Silencing biodiversity
Biophony is the collective sound produced by all living organisms that reside in a particular biome. It is not about a 'decontextualized single-species recording model'. Bernie Krause is recording "the “Great Animal Orchestra,” a constantly shapeshifting constellation of individual voices in motion, and he termed their symphonic soundscape a ‘biophony’ — all of the “sounds originating from nonhuman, nondomestic biological sources.”
In 1988 he recorded the so-called selective logging of a timber company:
"The outcome was a spectrogram with a remarkable density throughout all frequency bands, as could be expected for a habitat replete with the most diverse animal life. In 1989, he returned to the meadow after the operation had been completed for a second session under the exact same conditions and at the exact same time. In keeping with what had been promised by the logging company, the place still looked as though it was teeming with life — “I was delighted to see that little seemed to have changed,” as Krause remarked. Back in the studio and after a look at his spectrogram, he had to revise that impression: “Gone was the thriving density and diversity of birds. Gone, too, was the overall richness that had been present the year before. The only prominent sounds were the stream and hammering of a Williamson’s sapsucker.” The ear, then, turned out to be capable of detecting the true state of the habitat much more precisely and truthfully than the eye ever could."
"The recurring pattern seemed to be that the ‘evil sounding’ spaces were those devoid of animal noises, while those full of life and sound tended to come across as far more agreeable"
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/everything-is-wrong-bernie-krauses-concept-of-biophony/
Biophony, Bernie Krause
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2017/08/biophony/
#BiodiversityCrisis #SoundEcology #biophony ##sound #NatureSounds #LoggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #degradation #koalas #wildlife #habitat #ecology #biodiversity #extinction #NSWLogging #SaveTuckersNob
