Thanks for joining my Facebook Live event with Cory Giacobbe! If you have any further questions about the book, ocean science, dolphins, or anything else, let me know!
Mark Ballora, a dear friend and collaborator, was a pioneer in acoustics and “sonification” of data. A memorial service is being held this weekend at Penn State, where he was a professor of music technology.
Naturally I collected my thoughts about carrying forward his energy and vision in musical form. This short composition (<2.5 min) incorporates a musical cipher of his name, coral reef sounds, and audio recordings he made of me pitched at his vocal frequency, as a symbol of my dedication to seeing his voice, missions, and work are carried forward.
Mark and I met at a National Academies Keck Futures Initiative conference and are in the middle of a NAKFI grant on sonifying ocean data: “Layers of Meaning: How the Ocean’s Natural Acoustics and the Music of its Datasets Can Reveal Hidden Connections”
Photos: (c) Kevin Allen Photo
National Academies DASER program on sound and the deep blue sea
Left to right, Mark Ballora, Aaron Rice, Heather Spence
Posted on September 27th, 2019 by Heather
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National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Announces Winners of the NAKFI Challenge
WASHINGTON — The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) is pleased to announce the recipients of three $500,000 NAKFI Challenge awards. A 15-year, $40 million dollar program funded by the W.M. Keck Foundation, NAKFI was initiated in 2003 to break down barriers between fields and to promote interdisciplinary research. The NAKFI Challenge awards support activities that will carry forward NAKFI’s work beyond its 15 years as an activity of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Open only to NAKFI alumni who participated in the program’s annual interdisciplinary conferences, the call for proposals generated 78 applications. Applications underwent a round of peer-to-peer community judging by fellow applicants. The 30 highest scoring proposals were then judged by an expert panel consisting of members of NAKFI conference organizing committees. The three winners were chosen by the presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.
The recipients, with NAKFI alumni in bold, and their project titles are:
Jody Deming, University of Washington
* Fiscal agent for grant, Djerassi Residents Artists Program Daniel Kohn, Kohnworkshop Heather R. Spence, Marine & Bioacoustics Programs, Michelle’s Earth Foundation (GRACIASS) Jonathan Berger, Stanford University Timothy J. Broderick, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Margot H. Knight, Djerassi Residents Artists Program Timothy W. Weaver, University of Denver Ocean Memory: A New Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Global-Scale Challenges Memory involves the recall of events, pruned and processed from countless recordings by neural networks and thereby shaping future behavior. The ocean and its inhabitants hold memories of events throughout the evolution of the planet, awaiting our cognition. This proposal established a thriving community exploring and expressing Ocean Memory, a new line of highly evocative scientific inquiry , aiming for a sea change in our ability to address challenges of the Anthropocene. The approach builds upon NAKFI best practices, spanning disciplines required to address agents of memory and adding novel elements of distributed interactive spaces and grants for cross-disciplinary mentoring.
Catch Marine Biologist Dr. Heather Spence on Nat Geo Wild’s show When Sharks Attack: Season 4 Episode 5 “Mayhem in Mexico” in which she explores the impact of sound on shark behavior.
Don’t let the name of the show put you off – there’s a lot of good info and pro shark messaging! #SharkWeek #SharkFest #FriendsOfSharks
As part of my ongoing work on Ocean Memory, on July 8 2018 at noon I will present a new composition for live solo cello with recorded coral reef soundscape composition entitled ‘Reef Recall.’ The piece explores past crustacean and fish conversations in the context of natural and human-imposed cycles. The performance is sponsored by the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and DC Listening Lounge ‘Sound Scene XI: Mapping Memory’.
Posted on June 13th, 2018 by Heather
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Sound Walks can happen anywhere, anytime – all you need is to focus on listening. Whether for a minute or a day, taking the time to prioritize your ears (and your body – sound can be felt as well as heard!) leads to surprising discoveries and a sense of connectedness with the surrounding environment.
July 18 is World Listening Day. To celebrate, I encourage you to lead your own Sound Walk. Here’s a checklist to get you started.
Do you want to do the sound walk by yourself, or with others? Do you want to record the experience?
Where and when? Consider the types of sounds you may hear (‘natural’, manmade,…) at different times of day, as well as practical concerns such as shade, accessibility, desires and abilities of fellow sound walkers, etc. You might want to plan a route, or see where whim takes you.
Begin the walk by just listening, taking in the rich acoustic information, avoiding talking in order to listen closely
When ready, share observations. What did you hear? How would you describe it? Where is it coming from? How does it make you feel?
Continue alternating listening and sharing – and at the end, please share your experiences with me and World Listening Day!
Today, we celebrate all life with explicit recognition of the abundance and opportunities our planet provides. Let each of us take at least a few moments today to reflect on how fortunate we are and consider how we can strengthen our communities and ecosystems.
Sound is central to dolphin lives. They use sound not only for communication, but also to “see” using echolocation!
You can learn more about sound in the environment and have a good time by going on a Sound Walk:
Choose a location. Any location. Alone or with a group.
Close your eyes and listen to any sounds you hear.
Now open your eyes and move to another nearby location. Do the same thing.
What sounds are the same? What sounds are different?
Try to describe the sounds. What is the source of the sound? What does the sound “sound” like?
What sounds are produced by living creatures? By machines?
Which sounds seem pleasant? Unpleasant?
Keep going as long as you can! You can also try multiple locations, indoors or outdoors.
You’ll be amazed at the things you discover when you actively focus on the wealth of sonic information that is all around us!
Spread the word and raise awareness of noise pollution and the importance of sound to dolphins!
Posted on April 14th, 2017 by Heather
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