Dear nature recordists,
The London Sound Survey (www.soundsurvey.org.uk) is a field recording and s=
ound mapping website which has been online since May 2009. I have posted he=
re a few times in the past and have been very grateful for the technical ad=
vice offered.
There's a new site section under development with the aim of exploring the =
probable long-term changes in the sound environment of what's now the Great=
er London area. It's called the Holocene Sound Project because its remit is=
that geological epoch, stretching from some 11,500 years ago to the presen=
t - the time in which human beings developed agriculture, industrialisation=
and so grew from a global population of a few million to over 7 billion to=
day.
Just before Christmas, an agreement was reached with the Museum of London's=
Archaeology department to develop the Holocene section in co-operation wit=
h their Thames Discovery Programme (www.thamesdiscovery.org). The first goa=
l is to create a pool of Creative Commons-licensed material from which both=
our projects can benefit.
I'm writing this post on behalf of both projects to invite naturerecordists=
people to become acknowledged contributors. We'd be very pleased to hear f=
rom anyone willing to share with us good quality wildlife and soundscape re=
cordings from the following environments, which are intended as analogues f=
or the London area at different points in the past:
Tundra
Birch woodland
Boreal forest
Broadleaf forest
Freshwater and brackish marshes
Estuary mudflats
Cold and temperate heathland
Recordings should be from Europe or Scandinavia please, between three and t=
en minutes long, in WAV format, and contain no sounds directly attributable=
to human activity, such as footsteps, speech, and vehicles.
The eventual goal will be to embed the recordings into a series of interact=
ive online timelines. Any contributor is more than welcome to include mater=
ial for a featured profile, such as a photo, description of their work in g=
eneral, and links to a blog or website.
You can contact me directly via private message through the London Sound Su=
rvey's guestbook page:
http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/sayhello/
. . . and/or upload recordings to the site's Soundcloud dropbox (you don't =
need to be signed up with Soundcloud to use it):
http://soundcloud.com/london-sound-survey/dropbox
Of course, it is impossible to recreate fully how things must have sounded =
in the Mesolithic era. I am not a disinterested party, as I am nuts about f=
ield recording, but I do not think there is any medium better than sound fo=
r encouraging people to make that imaginative leap.
Best wishes,
Ian Rawes
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The London Sound Survey http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk
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