To coincide with the print publication of SONGS OF PLACE AND TIME: Birdsong and the Dawn Chorus in Natural History and the Arts (Edited by Mike Collier, Bennett Hogg & John Strachan), an anthology of contributions from 37 natural historians, we are delighted to have editor, Mike Collier and contributor and bird song recordist Geoff Sample as guests for this walk · listen · café.

Mike and Geoff offer a provocation for discussion

Walking and listening … or … walking or listening?

Wildlife sound recordists and photographers often spend a whole day sitting in just one place waiting ‘for nature to come to them’. 

On not-walking: do the physical rhythms in the body that accompany walking undermine, or prescript, listening. 

Does the loudness of walking drown natural silence? Or perhaps walking in sound is really being in the present – within a network of life.

“language and imagination have to some extent deadened the quickness of our sensual relationships with the outside world (though that is far from inevitable), and have made us aware of the ways in which we are a different kind of species. But they’re also the gateway to understanding our kindredness to the rest of creation, to fitting our oddness into the scheme of things, to become awakeners, celebrators, to add our particular ‘singing’ to that of the rest of the natural world.” (Nature Cure – Richard Mabey Chatto & Windus 2005)

Geoff Sample

 

Mike Collier

 

walk · listen · create hosts walk · listen · café, at least once a month online meeting for creatives in the fields of walking and sound art. Every ‘café’ lasts between 1 and 2 hours, is headed by an expert introducing a particular topic, and followed by an open discussion on the topic at hand.
Online meetings are hosted through BlueJeans or similar. Participants will be sent the meeting URL shortly before the event kicks off.

This café will be moderated by Andrew Stuck.