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Might listening across scales help us understand, map and protect wild spaces? This chapter considers the potential for listening methods to integrate ethnographic, cartographic, geological and ecological perspectives toward more inclusive map-making. Effective conservation policy and planning must be evidence-based and represent the needs of all species living, working, playing and otherwise becoming in wild spaces. However traditionally methods and frameworks are selected which intrinsically prioritise one perspective over another: satellite imagery maps macro vegetation and structures of the built environment; site-based ecological surveys for flora and fauna give some detail of which organisms dwell at particular sites; and participatory walking methods are increasingly being used to access the knowledge, perception and values of various human stakeholders. These methods stem from diverse disciplines between which there is little interaction or methodological integration, meaning perspectives are de facto incomplete. We need new ways to create maps which integrate empirical, ecological and geophysical data at scale, with personal, particular existences, experiences and knowledges of the myriad non-human and human species which both sustain and depend upon wild spaces. This chapter takes as its point of departure the multi-disciplinary project WILDSENS, which places the acoustic environment (or soundscape) as the locus of interaction of human and non-human actors and processes, biotic and abiotic processes. Set in the Arctic Lapland – one of Europe's largest remaining wildernesses – the project explores methods of listening at and across different scales as a means to integrate empirical and experiential methods, big and small data in the creation of maps of wilderness spaces, and participatory engagement in wild spaces. We describe the impetus, experience and initial insights from recent pilot field work in Abisko on the edge of Europe's largest remaining wilderness, in northern Swedish Lapland. With multi-disciplinary backgrounds in cultural anthropology, soundscape ecology, human geography and the environmental humanities, we carried out ethnographic and ecological methods to engage with the local landscape, wildlife and key local actors from the tourism sector, urban planning, climate research and communication. By figuring the soundscape as the locus of interaction, we consider possible ways to bring both social and ecological matters of concern into earshot for future generations.

The benefits of ensemble performance are well recognized; notation supports group performance, but cuts in music education and changing musical cultures mean that notation is increasingly perceived as a barrier to entry. In an extended participatory design (PD) project, we co-designed and developed a software system for networked notation called Syncphonia with the aim of enhancing access to and experience of notation-based ensemble performance. In previous work, our formal evaluation and informal observations and feedback revealed a wide range of benefits. In this article, we are concerned with articulating the knowledge generated and insights gained through this extended PD process. To do so, we employ a framework for systematic reflection that has been designed to support investigation into the tacit knowledge generated in participatory design. Through this method, we focus inward and share three insights into the value of networked notation in contemporary musical cultures; we also look outward and articulate five approaches to PD with musical ensembles that might benefit others adopting this rich research method. A pluralistic and inclusive vision of notation is espoused and speculation is submitted that a dynamic, networked notation might ameliorate the boundaries between composing, improvising and performing to the benefit of all three.

Biosemiotics to date has focused on the exchange of signals between organisms, in line with bioacoustics; consideration of the wider acoustic environment as a semiotic medium is under-developed. The nascent discipline of ecoacoustics, that investigates the role of environmental sound in ecological processes and dynamics, fills this gap. In this paper we introduce key ecoacoustic terminology and concepts in order to highlight the value of ecoacoustics as a discipline in which to conceptualise and study intra- and interspecies semiosis. We stress the inherently subjective nature of all sensory scapes (vivo-, land-, vibro- and soundscapes) and propose that they should always bear an organismic attribution. Key terms to describe the sources (geophony, biophony, anthropophony, technophony) and scales (sonotopes, soundtopes, sonotones) of soundscapes are described. We introduce epithets for soundscapes to point to the degree to which the global environment is implicated in semiosis (latent, sensed and interpreted soundscapes); terms for describing key ecological structures and processes (acoustic community, acoustic habitat, ecoacoustic events) and examples of ecoacoustic events (choruses and noise) are described. The acoustic eco-field is recognized as the semiotic model that enables soniferous species to intercept core resources like food, safety and roosting places. We note that whilst ecoacoustics to date has focused on the critical task of the development of metrics for application in conservation and biodiversity assessment, these can be enriched by advancing conceptual and theoretical foundations. Finally, the mutual value of integrating ecoacoustic and biosemiotics perspectives is considered.

Passive acoustic monitoring is emerging as a promising solution to the urgent, global need for new biodiversity assessment methods. The ecological relevance of the soundscape is increasingly recognised, and the affordability of robust hardware for remote audio recording is stimulating international interest in the potential for acoustic methods for biodiversity monitoring. The scale of the data involved requires automated methods, however, the development of acoustic sensor networks capable of sampling the soundscape across time and space and relaying the data to an accessible storage location remains a significant technical challenge, with power management at its core. Recording and transmitting large quantities of audio data is power intensive, hampering long-term deployment in remote, off-grid locations of key ecological interest. Rather than transmitting heavy audio data, in this paper, we propose a low-cost and energy efficient wireless acoustic sensor network integrated with edge computing structure for remote acoustic monitoring and in situ analysis. Recording and computation of acoustic indices are carried out directly on edge devices built from low noise primo condenser microphones and Teensy microcontrollers, using internal FFT hardware support. Resultant indices are transmitted over a ZigBee-based wireless mesh network to a destination server. Benchmark tests of audio quality, indices computation and power consumption demonstrate acoustic equivalence and significant power savings over current solutions.

Little is currently known about the possible benefits of using networked technology to enhance ensemble performance. This study explored whether the introduction of specially devised technology – networked tablets using traditional music notation – to a primary school orchestra would enhance the experience of ensemble music. Particular emphasis was placed on how the technology could help children to overcome practical problems associated with ensemble playing for early-stage musicians (e.g., keeping in sync with other players), thereby leading to better engagement with the music and ultimately greater enjoyment. Findings from a thematic analysis of responses from a focus group with eight young orchestra players aged 9–11 years and from an interview with the orchestra conductor, together with indications from the statistical analysis of 28 orchestra participants’ questionnaire responses, suggest that the technology did help to reduce the practical problems associated with ensemble playing. This appeared to interrupt the downward spiral of frustration and lack of confidence in playing for some young people, and enhanced the likelihood of feelings of enjoyment and belonging.

Recent work at the Sussex Humanities Lab, a digital humanities research program at the University of Sussex, has sought to address an identified gap in the provision and use of audio feature analysis for spoken word collections. Traditionally, oral history methodologies and practices have placed emphasis on working with transcribed textual surrogates, rather than the digital audio files created during the interview process. This provides a pragmatic access to the basic semantic content, but obviates access to other potentially meaningful aural information; our work addresses the potential for methods to explore this extra-semantic information, by working with the audio directly. Audio analysis tools, such as those developed within the established field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR), provide this opportunity. This paper describes the application of audio analysis techniques and methods to spoken word collections. We demonstrate an approach using freely available audio and data analysis tools, which have been explored and evaluated in two workshops. We hope to inspire new forms of content analysis which complement semantic analysis with investigation into the more nuanced properties carried in audio signals.

Existing research has demonstrated that capturing stakeholder attitudes to landscape may be most accurately performed in the field, in spite of the challenges this brings (Evans and Jones 2011). The use of innovative walking methods is emerging as a key tool for understanding experiences of and relationships with landscape and place. In conservation biology, these and other mobile methods have used underlying spatial data to develop a landscape typology, then spatially tagged and captured stakeholder attitudes in relation to that typology in-situ (Scott et al. 2009). This poster presentation describes our forthcoming research in Abisko, Sweden, which seeks to blend bio-acoustic methods with participatory mapping in order to comprehensively capture stakeholders’ perceptions of, knowledge about and attitudes towards dynamic Arctic environments. The use of this multi-sensory, participatory mapping methodology, which amalgamates experiential human data with empirical ecological survey data, can advance understanding of the complex interactions between society, environment and place in modern conservation approaches (Zia et al. 2015). This interdisciplinary and collaborative research project aims to engage research subjects in active, sensory roles for the co-creation of mutually beneficial knowledge. By complementing existing geophysical/ ecological surveys with insights into local community land-values using ethnographic methods, we build capacity for understanding the impact of environmental change on local communities within the Arctic, whilst developing a new methodology for broader use in the future co-production of sustainable land-management policies internationally. Furthermore, involving people in co-created conservation tools such as wildness maps may be one way of addressing the multiple conflicts currently surrounding wild land and wild species

For all of humankind’s creative achievements, we in turn were made by a more powerful creative force: biological evolution. Since Darwin and Wallace’s great revelation (Darwin, 1861), it has become widely accepted that the astonishingly beautiful and complex structure and behaviours of the living world have taken shape through a remarkable process that is mechanical, blind and purposeless. This sublime beauty has inspired art since its primitive beginnings, but whereas we have always incorporated natural form in our paintings, sculpture and music, artists working with code now draw upon processes of the natural world. The arrival of general purpose computers in the middle of the last century transformed not only science, but compositional practice in ways that are documented throughout this book. Of importance to this chapter, it enabled us to harness behaviours inspired by natural systems, formalised by biologists and computer scientists into algorithms, in order to develop, perform and compose with software instruments. We now borrow from the designs of specific biological organisms, and the properties and processes of complex natural systems, as well as from the creative mechanism of evolution itself. In this chapter we examine a range of approaches to algorithmic music making inspired by biological systems. In doing so we cover topics that are located at the intersection of contemporary music and computer science and the study of creativity: optimisation and problem-solving using evolutionary methods; emergence, self-organisation and complexity; adaptive behaviour; and autonomy and self-determination. Section 1.1 provides a brief historical context of the core intellectual, musical and social movements which influence contemporary creative practice. Section 1.2 provides a primer in the concepts and tools developed for the study of systems which are foundational to the specific approaches described in the following sections. Endeavours in this field are often hybrid and idiosyncratic and cannot be neatly categorised. Nevertheless we organise an overview of the key musical motivations, concepts and computational methods of the field under four themes which map the topics above. Section 2, Evolutionary Search, outlines the application of evolutionary computation to design issues and opportunities associated with algorithmic music. In Section 3, Multi-Agent Compositions, we look at the ways in which agent-based modelling has been used to compose emergent, self-organising music. Section 4, considers how the study of adaptive behaviour has inspired the design and realisation of Adaptive Collaborators – interactive software systems which begin to enable active electro-acoustic partnerships. Many of these ideas come together in Section 5, which describes the development of Creative Ecosystems inspired by ecological principles. We end with a discussion of some of the critical themes for future work.

Background. Wellbeing issues are increasingly incorporated within conservation biology and environmental sciences, both in academic research and in applied policies such as the global sustainable development plans. The role of landscape on human wellbeing has been widely reported, but a comprehensive understanding of the role of soundscape has yet to be explicated. Research on the influences of sound on wellbeing has been conducted across a range of disciplines, but integration of findings is impeded by linguistic and cultural differences across disciplinary boundaries. This study presents the largest systematic literature review (2499 publications) of research to date, addressing the association between soundscape and human/ecological wellbeing. Method. It is divided in two components: 1. rapid visualisation of publication metrics using the software VOS Viewer, and 2. analysis of the categories of wellbeing associated with soundscape using the natural language processing platform, Method52. The first component presents network diagrams created from keyword searches and cited references (lexical, temporal, spatial and source networks) that explain the origin and evolution of the field, the influences between disciplines and the main contributors to the field. Research on the topic, occurring mostly between 2004 and 2016, evolved from a medical/physiological focus, into technological and psychological/social considerations, and finally into ecological/social research. Results. The evolution of the field was associated with the diversification of terminology and the evolution of new branches of research. Moreover, research appears to have evolved from the study of particular associations between sound and health, to an integrative multidimensional field addressing soundscape and wellbeing, across human and non-human species, including ecologically based studies. The second component includes a trained classifier that categorizes publications, based on keywords analysis, into three frameworks for understanding the association between soundscape and wellbeing: ‘Human health’, ‘Social and Cultural wellness’ and ‘Ecological integrity’. Conclusion. This novel methodology is shown to be an effective tool for analysing large collections of data in short periods of time. In order to address the gaps found during the study, it is recommended to increase research conducted in and by non-western societies and in non-English languages, and the exploration of ecological and sociocultural aspects of wellbeing associated with soundscape.

Background. There is an increasing trend of incorporating wellbeing issues into the global sustainable development plans but also into the academic research focus, within fields such as conservation biology and environmental sciences. The role of landscape on human wellbeing has been widely reported, but a comprehensive understanding of the role of soundscape has yet to be explicated. Research on the influences of sound on wellbeing has been conducted across a range of disciplines, but integration of findings is impeded by linguistic and cultural differences across disciplinary boundaries. Method. This study presents the largest systematic literature review (2379 publications) of research addressing the association between soundscape and human/ecological wellbeing to date. It is divided in two components: 1. rapid visualisation of publication metrics using the software VOS Viewer, and 2. analysis of the categories of wellbeing associated with soundscape using the natural language processing platform, Method52. Results. The first component presents network diagrams created from keyword searches and cited references (lexical, temporal, spatial and source networks) that explain the origin and evolution of the field, the influences between disciplines and the main contributors to the field. Research on the topic, occurring mostly between 2004 and 2016, evolved from a medical/physiological focus, into technological and psychological/social considerations, and finally into ecological/social research. The evolution of the field was associated with the diversification of terminology and the evolution of new branches of research. Moreover, research appears to have evolved from the study of particular associations between sound and physical health, to an integrative multidimensional field addressing soundscape and wellbeing, across human and non-human species, including ecological based studies. The second component includes a trained classifier that categorizes publications, based on keywords analysis, into three frameworks for understanding the association between soundscape and wellbeing: ‘Human health’, ‘Social and Cultural wellness’ and ‘Ecological integrity’. Discussion. The methodology used was an effective tool for analysing large collections of data in short periods of time. In order to address the gaps found during the study, it is recommended to increase research conducted by non-western societies and in non-English languages, and the exploration of ecological and sociocultural aspects of wellbeing associated with soundscape.

International audience; Affordable, autonomous recording devices facilitate large scale acoustic monitoring and Rapid Acoustic Survey is emerging as a cost-effective approach to ecological monitoring; the success of the approach rests on the development of computational methods by which biodiversity metrics can be automatically derived from remotely collected audio data. Dozens of indices have been proposed to date, but systematic validation against classical, in situ diversity measures are lacking. This study conducted the most comprehensive comparative evaluation to date of the relationship between avian species diversity and a suite of acoustic indices. Acoustic surveys were carried out across habitat gradients in temperate and tropical biomes. Baseline avian species richness and subjective multi-taxa biophonic density estimates were established through aural counting by expert ornithologists. 26 acoustic indices were calculated and compared to observed variations in species diversity. Five acoustic diversity indices (Bioacoustic Index, Acoustic Diversity Index, Acoustic Evenness Index, Acoustic Entropy, and the Normalised Difference Sound Index) were assessed as well as three simple acoustic descriptors (Root-mean-square, Spectral centroid and Zero-crossing rate). Highly significant correlations, of up to 65%, between acoustic indices and avian species richness were observed across temperate habitats, supporting the use of automated acoustic indices in biodiversity monitoring where a single vocal taxon dominates. Significant, weaker correlations were observed in neotropical habitats which host multiple non-avian vocalizing species. Multivariate classification analyses demonstrated that each habitat has a very distinct soundscape and that AIs track observed differences in habitat-dependent community composition. Multivariate analyses of the relative predictive power of AIs show that compound indices are more powerful predictors of avian species richness than any single index and simple descriptors are significant contributors to avian diversity prediction in multi-taxa tropical environments. Our results support the use of community level acoustic indices as a proxy for species richness and point to the potential for tracking subtler habitat-dependent changes in community composition. Recommendations for the design of compound indices for multi-taxa community composition appraisal are put forward, with consideration for the requirements of next generation, low power remote monitoring networks.

Music is a very human means of creating, exploring and communicating abstract ideas and emotions. This is made possible through the capacity of organised sound to recruit and coordinate dynamic patterns of interaction across a network of diverse objects and processes distributed across the brains, bodies and worldly objects of musicians and listeners. Reflecting my personal practice as an improvising cellist and my academic interest in digital music, I offer a particular account of some of the roles shape plays in framing and supporting these processes in both acoustic and digital music making. My own experiences are accompanied by those of other improvisers to illustrate the idea that shape provides a lingua franca to conceptualise and talk about relations between the otherwise divergent array of objects and activities tied up in musical creation, performance and listening. In particular, I consider how the role of shape differs during what I am calling ‘offline’ (learning, practicing, coding, listening) versus ‘online’ musicking (performance and improvisation in particular).

The critical importance of wilderness areas (WAs) for biodiversity conservation and human well-being is well established yet mapping criteria on which WA management policies are based take neither into account. Current WA mapping methods are framed in terms of absence of anthropogenic influence, and created using visual satellite data, obviating consideration of the ecological or anthropogenic value of WAs. In this paper we suggest that taking the acoustic environment into account could address this lacuna. We report the first investigation into the potential for ecoacoustic methods to complement existing geophysical approaches. Participatory walks, including in situ questionnaires and ecoacoustic surveys were carried out at points along transects traversing urban-wilderness gradients at four study sites in the Scottish Highlands and French Pyrenees. The relationships between a suite of six acoustic indices (AIs), wilderness classifications and human subjective ratings were examined. We observed significant differences between five out of six AIs tested across wilderness classes, demonstrating significant differences in the soundscape across urban-wild gradients. Strong, significant correlations between AIs, wilderness classes and human perceptions of wildness were observed, although magnitude and direction of correlations varied across sites. Finally, a compound acoustic index is shown to strongly predict mapped wildness classes (up to 95% variance explained MSE 0.22); perceived wilderness and biodiversity are even more strongly predicted. Together these results demonstrate that the acoustic environment varies significantly along urban-wild gradients; AIs reveal details of environmental variation excluded under current methods, and capture key facets of the human experience of wildness. An important next step is to ascertain the ecological and anthropogenic relevance of these differences, and develop new automated acoustic analysis methods suited to mapping the environmental characteristics of WAs. Taken together, our results suggest that future management of WAs could benefit from ecoacoustic methods to take the biosphere and anthroposphere into account.

This paper describes the impetus for, and design and evaluation of, a pilot project examining the potential for digital, dynamic networked scores to enhance the experience of ensemble music making. We present a new networked score presentation system, and describe how it has evolved through a participatory design approach. Feedback has highlighted key issues concerning synchronisation between conductor, performers and notation, and autonomy and adaptation for performers; we discuss these key points and present our future plans for the project.

Throughout the short history of interactive digital music, there have been frequent calls for a new language of interaction that incorporates and acknowledges the unique capabilities of the computational medium. In this paper we suggest that a conceptualisation of possible modes of performance–time interaction can only be sensibly approached in light of the ways that computers alter the social–artistic interactions that are precursive to performance. This conceptualisation hinges upon a consideration of the changing roles of composition, performer and instrument in contemporary practice. We introduce the termbehavioural objectto refer to software that has the capacity to act as the musical and social focus of interaction in digital systems. Whilst formative, this term points to a new framework for understanding the role of software in musical culture. We discuss the potential for behavioural objects to contribute actively to musical culture through two types of agency:performative agencyandmemetic agency.

International audience; Biodiversity assessment is a central and urgent task, necessary to monitoring the changes to ecological systems and under- standing the factors which drive these changes. Technological advances are providing new approaches to monitoring, which are particularly useful in remote regions. Situated within the framework of the emerging field of ecoacoustics, there is grow- ing interest in the possibility of extracting ecological informa- tion from digital recordings of the acoustic environment. Rather than focusing on identification of individual species, an increas- ing number of automated indices attempt to summarise acoustic activity at the community level, in order to provide a proxy for biodiversity. Originally designed for speech processing, sinu- soidal modelling has previously been used as a bioacoustic tool, for example to detect particular bird species. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of sinusoidal modelling as a proxy for bird abundance. Using data from acoustic surveys made during the breeding season in UK woodland, the number of extracted sinusoidal tracks is shown to correlate with estimates of bird abundance made by expert ornithologists listening to the recordings. We also report ongoing work exploring a new approach to investigate the composition of calls in spectro-temporal space that constitutes a promising new method for Ecoaoustic biodiversity assessment.

In line with the development of socio-ecological perspectives in conservation science, there is increasing interest in the role of soundscape perception in understanding human-environment interactions; the impact of natural soundscapes on human wellbeing is also increasingly recognized. However, research to date has focused on preferences and attitudes to western, urban locations. This study investigated individual emotional associations with local soundscape for three social groups living in areas with distinct degrees of urbanization, from pristine forest and pre-urban landscapes in Ecuador, to urban environments in UK and USA. Participants described sounds that they associated with a range of emotions, both positive and negative, which were categorized according to an adapted version of Schafer’s sound classification scheme. Analyses included a description of the sound types occurring in each environment, an evaluation of the associations between sound types and emotions across social groups, and the elaboration of a soundscape perception map. Statistical analyses revealed that the distribution of sound types differed between groups, reflecting essential traits of each soundscape, and tracing the gradient of urbanization. However, some associations were universal: Natural Sounds were primarily associated with positive emotions, whereas Mechanical and Industrial Sounds were linked to negative emotions. Within non-urban environments, natural sounds were associated with a much wider range of emotions. Our analyses suggest that Natural Sounds could be considered as valuable natural resources that promotes human wellbeing. Special attention is required within these endangered forest locations, which should be classified as a “threatened soundscapes,” as well as “threatened ecosystems,” as we begin to understand the role of soundscape for the wellbeing of the local communities. The methodology presented in this article offers a fast, cheap tool for identifying reactions towards landscape modification and identifying sounds of social relevance. The potential contribution of soundscape perception within the current conservation approaches is discussed.

Music is often seen as a very direct form of human expression—with personal creativity as the conceptual omphalos and primary origin of the compositional process. The interest here is in using the computer as an expressive, collaborative partner, one that answers back, interacts, and responds intelligently. This article examines special kinds of processes that give rise to outcomes beyond those that would appear possible from the individual parts that define them. It looks at processes inspired by nature and how they can be transformed to offer the musician or sound artist both new compositional tools and a foundational philosophy for understanding creative practice. Its approach comes largely from the systems sciences of general systems theory, cybernetics, and most recently artificial life. These disciplines have sought to understand the world in ways that favor process dynamics over the static, structural relations of objects, leading to a perspective defined by mechanisms rather than materials.

This paper extends previous work in evolutionary ecosystemic approaches to generative art. Filterscape , adopts the implicit fitness specification that is fundamental to this approach and explores the use of resource recycling as a means of generating coherent sonic diversity in a generative sound work. Filterscape agents consume and deposit energy that is manifest in the simulation as sound. Resource recycling is shown to support cooperative as well as competitive survival strategies. In the context of our simulation, these strategies are recognised by their characteristic audible signatures. The model provides a novel means to generate sonic diversity through de-centralised agent interactions.

The aims of this chapter are twofold: to provide a succinct introduction to Evolutionary Computing, outlining the main technical details, and to raise issues pertinent to musical applications of the methodology. Thus this article should furnish readers with the necessary background needed to understand the remaining chapters, as well as opening up a number of important themes relevant to this collection.

This paper addresses design approaches to algorithmic composition and suggests that music-theoretic tenets alone are unsuitable as prescriptive principles and could be profitably complemented by attempts to represent and recreate dynamical structures of music. Examples of ongoing work using adaptive dynamical processes for generating dynamic structures are presented.

Auditory displays have been successfully deployed to assist data visualization in many areas, but have as yet received little attention in the field of artificial life. This article presents an overview of existing design approaches to auditory display and highlights some of the key issues that are of practical relevance to the use of auditory displays in artificial life research. Examples from recent experiments are used to illustrate the importance of considering factors such as data characteristics, data-display mappings, perceptual interactions within and between display modalities, and user experience and training in designing new visualization tools. It is concluded that while further research is needed to develop generic design principles for auditory display, this should not stand in the way of exploration of bespoke designs for specific applications.