Un-lost in Translation: Sound, Ecology, Activism

This paper discusses musical compositions and sound art pieces that translate and transform the natural world for human listening and consumption. Works such as Andrea Polli’s Heat and the Heartbeat of the City (2004), Daniel Crawford’s Planetary Bands, Warming World (2015), Bert Barten’s Talking Trees (2017), and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s Machine Auguries (2019) aim to mediate between “nature” and “culture” by making the inaudible audible or differently-audible. Many specifically address the issue of climate crisis and environmental conservation, both explicitly, by highlighting humans’ impact on the environment, and indirectly, by bringing listeners closer to nature, with the hope of inspiring them to action. After examining a selection of compositions and performances, the composers’ and artists’ motivations are considered, with particular attention to their sense of agency in environmental issues. I offer a critical appraisal of this kind of advocacy and discuss how some of these acts of translation blur the line between nature and culture — both intentionally and unintentionally — and how questioning these categories of “nature” and “culture” forms a central facet of sound ecological activism.