I wonder how de-modernizing art won’t be linear? It almost felt like the spoken narrative followed a more linear path whereas the sounds were more cyclical and messy. It was an interesting juxtaposition.

Sound artist and broadcaster Don Hill (Alberta) wrote:

So, yes — the city is humming along in a flatted G (aka 47 Hz)…  How does this compare with other cityscapes? And how does that perceived hum jive with local power grids, such as they are around the world, ranging from (an unusual) 40 Hz (sic) to 50 Hz (much of europe, for instance) and 60 Hz (North America, Japan…). What kind of standing waves may occur in the human central nervous system? And what of it (affects and so forth)? 

My questions:

What if we were more ‘conscient’ of how frequencies affect us? How would this inform our behaviour? 

e103 heat

That same colleague (USA) also wrote: 

Sometimes I hum to my furnace/AC unit, trying to harmonize. Last summer, it started getting me thinking about humming to well pads since there is a lot of fracking for natural gas in my hometown. I have a dream to audio record a well pad and then try to create some sort of music with it. Your question about decarbonization brought me back to this. How can we make music with what’s hurting the land and our bodies? How can this be both healing and harmful?

I will ponder this good question, which raises the issue of exploitation of the land through recording and of the (intentional or unintentional) ‘aestheticization’ of our environment for profit, which is an ethical dilemma that I struggle with every day, microphone in hand…

On January 15, 2023 Jessica Ruano (Ottawa) wrote: 

Here’s something interesting: as I was listening to this meditation, the furnace in my home started circulating warm air, as it does when the temperature gets below the number I’ve set for it. There was a rumbling sound at first followed by a forceful airflow, and it felt like the sounds in my own home were competing with the sounds in this recording – different methods of distributing heat battling it out, asserting their superiority. Does the loudest win? Or is the aim to be as soundless as possible, so we don’t have to acknowledge its existence in our lives? There, I answered your question with a question!

On January 15, 2023 Hildegard Westerkamp (Vancouver) wrote: 

Thank you, Claude, for this piece and your question. I had hoped that decarbonization would generally sound quieter. Like Jessica, I heard my gas furnace come on in tandem with your heat pump. Would the electric power source of your heat pump not mean a quieter motor? Having driven a hybrid car for years now, has been a much quieter driving experience since I sold my VW Golf. Is your heat pump as loud as your gas furnace was, or are we simply hearing a close-up recording and in fact the sound in the rest of your house may be quieter? And what is the source of the knocking sound?

I replied : 

Hildi and all, Thanks for your thoughts. What you hear in the piece are 3 recordings 1. the tapping sound of tin from the basement to the 2nd floor during the installation 3. gentle rumble of the heat pump in the basement after it was installed 3. Loud exterior fan. Overall the sound volume of the heat pump system is quieter than the gas furnace because there is a constant flow of air with the heat pump as opposed to the ‘surge’ of the gas furnace.  My goal with the e103 heat was to invite listeners to experience the sound of energy production and reflect upon how they might make different choices to reduce their carbon footprint. Interesting that the sounds and silence in the episodes are mixing with real sounds in the listener’s space.

I also had the privilege this week of facilitating a discussion with fellow sound artists at ecoartspace’s Sound Dialogues, where we talked about a range of issues , including the ethics of field recording and this resource was shared: 

• https://earth.fm/interviews/on-ethics-colonialism-pluralism-and-environmental-crises-an-interview-with-interdisciplinary-artist-and-field-recordist-kim-v-goldsmith/ 

what is good for the earth is good for us

Finally, my wife Sabrina reminded me that ‘what is good for the earth is good for us’. This resonated with me and became the title of this blog and a good reminder of how to live.

The post blog – what is good for the earth is… 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.

———-

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 :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/blog-what-is-good-for-the-earth/

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1 January, 2023

I published e101 tension – how do you feel now? today. The first of 52 episodes in the Sounding Modernity series.  This one about sounds of tension and the art of finding a balance point. I composed it as a pilot episode back in September 2022 with the intention of exploring somatic and embodied listening. It’s basically a sketch but I thought it would be a good way to start this 4th season of the conscient podcast because it asks an open ended question that will come back again and again through this project, e.g. how do you feel now?

dream

As I wrote this blog, I recalled a dream I had on December 17, 2022 :

I had a vivid dream last night about receiving criticism of my ‘sounding modernity’ conscient podcast season, which I’m launching tomorrow with episode 00. The feedback was mostly negative and critical of the project, pointing out its failings and pretensions, etc. They were very precise and sometimes satirical and quite funny. It was bewildering. When I woke up I wondered where this advice was coming from …  Obviously, it comes from somewhere within me, but it felt like an external voice was giving me guidance about my work and warning me of it’s pitfalls but also encouraging, and  preparing me, to face unanswerable questions and sharp critique. I was very thankful to have had this ‘heads up’ and I have made a couple of minor adjustments to the project as a result of this dream.  The series of weekly 5 minute episodes will indeed be exploring complex issues, most of which I don’t fully understand, therefore I will inevitably fail and fumble my way along. I think my dream spirit was warning me to listen carefully and stay humble and open as I undertake this next phase of my learning journey…

Claude Schryer, on LinkedIn and Facebook

pitfalls

One of the adjustments I made was to remind myself of some of my learnings from the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (GTDF) website, including:

• holding space for difficult conversations and silences without relationships falling apart
• learning and unlearning, disarming and de-centering, dethroning and de-arrogantizing, detoxifying and decluttering, mourning, grieving and healing, digesting and metabolizing 
• loosening my attachment to my self image.

I also reviewed the GTDF’s ‘most common traps in depth education’ and reminded myself to be mindful of performance camouflage (ensuring self-transparency and self-witnessing of errors and missteps), proselytizing (trying to convince others that something is important and imposing my views) and virtue signaling (pretension and transactional relationships).

conduits

I received valuable feedback about my dream from friends and colleagues, notably this one  :

I think you are wise to be open and humble but also to remember that the first response to change is often resistance. What you are working on situates itself in unfamiliar territory for many and much of the work of it is to persevere in the belief that this practice has wisdom in it and you are acting as a conduit for that.

fears

With my dream in mind, I shared with my wife Sabrina on December 26, 2022 that my greatest fear with this project was that my ‘trusted inner voice’ would be overtaken by my craving for validation (as noted above). 

This happened with the last episode of season 3, e99 winter diary revisited, which I felt good about but turned out to be mostly an exercise in vanity and nostalgia. I’m open to sharing this because conscient is a learning journey where anything can and should be questioned.

This learning led me to take a break from podcast production in March 2022 and engage in an unlearning process, including doing the exercises in Vanessa Andreotti’s Hospicing Modernity book, taking the GTDF’s Facing Human Wrongs course twice, deepening my daily qi gong practice, letting go of addictions, such as technology, validation, hope, etc.

My hope was that there was some value in ‘putting myself out there’, supported by newly acquired self-knowledge and self-control tools, and to trust that my experience as a listener and sound artist might have some value to others who are on a similar path. 

gratitude

I’ll end this blog with a statement that concludes every episode note: 

• 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).

The post blog – of dreams and pitfalls 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.

———-

About the Conscient 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 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 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.

my professional services

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 :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/blog-of-dreams-and-pitfalls/

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Note : Une version en français de cet article est disponible sur : Français

(Deep breath)

Tension

I was thinking about the tensions in our lives and the art of finding a balance point… 

So I went for a sound walk in Vancouver and came upon a piece of fishing line. I brought it home, strung it up and recorded myself plucking it 

(sound of fishing line being plucked by hand) 

I held the fishing line with my left hand while I gradually reduced the tension with my right hand. 

Later that day I went for another soundwalk and came upon a white metal fence. I started to gently tap one of the rods with my middle finger tip, like a heartbeat… 

(sound of metal fence rod being tapped) 

Finally, as I continued my search for sounds of tension, I came upon another metal fence, this one by the ocean and struck it with a wooden stick while slowly decreasing my walking pace. 

(sound of metal fence tapped by a piece of wood)

I invite you to sit with me for a moment and feel these sounds. Try not to think, just feel. 

(sound of decreased tension by filtering and slowing down) 

How do you feel now ?

(further decrease of tension by filtering and slowing down to silence) 

What about now? 

(silence)

How do you feel now? 

(Deep breath)

*

This episode was recorded on a Zoom H4n Pro audio recorder in Vancouver in September, 2022.  I composed it as a pilot episode with the intention of exploring somatic and embodied listening. It’s basically a sketch but I thought it would be a good way to start this 4th season of the conscient podcast because it asks an open ended question that will come back again and again throughout this project : how do you feel now?

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).

———-

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 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 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.

my professional services

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 :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e101-tension-how-do-you-feel-now/

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Note : Une version en français de cet article est disponible sur : xx

Territorial Acknowledgement

I acknowledge that I live, learn and unlearn in the unceded and unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation, whose presence in the Ottawa region reaches back to time immemorial. This acknowledgement is also a commitment to act upon the many recommendations in public reports such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

A sounding is a reflexive engagement with a location through a process of active listening that prioritizes being-in-the-world.

David Beattie, in his Forward to ‘Listening to Places’ by composer Robin Parmar

Background

On February 8, 2022, when I published episode 99, Winter Diary Revisited, of the conscient podcast, I mentioned that I was taking a break to study decolonization and, among other things, to ‘learn to unlearn’.

I did this. 

On March 15, 2022 I wrote a posting for the Artists and Climate Change website called Rise Up, Dissent, and Disassemble, where I suggested that ‘the arts sector has the capacity to shift people’s hearts and minds and will be central to a transformation agenda’ about the ecological crisis.

I stand by this. 

On June 6, 2022, I posted this statement on social media : 

‘I’m not sure if or when I’ll produce more conscient podcasts. I don’t see the point of sharing more info or awareness. What interests me now, inspired by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, is how to transition out of modernity through metabolic connections. Not sure what that sounds like, yet…’

I do now (or at least I’ve figured out a way to explore it).

What is Sounding Modernity?

On September 16, 2022, I had the privilege of receiving a Canada Council Strategic Innovation Fund Seed grant to produce season 4 of my conscient podcast called ‘Sounding Modernity : weekly 5-minute sound art works in 2023’, published on Sundays, from January 1 to December 31, 2023, in English and in French.

Each episode explores a complex issue and includes a question for listeners to respond to in any way they wish, with words, images, sound, video, etc. through the conscient website or on conscient social media. The idea to create an informal forum for learning and unlearning. I commit to do my best to respond to every submission and, with permissions, to publish some of them in the conscient newsletter.

My goal with ‘Sounding Modernity’ is to explore 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’ as suggested in ‘Preparing for the end of the world as we know it’ by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, a group of scholars and researchers led by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity. The work of the GTDF collective has strongly influenced my approach to this project and I am deeply grateful for their wisdom and support.

What do I mean by modernity? 

Which modernity? I don’t mean modernist art or modernism as a style (though I guess it can be a part of it). I mean the modern era based on extractive capitalism, overconsumption, endless growth, systemic racism, white supremacy, separation from nature, and so on. 

I want to investigate various interpretations of ‘modernity’: our so-called modern lifestyles, structures, sites, beings, creatures, habits, etc.  and I want to do this by listening to the sound of modernity.

In other words, I want to address some of the causes of this massive and violent overreach of planetary boundaries while exploring how we can preserve some of modernity’s benefits, without the destruction. 

My objective with Sounding Modernity is not to find short term solutions, nor is it to help you feel better about the state of the world. Rather, with a lot of humility and respect, I offer you 5 minutes every week to stop and listen to a sound artwork that addresses an issue, a situation, a dilemma, a problem, an impossibility, but also to celebrate, to preserve and to nurture possibilities. 

I invite you to ‘stay with the trouble’  which is a well-known quote from Dr. Donna J. Haraway and to embrace the advice of Dr. Vanessa Andreotti to ‘hold space for the good, the bad, the ugly and the messed up, within and around’.

From mitigation to regeneration

When I started the conscient podcast in 2020, I was mostly in a ‘mitigation’ and ‘information deficit’ mindset. I believed that by raising awareness and sharing knowledge that artists could provide insights and help find solutions to the ecological crisis. This remains a valid intention, however I’ve now shifted to a ‘regeneration’ mindset, whereas I accept the inevitability of systems collapse based on past behaviour (many are already happening) and focus my efforts on longer term adaptation and regeneration strategies. 

What does modernity sound like?

We are part of a much wider metabolism, and this metabolism is sick. There is a lot of shit for us to deal with: personal, collective, historical, systemic. Our fragilities are a big part of it. This shit needs to pass, so that it can be composted into new forms of life, no longer based on the illusion of separability.

Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective

Without being aware of it, I have always felt the ‘metabolic sickness’ that the GTDF collective refers to here and have always been intuitively attracted to electroacoustic music, with its transformational potential to serve as an acoustic mirror at the intersection of reality, fantasy, and spirit.

During my career as a composer and sound artist, I developed a ‘soundscape composition’ style that combines layering context (field recordings) with abstraction (electronic and instrumental music) – often with an observational or poetic narrative.

The artistic language of ‘Sounding Modernity’ expands on this vocabulary with a mix of slowly paced narration and long silences that are interwoven with new or archival field recordings and/or soundscape compositions. Each episode involves a combination of the following elements: 

1. presentation of the topic (what it is and why it interests me) 
2. new and/or archival field recording(s) that illustrate or evoke the topic 
3. thoughts and insights on the nature of that sound 
4. transformation or alteration of that sound through soundscape composition techniques that suggests alternative or new perspectives 
5. thoughts and insights on the transformed sound(s) and how they might raise new questions 
6. An invitation for listeners to engage with a question on an issue or concept that can be uploaded to the conscient podcast website for public sharing and dialogue. 

Here is a preliminary list of topics I am considering (note: these will evolve, including rewrites, through to the end of the project on December 31, 2023): 

• acceptance, aesthetics, appropriation, climate resilience, collapse, complicity, composting, context, criteria, death, decolonizing the unconscious, despair, disinvestment , distance, eco-distress, entanglement, exploitation, failure, fiction, gaslit, hope, hospicing, humour, inconsolable, kin, kindness, leadership, listening, metabolism, music, mycelial, northstar, ordinary, production, psycho-analytic distance, reciprocity, reducing harm, reparation, resonance, rumble, separability, seven fires prophecy, tightrope, time, transformation, uncertainty, unlistening, validation, violence, worlding.

Thought, felt, and danced with and through

My intention is not to define these terms, nor to explain them as such, but rather to engage in ‘worlding their meaning’, as suggested by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti’s notion of ‘worlding stories not focused on the aesthetic perfection of form, but on the integration of form and movement. They are not supposed to be ‘thought about’ but thought, felt, and danced with and through’. 

Note: The term ‘worlding’ is used by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti in reference to the work of Māori writer Carl Mika, see ‘Indigenous Education and the Metaphysics of Presence: A Worlded Philosophy’ (Milton Park, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2017)

In other words, my hope is to create sound art works that are ‘living entities’ (with thanks to my curriculum advisor Azul Carolina Duque for this observation).

I like the way a colleague from the Facing Human Wrongs course this summer put it in an October 24, 2022 email:

May the living sounds and entities in the episodes co-inform sounding modernity and where it’s heading/losing its way. 

I will explore how to engage in ‘co-information’ during this project and to be OK when it loses its way. 

The Facing Human Wrongs course involved facing these complex systemic issues with honesty, humility, humour and hyper self-reflexivity and learning to live with their discomforts and pain and doing so without falling into ‘traps’ such as self-validation, self-infantilization and exceptionalism, while exploring how to ‘create the conditions for other worlds to emerge’.

Hum, that’s a rather long and charged sentence, isn’t it? 

What I mean to say is that it is important to have a good frame of mind going into this work and to avoid repeating cycles of personal glorification and self-indulgence.

This is difficult for artists, who, like me, love the spotlight and often engage in self-referential work, but I think it’s possible to focus on the impact of our work, and less on our personal needs, for those who are coming from situations of privilege and low-intensity struggle. 

Sobriety, maturity, discernment and accountability

I have found the 4 compass values illustrated above, along with the tightrope teachings, to be useful guide marks in making decisions and avoiding the worst pitfalls. 

This compass (and related cartographies) also helps me work through ethical and relational issues when I do field recordings, such as obtaining implicit and explicit permission to record sounds and how to use them respectfully in published works. 

The work of UBC professor and indigenous scholar Dylan Robinson, notably his Hungry Listening book, also guides my decisions in terms of how and when to record.

But who will listen?

The urgency of the climate and ecological crisis demands that the arts and culture sector activate its unique capacity for creative expression in service of a livable future for all. In this critical decade of action, this requires a clear focus on climate justice and a genuine transformation in values: from consumerism and extraction to stewardship and regeneration.

Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE-LeSAUT)

Reaching 1 person at a time is enough.

My experience in producing 100 episodes of the conscient podcast is that audiences are saturated and overwhelmed with facts and data about the ecological crisis but are more comfortable engaging, relationally and affectively, with these complex issues through stories, metaphors, illustrations, and connections to what they value the most in everyday life. 

Sounding Modernity is intended to be accessible to all audiences but is more likely to be relevant to those who have already begun a learning and unlearning journey about the ecological crisis, including questioning the complicity of western art itself. This is hard work, akin to biting the hand that feeds you.

For example, I am extremely grateful to have received the aforementioned Canada Council Strategic Innovation Fund Seed grant for this project to hire expert collaborators to help me deepen this work and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their support and yet I am critical of institutions like the Council that perpetuate colonial systems. 

But at the same time, I appreciate that the Council and other funders offer opportunities to empower artists to develop a more resilient, equitable, inclusive and sustainable arts sector, and in so doing, a more liveable planet. This is the complex and hard work of decolonization and transformation that the arts sector is currently undertaking. For example, Shannon Litzenberger wrote an essay called State of Emergence: Why We Need Artists Right Now. I also spoke with her in episode 90 of the conscient podcast;

I would first and foremost love to see artists really lean into experimentation with their creative practices and to share that what comes out of those practices: the learning and experimentation with each other. I think that’s something that even as a community of art makers we can get better at. But what that then also does is start to socialize learning about what art as a system of knowledge production is, and this is how we start to disentangle ourselves from the ways that we’re trying to solve this challenge, or the ways that we’re trying to think about what is happening right now as a problem to fix, is maybe part of the dilemma and that art as a way of knowing.

My hope is that we find a way, together, to navigate our way out of modernity’s trappings and to create, step by step, the conditions for other worlds to emerge. I know many of my colleagues in the arts are working hard on this. I am grateful for their vision and courage.

I like the way fellow podcaster and cultural icon Kamea Chayne explains it in her vision for the Green Dreamer project: 

Exploring our paths to collective healing, biocultural revitalization, and true abundance and wellness *for all*.

I also refer to my own experience in listening to podcasts about culture and environmental issues, which have the potential to nourish our spirits and remind us that we are not alone in feeling deep anxiety about the ecological crisis. I am grateful for the aforementioned Green Dreamer and also:

• Jennifer Atkinson’s Facing It
• Alice Irene Whittaker’s Reseed
• Catherine Ingram’s In The Deep,
• Peterson Toscano’s Citizens’ Climate Radio,
• Outrage and Optimism
• Emergence Magazine podcast
• Mathura “Temwa” Mahendren’s Dismantling the Master’s Tools

 Why now?

The world needs you right now, because anything that we do this year or next is worth ten of the same thing ten years from now.

Emily Johnston, Loving in a Vanishing World

Because we have no choice, but we also don’t need to drown in a state of inertia (life will go on, without or without ‘us’).

Much has been written by artists about this crisis and how to increase the impact and resilience of the arts sector, such as poignant and courageous ‘call to arms’ essays by Dr. David Maggs and the aforementioned Shannon Litzenberger. And yet, society is not (yet) in ‘emergency mode’ as suggested by the Climate Emergency Unit. We seem to be asleep at the wheel of ‘comfort and indifference’ as Denys Arcand noted in his 1991 film (albeit in a very different context).

What I love about the arts is their unlimited potential as a process of change. The arts can simultaneously comfort the afflicted, inspire the depressed, anticipate the impossible, invigorate the dispirited, catalyse the discouraged, challenge our assumptions, etc. The arts also have the potential to inflict harm, consciously or unconsciously, which is why a set of guiding values and principles are critical.

Thankfully, the arts community is waking up to these realities with various ‘green’ initiatives such as Creative Green Tools Canada, Eco Scéno, Music Declares Canada, School for Climate, Conseil québécois des événements écoresponsables (CQEER) and the aforementioned SCALE-LeSAUT network, however, an overall stasis and a culture of denial remains the norm in privileged societies such as ours.

For example, I observed this dynamic at the Government of Canada’s laudable National Culture Summit on 3 May 2022, where most arts leaders spoke with great passion about rebuilding the arts sector, while sidestepping (or underplaying) that our planet is rapidly and inexorably becoming uninhabitable… 

• How can we help people ‘tune in’ to these complex issues without becoming overwhelmed and complacent? 
• How can we address these deep disconnects and address the root causes of imminent societal collapse? 
• More to the point: what can any one person do? 

The 20/80 ratio

We need to hold space for the good, the bad, the ugly and the messed up, within and around.

Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, Hospicing Modernity

Actually, we do have choices to make (and accountabilities) as citizens and as artists.

For example, I often tell colleagues about how I adopted the 80-20 ratio principle in 2021, an idea I first heard from arts and climate leader Kendra Fanconi. 

The idea is to spend 20% of your time and energy on reducing your carbon footprint and changing the things you control (less travel, local foods, giving to worth causes, recycling, being kind and joyful, etc) and 80% of your time and energy on collective action towards systemic change (advocacy, voting, coalitions, campaigns, protesting, decolonization, reparation, supporting for those in high-intensity struggles, directing anger towards positive change, etc). 

This helps take some pressure off our collective shoulders, while focusing our energy on positive, long-term action. 

In other words, we need to engage in substantial personal change (while increasing our enjoyment of life) AND invest in massive societal transformation (without burning out).

But what can I do?

My response, as a composer, sound producer and arts administrator is to create sound art works that encourage audiences, and specifically my colleagues in the arts community, to ‘feel and dance with and through’ the trappings of modernity and to explore how to move out of it, together, as Dr. Andreotti suggests.

Thankfully, I am working with talented collaborators on this project, including artist Sabrina Mathews, web designer and podcast consultant Ayesha Barmania, education advisor and sound artist Azul Carolina Duque, communications advisors Ben Von Wong and Jessica Ruano as well as countless family, friends and colleagues who have accompanied me on my learning journey and supported this work. Thank you.

At a meeting of the Transition Innovation Group on October 12, 2022, the assembly agreed that we were now entering a period of great transition with ‘cautious hopefulness’. I added that what we really need to do is ‘buy time’ through our collective efforts to slow the damage while envisioning new ways of life. 

This dynamic was confirmed to me while listening to Asad Rehman: The end of imperialism in a radical green new deal (ep378) on Green Dreamer who said:

• My motto is, there is no moment of final defeat in this. We have to measure our work into the extent of the disasters we prevent, the scale of lives of our people in the Global South. And for me, every day I get up and go, that’s what we’re doing. It’s not that we’re trying to prevent this crisis. We’re trying to prevent this crisis from getting worse and worse. And it can get much, much worse.’

and…

• I would say a quote, not from one of our friends, but actually from one of our enemies, the architect of neoliberalism, Milton Friedman, who said, only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change. Our goal is to keep our ideas and policies alive for when the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. And we, and our vision, is the politically inevitable.

Every day now, when I get up and go, my goal is also to prevent this crisis from getting worse.

Next steps

So…  if you want to join me, there are three ways you can subscribe media on https://www.conscient.ca/subscribe/:

1. weekly conscient newsletter which allows you to receive notifications about new episodes, some my responses to submissions, news from the community and so on. 
2. conscient podcast in English ou le balado conscient en français, on any your favorite podcast player such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc. and-or
3. conscient YouTube channel to see a video version of the podcast as well as 30 seconds promotional clips. 

You can also follow conscient social media on Facebook and Instagram @conscientpodcast.

I will write about my learnings and unlearnings in the conscient newsletter and in the occasional blogs, such as my keynote address at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology on March 24th, 2023. 

Feedback and critique are always welcome, in public space or privately (claude@conscient.ca)

The post Sounding Modernity 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 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 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.

my professional services

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 :

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