Listening to the Earth: Sonifying planetary health ecologies

Virtual and physical exhibition as part of Spark 2024, the British Council festival of ideas.

Listening to the Earth: Sonifying Planetary Health Ecologies moves beyond anthropocentric notions of Health and Wellbeing, emphasising the interconnectedness of human health and environmental ecosystems.

In the wake of the climate crisis, Postcolonial historian Dipesh Chakrabarty has called for a new understanding of history that no longer separates human activities from natural processes. This call was echoed in recent global health crises and environmental events, highlighting the intrinsic link between human well-being and planetary health.

This project delves into this interconnectedness through harnessing the transformative power of sound. The exhibition aims to listen to environmental changes — translating ecological measurements and sensory data into sound artworks that amplify, alert and call for action. It embraces the notion of ‘sonification’ – the deployment of state-of-the-art sensing, recording, mapping, and sounding methodologies to capture data from the natural environment that would have otherwise remained imperceptible and convert it into sound. These audible rhythms, vibrations, fluctuations and transformations can help explore the connection between our (collective) bodies and the planetary ecosystems.

Contributors were invited to join a collaborative process that unfolded over a series of hybrid working group meetings in London, Hong Kong and elsewhere. This online exhibition is the culmination of the project. It consists of sound artworks that explore notions of listening, the sonification of environmental processes at different scales, and innovative sensing methods, recording instruments and techniques.

Festival exhibition page:
https://www.britishcouncil.hk/en/programmes/spark-2024/events/listening-to-the-earth

Curated by Ryo Ikeshiro (School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong) and
Tom Tlalim (School of Performance, Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London).

Participating artists:
Andras Blazsek
Peter Cusack
Gui Ren
Ryo Ikeshiro
Andio Lai
Liao Yuming
Lin Yuxin
Philip Liu
Edwin Lo
Loud Numbers (Duncan Geere and Miriam Quick)
Dawn Scarfe
Åsa Stjerna
Sun Mengtian
Lou Terry
Tom Tlalim
Cheng Yang
Xie Zhihao

Virtual exhibition by MetaObjects
https://www.metaobjects.org/

• https://www.britishcouncil.hk/en/program...
• https://www.metaobjects.org/
• https://soundlab.scm.cityu.edu.hk/listen...