We are thrilled to announce the successful applicants for the 2016 Biosphere Soundscapes International Internship program. Teresa Barrozo (Philippines) and Diana Peña (New Zealand / Mexico) will be joining us in 2016 to work on new projects exploring acoustic ecology and field recording practices. Both artists have been mentored through developing a 2016 project after submitting their successful applications earlier this year. The Biosphere Soundscapes International Internship program is a dynamic opportunity that involves a mixture of self-directed practice, mentored development and international collaborations. Our interns can design their own Biosphere Soundscapes lab or focus on a specific creative or scientific project. We accept applications from emerging artists, scientists and community leaders across the world and work collaboratively to develop projects that support innovative research and new ideas in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. 

Teresa Barrozo (b.1982) is a sound artist, composer and curious listener based in Manila with a wide range of work for film, theatre and dance. Her compositions have been featured in the Asian Composers League Festivals in Japan and Thailand, and in the Asia-Pacific Weeks in Germany. Her film music works has been part of major international film festivals in Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Locarno and Berlin, to name a few. She was a recipient of the Ani ng Dangal Award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (Philippines) and a fellow of the Asian Cultural Council (2014) in New York. Her fellowship focused on new music, sound art and design, performance, and contemporary sonic practices in listening, field recording, acoustic ecology, neuromusic, and electronic and computer music composition. 

Influenced by new practices in contemporary art, tradition in aural orchestration and storytelling in cinema and theatre, Barrozo’s sound work expands to various disciplines, often exploring and exposing new perspectives in listening culture. She is interested in the dialogue between sound and man while investigating man’s relationship to itself and the environment.
Visit Teresa Barrozo's website here. ​

After an overwhelming response and reviewing numerous fantastic applications, we are pleased to announce the selection results for our Sian Ka’an Biosphere Soundscapes Residency in Mexico. This is the final list of confirmed participants:

Mexico:

• Manrico Montero.
• Andrea Ancira.
• David Escalante.

International:

• Felix Blume (FR/MX)
• Jono Gilmurray (UK)
• Kate Carr (AU/UK)

Congratulations to all of our selected residents! We are thrilled to have built such a strong team and are looking forward to our first residency in Mexico.  
Biosphere Soundscapes Workshops will be led by Garth Paine and Sandra Gallo in addition to other members of the Biosphere Soundscapes team.   

As part of the Mexican Soundscape project, Fonoteca Nacional is working in collaboration with Biosphere Soundscapes to produce this artistic residency and interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on the creative and scientific possibilities of listening. Biosphere Soundscapes is designed to inspire communities across the world to listen to the environment and explore the value of sound as a measure for environmental health and ecological engagement in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The inaugural residency in Mexico will be centered on sonic exploration of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

This residency is part of an educational program designed by Biosphere Soundscapes with a focus on collaboration, experimentation and exploration. This interdisciplinary learning laboratory will involve participants exploring the environment through sound, learning about the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve and collaborating with a dynamic team at the intersection of art, science and technology. 

We will update the residency activities and outcomes on our website in the coming weeks. Follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/bioscapes for realtime updates in the field. 

Fonoteca Nacional and Biosphere Soundscapes are calling for participants for the inaugural residency in Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve in 2015.  

As part of the Mexican Soundscape project, Fonoteca Nacional is working in collaboration with Biosphere Soundscapes to produce an artistic residence and interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on the creative and scientific possibilities of listening. Biosphere Soundscapes is designed to inspire communities across the world to listen to the environment and explore the value of sound as a measure for environmental health and ecological engagement in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The inaugural residency in Mexico will be centered on sonic exploration of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

This residency is part of an educational program designed by Biosphere Soundscapes with a focus on collaboration, experimentation and exploration. This interdisciplinary learning laboratory will involve participants exploring the environment through sound, learning about the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve and collaborating with a dynamic team at the intersection of art, science and technology. 

This open call is aimed at artists, scientists, researchers and other professionals working with sound.  Applicants should have an interest in acoustic ecology, bioacoustics, field recording or other fields working with environmental sound. 

The residency will take place over 10 days and will involve daily field recording sessions accompanied by interdisciplinary workshops and presentations. Participants will learn about the biodiversity of each recording location through presentations with local scientists and conservationists. At the end of the residency participants will have the opportunity to share their creative or scientific discoveries during a showcase. 

The residency will be guided by the Biosphere Soundscapes team along with guest artists, specialists from Fonoteca Nacional and scientists from the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. 

As a result of this open call, six participants will be selected, three of which will be Mexican nationals and three internationals. The residency will cover the costs of accommodation, food and local transport for the duration of the residence for three selected participants through a full scholarship and a subsided scholarship for the three remaining participants. The costs of international travel to Quintana Roo are to be covered by the participants.

Read the full call for participation here 

You are invited to participate in World Listening Day 2015, an annual global event held on July 18. 

Biosphere Soundscapes launched on World Listening Day 2012 and we are excited to parter with the World Listening Project to produce World Listening Day 2015. 

This year’s theme for World Listening Day is “H2O”.


The purposes of World Listening Day are to:

• Celebrate the listening practices of the world and the ecology of its acoustic environments;
• Raise awareness about the growing number of individual and group efforts that creatively explore Acoustic Ecology based on the pioneering efforts of the World Soundscape Project, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, La Semaine du Son, Deep Listening Institute, among many others;
• Design and implement educational initiatives that explore these concepts and practices.

The global water crisis means 750 million people around the world lack access to safe water. Water is rapidly becoming the commodity of the 21st century and the catastrophic effects of climate change often involve negative associations with water. Rising sea levels, devastating floods, melting ice in Antarctica and droughts spreading throughout the globe, all highlight our increasingly unpredictable and extreme relationship with water.

Yet H2O is vital for life, water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, and 60% of our bodies are made of water. Oceans, rivers and lakes are the core of many of the world’s iconic cities and historically civilizations formed around water. Indigenous communities across the globe believe water is at the core of our existence. Communities that have lived sustainably for thousands of years hold significant cultural and spiritual value of rivers, lakes and oceans.

World leaders believe we need to create a cultural shift in how we think about water. We need a better understanding and awareness of the value of water and we need to make critical changes to avoid the ramifications of the global water crisis. In the words of Sylvia Earle “even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”

World Listening Day 2015 invites you to reflect on water, metaphorically in how you listen, or through creative events inspired by water and sound across the globe. The 2015 theme resonates at a time where we need to shift our collective thinking and actions towards water globally.

World Listening Day 2015 will include a virtual symposium hosted on WaterWheel (www.water-wheel.net), an electronic publication, and hundreds of events taking place across the globe.

World Listening Day is co-organized by the World Listening Project (WLP), the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology (MSAE) and Biosphere Soundscapes. July 18 was chosen because it is the birthday of Canadian writer, educator, philosopher, visual artist, and composer R. Murray Schafer. His efforts leading the World Soundscape Project and his seminal book, The Tuning of the World, inspired global interest in a new field of research and practice known as Acoustic Ecology.

World Listening Project, Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and Biosphere Soundscapes invite you to participate in the 2015 World Listening Day on Saturday, July 18, and through the week of July 13th-19th. Some suggestions on how you can participate and organize include:

• Soundwalks or listening events in your local community, with a particular focus on oceans, rivers, lakes and catchments
• Field recording trips or workshops
• Site-specific performance events
• Concerts curating water inspired compositions (contact us to connect with composers and sound artists)
• Personal experiences of attentive listening or field recording
• Educational events that relate to acoustic ecology, field recording, or a similar topic
• Public talks or lectures about listening, water and acoustic ecology

Use the hashtag #WLD2015 to connect with other local and global groups participating in the World Listening Day 2015: H2O and get involved.

Participation in World Listening Day is rapidly expanding every year. In this sixth year we anticipate even greater activity and interest. Please join in the 2015 World Listening Day activities by emailing [email protected] about your plans and be sure to include “World Listening Day” in the subject line. 

Biosphere Soundscapes will be hosting a series of events in Australia in the Great Sandy Biosphere Reserve including a research lab on Fraser Island. 

We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Fonoteca Nacional de México to expand Biosphere Soundscapes through Mexico in 2015. Fonoteca is a leading international organisation renowned for protecting the sound heritage through conservation implementing a wide range of innovative projects that promote a culture of listening. Our first major project is hosting a Biosphere Soundscapes Lab launching in May 2015 leading into our first residency program in Mexico in October 2015. 

Mexico currently has over 40 biosphere reserves spanning across the country and includes some of the most critical environmental and cultural sites on earth. The Biosphere Soundscapes team are focussing the first phase of the project around the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. 

In the language of the Mayan peoples who once inhabited this region, Sian Ka'an means 'Origin of the Sky'. Located on the east coast of the Yucatán peninsula, this biosphere reserve contains tropical forests, mangroves and marshes, as well as a large marine section intersected by a barrier reef. It provides a habitat for a remarkably rich flora and a fauna comprising more than 300 species of birds, as well as a large number of the region's characteristic terrestrial vertebrates, which cohabit in the diverse environment formed by its complex hydrological system.

It was established in 1986 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. With the participation of scientists, technicians, students, fishermen, farmers, rural promotors and administrators, together with regional and international partners, they have successfully carried out more than 200 conservation projects.  The reserve includes some 23 known archaeological sites of the Maya civilization including Muyil. 

We will also be working with Amigos de Sian Ka'an, the local organisation in the biosphere reserve whose objectives are the identification, protection and management of areas with high biodiversity value as well as those critical for maintenance of the life cycles of endangered, threatened and migratory species in the Riviera Maya and providing environmental education through interdisciplinary projects. 

Biosphere Soundscapes Mexico is currently managed by our Associate Producer Emmanuel Galvan Martinez in collaboration with Dr Leah Barclay. We are greatful for the support of Fonoteca Nacional de México to launch this project in 2015. We will be announcing further information about our residency program in May 2015 and you can follow the development of this project via our labs, residences, masterclasses and community.