Elephant Talk

Vicki Hallett

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2016
• Location: Brisbane, Australia

Abstract:

Program notes: The Elephant Listening Project from Cornell University is the basis of Elephant Talk/Elephant Listening Project music performances. They present not only logistical difficulties but musical difficulties. It was 2-3 years of attempting to confirm the possibility of the project with Cornell University. The researchers and contacts of course, were deep in Africa recording the sounds for their research. Threats of poaching are a reality and in one instance, although the researcher reached safety, the elephants weren't so lucky. Cornell University use a variety of technological platforms for their research both recording and processing of these recordings. The music created also uses a variety of technological and compositional methods to both utilise the sounds and to create something that is inspiring, innovative and become a whole listening experience. Through using different format types of sounds, for example: infrasonic sampled so that humans can hear them as well as regular files, the aim is to create relationships between the natural environment of the forest elephants, the other recorded acoustic occurrences while incorporating various instruments to create a conversation between the sonic environment, performer and listener.

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime2016-music-Hallett2016,
 abstract = {Program notes: The Elephant Listening Project from Cornell University is the basis of Elephant Talk/Elephant Listening Project music performances. They present not only logistical difficulties but musical difficulties. It was 2-3 years of attempting to confirm the possibility of the project with Cornell University. The researchers and contacts of course, were deep in Africa recording the sounds for their research. Threats of poaching are a reality and in one instance, although the researcher reached safety, the elephants weren't so lucky. Cornell University use a variety of technological platforms for their research both recording and processing of these recordings. The music created also uses a variety of technological and compositional methods to both utilise the sounds and to create something that is inspiring, innovative and become a whole listening experience. Through using different format types of sounds, for example: infrasonic sampled so that humans can hear them as well as regular files, the aim is to create relationships between the natural environment of the forest elephants, the other recorded acoustic occurrences while incorporating various instruments to create a conversation between the sonic environment, performer and listener.},
 address = {Brisbane, Australia},
 author = {Vicki Hallett},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 editor = {Andrew Brown and Toby Gifford},
 month = {June},
 publisher = {Griffith University},
 title = {Elephant Talk},
 year = {2016}
}