This workshop takes a wide and inquisitive approach to ecoacoustics, listening, and sonic environments. You will be introduced to ideas, technical approaches and ways of working to develop your thinking and practice around soundworlds.

Following three consecutive sell out years of super inspiring sessions, Alice, Grant, Leah and Hildegard return for another installation of our Ecoacoustics workshop with fresh perspectives. This year, as well as exploring local ecocultural habitats, there will be options to engage with the transhumance, the seasonal movement of people and animals to summer pastures as snow recedes from the high Pyrenees.

By tuning in to the sounds of this event, we’ll consider its impact on the landscape, its effect on the soundscape of this mountainous region, its meaning for human society and our changing relationships with land.

Combining practical fieldwork in transmission, recording and data collection with talks and space to experiment, we'll dive into the art, science, technology, ethics and politics of ecological sound practices. Talks from pioneers in the field will frame excursions in the unique alpine landscape and around town. Opportunities for listening, transmitting and recording will be combined with research, discussion and practice back at CAMP.

Working with the sounds of Aulus and the surrounding area will give opportunities to reflect on your own practice, while exploring as a group how sonic ecologies provide rich opportunities for listening, study and collective action.



The workshop will be led by Alice Eldridge and Grant Smith onsite, with guest video calls from Leah Barclay , and Hildegard Westerkamp .

Grant Smith (Soundcamp cooperative) will bring a hands-on workshop building streamboxes - affordable field transmitters that can relay live sounds from air microphones, hydrophones and bat detectors. By placing them in Aulus and the mountains above, we will bring sounds into the space for listening, mixing and discussion.

Alice Eldridge will introduce transdisciplinary perspectives on theories and practices of ecoacoustics. Approaching the soundscape as a semiotic interface, a variety of scientific, microphenomenological and indigenous perspectives on listening will be introduced; you will be invited to experiment with how different modes of ecological listening shift your own experiences of listening in relation to place, environment and other beings.

Joining us via Zoom from the Sunshine Coast, Leah Barclay will look at current perspectives and inclusive practices for Ecoacoustics research and creative practice. We will explore ethical and reciprocal approaches to listening, field recording and creative practice in addition to exploring the design and development of Ecoacoustics research projects that sit at the intersection of art and science.

Hildegard Westerkamp will join us for a 1-2hr video call, to talk us through the use of soundscape and ecoacoustics in her work, show her perspectives on the field, and answer questions. Hildegard will use her sessions to explore listening practice as a path to building resilience, flexibility and strength in unsettled times.

Soundcamp are an arts cooperative based at Stave Hill Ecological Park in South London. We coordinate the long-form radio broadcast Reveil (2014 -) and a series of sound and ecology events (soundcamps) on Dawn Chorus day each year. Our work appears as broadcasts, workshops and events. Research covers participatory audio technologies and live media for art–science and environmental advocacy. Recent projects include: l a g – experiments with ecological radio: residency with Kate Donovan for Sonic Acts (2022); Acoustic Commons (2020-2022) for Creative Europe; As if radio.. (AIR) at COP26 Glasgow (2021).

Alice Eldridge is a researcher with an interest in how sound organises systems. Her work integrates ideas and methods from music, complexity science, computer science, ecology and indigenous cosmovision to advance theory and methods in ecoacoustics. Alice is currently Professor of Sonic Systems at the University of Sussex where she is co-director of the Sussex Digital Humanities Lab, co-director of the Experimental Music Technology Lab and a fellow of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme. Current and recently funded projects include development of novel acoustic methods for ecological assessment in terrestrial and marine environments, participatory action research for indigenous soundscape heritage and soundscape methodologies for wilderness mapping. Testament to her career indecision, she has appeared on BBC TV and BBC 4 as a soundscape ecologist; on BBC 3 as a free jazz cellist; on BBC 6 show as a contemporary chamber composer; and on BBC 1 John Peel show as a pop bassist.

Dr Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, composer, designer and researcher who works at the intersection of art, science and technology. Leah's research and creative work over the last decade has investigated innovative approaches to recording and disseminating the soundscapes of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to inform conservation, scientific research and public engagement. Her work explores ways we can use creativity, new technologies and emerging science to reconnect communities to the environment and inspire climate action. Leah leads a portfolio of research projects including Biosphere Soundscapes and River Listening that focus on advancing the field of ecoacoustics and acoustic ecology. She has received numerous awards and her work has been commissioned, performed and exhibited to wide acclaim internationally by organisations including the Smithsonian Museum, UNESCO, Ear to the Earth, Streaming Museum, Al Gore's Climate Reality and the IUCN. Leah's augmented reality sound installations have been presented across the world from Times Square in New York City to the Eiffel Tower in Paris for COP21. She is the president of the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology, the vice-president of the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology and serves on the board of a range of arts and environmental organisations. She is currently the Discipline Lead of Design at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Hildegard Westerkamp joined the World Soundscape Project under the direction of R. Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Her involvement with this project not only activated deep concerns about noise and the general state of the acoustic environment in her, but it also changed her ways of thinking about music, listening and soundmaking. In 1993 she was instrumental in helping found the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (www.wfae.net), and was chief editor of its journal Soundscape between 2000 and 2012. Hildegard’s compositions have been performed and broadcast around the world. She has composed film soundtracks, sound documents for radio and has produced and hosted radio programs such as Soundwalking, and Musica Nova on Vancouver Co-operative Radio.



WHERE AND WHEN?

The course takes place at our residential centre in Aulus les Bains. It's two hours south of Toulouse, high in the French Pyrenees, very near the border with Spain. For detailed travel information, see the transport section. The course starts on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. We advise that you arrive the evening before (27/05/2025) - dinner and accommodation that night is included. The course runs for five days, ending on Saturday night. Accommodation on Saturday night is included, then we leave on Sunday morning (02/06/2024). If you decide to take the minibus with us, you will be picked- up in Toulouse at 6pm on 27/05/2025, and will be back in Toulouse at 11am on 02/06/2024.

HOW TO BOOK

To book your place on the course, click the button in the green section above. You won't pay anything right now - we'll send you a booking confirmation email with everything you need to know next. Your place is reserved without payment for three days.

You'll find a payment link in the booking confirmation email - follow the link to make a payment (either in full, or the first payment of a 4 month payment plan). In the latter case, a monthly payment plan will be put in place, so your card will be charged 1/4 of the fee today, and 1/4 each month (on the same day) for an additional 3 months. All card payments are handled by Stripe, and are extremely secure. We don't store any card data ourselves - all of this is handled securely off-site by Stripe. If you have a discount or grant code, you will be able to add it when you follow the payment link in your confirmation email.

Once you've made a payment, you'll receive another email containing your receipt, links to resources, contact information and access to our group chat to discuss the workshop with other participants.