Festival of Social Science - Listening to birds: experiencing time, place and season through sound

Festival of Social Science - Listening to birds: experiencing time, place and season through sound
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This is a past event

Dr Andrew Whitehouse presents an interactive talk.

This talk will explore the fascinating relationships between humans and birds and the role that sound plays in this.

The sounds of birds are often a significant part of people’s experience of the world. In Aberdeen we might hear the singing of songbirds in spring, the honking of migrating geese in autumn and the cries of gulls throughout the year. What do these sounds mean to people and how do they shape the ways in which we relate to the world? How are cycles of time, such as days or seasons, influenced by the sounds of birds as they breed, migrate and wake up? This talk draws on responses to the ‘Listening to Birds project’ conducted in the Department of Anthropology to consider these questions and to explore how they help us to understand our relations with the places we live and the birds we share them with. We will also think about the connections between the significance of bird sounds in people’s lives and their concerns about the wider environmental changes of the Anthropocene epoch.

This event is running in partnership with the Festival of Social Science and is part of a programme of events supporting the 'Walking with Birds' exhibition in The Gallery.

Hosted by the University of Aberdeen Museums and Special Collections.

Speaker
Dr Andrew Whitehouse
Hosted by
University of Aberdeen Museums and Special Collections
Venue
The Sir Duncan Rice Library
Contact

scc.events@abdn.ac.uk

01224 274354