Listening to Earth

sensory sound installation

Listening to Earth

Listening to Earth is a sensory sound and video installation that invites audiences to listen and connect to their environment through sound.

Exploring the vibrational interplay between the sea and the land, recordings of Australian coastal environments captured with microphones, hydrophones, geophones as well as custom-built listening instruments have been recomposed and configured for a specially designed listening room. Audiences enter a darkened space and are immersed in the sounds of an intertidal environment with an enveloping spatial experience. Traversing strata of air, water and land, participants are invited to sit or lie on low benches that seemingly float just above the ground. Low frequency seismic vibrations gently pummel the benches to augment the experience and enable listening with the full body. The deep and intricate sound environment is augmented visually by reactive lighting and video projections as well as translucent drums covered in sand that pulse to the low rumble of the ocean.

Drawing upon deep listening practices, the experience is intended to facilitate audiences hearing the earth in ways that sit beyond their usual modes of perception. The work engages with the environment by positioning the earth as a store of vibrational memory and stories that, via an experience of heightened attentiveness, we may learn to better understand what it has to say.

Artists

• Diana Chester - concept/sound-artist

• Damien Ricketson - concept/composer

• Fausto Brusamolino - video artist

Acknowledgements

Listening to Earth was created with the support of the Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney.

Sound installation exhibited at the Chau Chak Wing Museum [13–18 Feb 2024]

Images from exhibition at Chau Chak Wing Museum, Feb 2024

Media articles

• Nick Galvin. Ever wondered what a starfish sounds like? Sydney Morning Herald (13/02/2024)

• Maddy Briggs. Listening to Earth: the counterpoint of sand and sea. Limelight: Music, Arts & Culture (09/02/2024)

• Listening to Earth [event listing]. Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney

Images from field recordings in coastal regions in south-eastern Australia.

Image: Damien Ricketson & Diana Chester [Photo: Stefanie Zingsheim]