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What if visitors could hear manatees in real-time, listening in to their vocalizations during large winter gatherings? Can we design a inexpensive kit so easy to use that park volunteers can manage it with minimal training? These were the question that began a community engagement project with Blue Spring State Park in early 2024.

I’m proud to share the launch of their portable listening system! It’s designed to let park visitors hear underwater sounds in real time, including the vocalizations and feeding activity of manatees, captured in real-time using a hydrophone. Research for this special soundscape experience was originally started by one of my senior students in spring 2024 and carried forward by me into the summer.

The system made its public debut during Blue Spring’s annual festival—and it was clearly a hit! Park rangers reported that over 1,000 visitors used the station over the weekend. The response highlights just how powerful sound can be in helping people connect more deeply with the natural world.

Special thanks to Ranger Connor Wagner and Kay Hallum for their collaboration on this project. The park put together a short video featuring real manatee sounds alongside visuals of visitors using the headphones. Check out the full clip and learn more on Instagram.

Here’s a list of the key items that when into building this kit:

• Zoom H1 XLR recorder
• Aquarian H2D hydrophone
• Zoom ZHA-4 4-channel headphone amplifier
• Audio-Technica ATH-M20x headphones

Tags: community engagement, hydrophone, manatees, soundsc, state-parks • Posted in teaching • No Comments »

Young Sound Seekers fosters an inclusive learning community, but achieving this goal was a journey. In July of this year, I was fortunate to present about that process at the In The Field 2 conference, organized by CRiSAP at the London College of Communication.

Early on, my co-director Eve Payor and I, both sighted, realized that simply adapting our existing soundscape lessons wasn’t enough. We needed a curriculum that was specifically designed with accessibility in mind. We started by consulting visually-impaired audio professionals, who shared their experiences navigating the world as blind creators. Their insights on overcoming barriers helped us avoid many common missteps in accessibility.

Next, we evaluated tools and technologies to ensure they met accessibility standards. Devices with tiny touchscreens were replaced with Zoom H4 series recorders because they have tactile controls and clear spatial layouts. We also explored the benefits of smartphone apps like those from Shure, which integrate screen reading capabilities for enhanced accessibility.

Traditional exercises like soundwalking were also rethought, adapting them into the more inclusive activities like Listen-Pair-Share. Our goal with each lesson was to empower students to discuss and reflect on their sonic experiences, making natural soundscapes accessible to all.

If you would like to learn more about these steps and others, you can now watch my 20-minute presentation online. As you’ll hear on the recording, I did my best to offer verbal descriptions of the slides, which should make this video more accessible to visually impaired audiences.

It was an absolute privilege to spend three days at a conference dedicated entirely to the creative possibilities of audio field recording. I had a lot of great conversations with fellow attendees about Young Sound Seekers while in London, and I hope this video documentation will spark more conversations!

Tags: accessibility, community engagement, field recording, inclusion, national park service, young sound seekers • Posted in presentations • No Comments »

I’m thrilled to announce the release of three brand-new lesson plans that I co-authored, dedicated to exploring the wonders of natural sounds! These educational activities are designed to appeal to park rangers and other educators looking for innovative ways to introduce students to the art of critical listening in the outdoors.

The lesson plans include:

1. Listen-Pair-Share – guide students in reflection and conversation about the soundscape.
2. Echoes of the Past – challenge students to think about how a location’s soundscape has changed over time.
3. Good Vibes – explore the impact of natural soundscapes on our health.

These resources are available now, and best of all, they are completely free! You can access them on the National Park Service website here:

• Teaching Materials from the NPS Natural Sounds Program

Through the Young Sound Seekers project, we are now working toward creating a comprehensive curriculum that helps students develop a deeper connection to the natural world through sound. We are continually working to expand and publish more of these materials, so stay tuned for future updates and new releases!

Tags: lesson plans, listening, soundscape, young sound seekers • Posted in publications, teaching • No Comments »

What is an audio-described brochure? It’s a brochure you can listen to, offering not just the text but also interpretations of visual elements like maps and photos. UniDescription is a platform and app that provides these audio-described brochures across the National Park Service, making the experience of visiting these parks more accessible for blind visitors.

Now, Canaveral National Seashore has an audio-described brochure, thanks to Young Sound Seekers and over 20 Stetson University students. The idea took shape after I met Michele Hartley, from the Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services, at a conference in August 2022. She told me about a smartphone app that provides visually-impaired visitors with accessible brochures for over 200 National Park Service sites.

After noticing that Canaveral lacked an entry, Eve Payor and I decided to create one during the Spring 2024 semester. I was also able to get my Stetson students involved in almost every part of production, providing them with valuable experience on a public-facing project. We recorded voices, created a sound library, and enhanced the sound design for a more immersive experience. 

I am delighted to share this project with everyone. It’s a significant step forward in making the park experience more accessible and enriches the experience for all guests, especially those who are visually impaired.

Here are a few links related to the project:

• Canaveral audio-described brochure content
• Stetson Today story about the project
• iPhone app
• Android app

Tags: accessibility, canaveral, field recording, sound design • Posted in general, teaching • No Comments »

I’m excited to share the release of a new sound pack on Freesound.org, featuring the unique and captivating sounds of the Canaveral National Seashore. This collection was assembled with the help of my field recording students at Stetson University. Our sound pack captures the essence of this special coastal landscape, offering a diverse range of audio clips, including the sounds of crashing waves, the underwater calls of dolphins and toadfish, footsteps on the sand and boardwalks, and the boom of distant thunder.

We’re proud to contribute to the creative community and hope these recordings help other artists and creative professionals. If you’re working on a documentary, a podcast, or any other media project focused on the Canaveral National Seashore, this sound pack will provide you with audio assets that can enhance your project and help convey the sonic beauty of this special coastal environment.

• Download the Canaveral National Seashore sound pack

Tags: canaveral, field recording, soundfile, soundscape • Posted in teaching • No Comments »

In September, I received an invitation to deliver this presentation for the 2023 AudioMoth Online Conference, organized by Nils Bouillard of Barbastella Echology. Thankfully it was recorded and Nils granted me permission to post it on YouTube.

As part of some lessons on underwater soundscapes, the Young Sound Seekers program deployed two HydroMoths in Mosquito Lagoon from September 24 to November 19. We unexpectedly ended up documenting the underwater soundscape during Hurricane Ian, which crossed over Florida days after our deployment.

This presentation explains how we captured its crossing over Canaveral National Seashore with HydroMoths from Open Acoustic Devices. I shared our setup for an inexpensive recording rig, some of the sounds captured by the recorders, and how the HydroMoths performed in extreme weather.

Tags: audiomoth, canaveral, hurricane, young sound seekers • Posted in presentations • No Comments »

For the last two years, I have been part of Stetson’s Quality Enhancement Plan through my Electronic Music (DIGA 365) course. Our QEP is focussed on information literacy and teaching students to gather credible information from dependable sources.

At first glance, it seems like a strange learning goal for a course emphasizing the production of electronic music. But as I explain to students, “how can you make a piece of House music, if you don’t first research and listen to existing pieces of House music?” For project 1 in this course, the students had to use Ableton Live to compose an original track in an existing style. It’s not a new project, but bringing in the QEP materials and mindset has allowed students to better trace the origins of their influences. They can better explain why a 909 kick drum is essential to House music, or which breakbeats are the most used in Drum n Bass.

Here are some examples of their genre tracks:

New for project 2 in Fall 2023, my students picked a classmate’s Project 1 and created a remix. They each had to provide the original Ableton Live materials so that students could build on their existing work. Each student also had to research and present on an existing remix selected from several curated “best of” lists (like Billboard’s 2022 list or NME’s 2011 list), which led to some great conversations about what makes a remix aesthetically satisfying. One student’s project ended up being really popular and became the focus for 6 of the 8 remixes, but I loved hearing the variety of these eight results!

Here are some examples of their peer remix tracks:

Blending in information literacy is changing the shape of how I teach electronic music. It has hopefully made the students more aware of the interconnected nature of popular music, and enabled them to better trace and more fully appreciate the influences found in their own creations.

Tags: ableton live, diga365, electronic music, genre, remix • Posted in teaching • No Comments »

Working on Young Sound Seekers has made me an advocate for accessibility and universal design. My advice to anyone who teaches: It’s really important to think about barriers that may exist while preparing your lessons, and think about ways you can eliminate them at the design stage. That is the philosophy that led me to the “Listen Pair Share” activity. I was so happy that I had the opportunity to share this at the WFAE Listening Pasts – Listening Futures conference. I talked about the need to rethink some of our cherished teaching activities (like soundwalking and silent journaling) through an accessibility lens and led a mini-demonstration with some volunteers.

The paper on “Listen Pair Share” for WFAE is current in press. I will update this post with the link when it becomes available. For now, you can listen to my March presentation and watch my slides in the following 20-minute video:

UPDATE DECEMBER 2023: The proceedings from the 2023 World Forum for Acoustic Ecology conference have now been published. This also marks the first issue of a new open access journal called Acoustic Ecology Review. It’s exciting to have this new outlet for research on sound and the environment! You can find my PDF paper and video presentation of Listen Pair Share here.

Tags: accessibility, acoustic ecology, listening, yss • Posted in presentations • 1 Comment »

Each Spring semester, I give my students in DIGA 366 time at the end of the term to develop advanced creative projects. Because of our work together on the WFAE conference, they only had four weeks to pull these off. The results are still impressive!

There were some live performance for Ableton Push, original sound designs for video, music and sound design for video games, sonification of threatened species data, and a podcast episode on video game nostalgia. 

You can watch and hear the results on Vimeo here:

Tags: diga366, electronic music, game design, sonification, sound design, teaching • Posted in teaching • No Comments »

For over a year leading up to actual event in March 2023, I was part of a team planning and producing an international conference right here in Volusia County. The Listening Pasts – Listening Futures conference marked the 30th anniversary of the founding of World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and was the first international conference on environmental sound studies in the United States. It was made possible through Stetson’s continuing partnership with Atlantic Center for the Arts, and literally brought together people representing every continent.

My involvement in the conference took on many forms. Before the conference, my advanced students in Digital Arts helped produce 13 sound installations as part of the artistic program on the ACA campus. The conference began with a panel discussion on our DeLand campus that brought together four leading voices on sound and the environment with me acting as moderator. On the second day, I presented about Listen Pair Share, a group listening activity that was designed to be more inclusive. On the third day, we invited conference attendees to join us on a Young Sound Seekers excursion, which gave our kids a chance to make connections with like minded people from around the world. It was months of planning that culminated in a jam-packed week of presenting, installing, moderating, conversing, and (most importantly) connecting.

This was likely a once-in-a-career opportunity for me to host artists and scholars with similar interests here in my backyard and share with them what makes Stetson and this area of Florida so special. In some ways, I am still trying to mentally process the event. I continue to converse with people I met because of this conference, and they all speak very highly of my students, Stetson, and ACA. I am sure that there will be ample opportunities to collaborate with these people in the future and that the impact of the Listening Pasts – Listening Futures conference will be felt for years to come.

Here are a few links where you can learn more about the conference:

• WFAE conference summary
• Pre-conference panel hosted at Stetson University
  • Video recording – 1 hour, 25 minutes
  • article covering the event by Rick de Yampert
• Keynote presentations – YouTube video playlist

Tags: aca, acoustic ecology, listening, wfae • Posted in general • 2 Comments »