David Monacchi: Explorative and Compositional Spaces for Fragments of Extinction

Lecture

[23.01.2022]

Can we solve the contradiction between the perfectly »organized soundscapes« produced by undisturbed ecosystems and our own drive for creation? The immersive concert »Fragments of Extinction« – a multidisciplinary project about the biodiversity of primary forests – shows us how to!

David Monacchi, ecoacoustics researcher, composer and interdisciplinary artist, will give an overview of his long-term project »Fragments of Extinction«, which was conceived in 1998 as an environmental sound-art and science dissemination project, which is recording 24-hour 3D sound portraits of the oldest and most biologically diverse primary equatorial forests in Amazonia, Africa and Southeast Asia. The recordings are stored as sonic heritage of ecosystems, analysed within an ecoacoustics framework, composed into specific 3D sound-documentaries and played back in museums and public spaces through specifically designed Eco-acoustic Theatres. The ultimate aim is to foster audiences’ awareness on the richness and fragility of life, at times mass extinction.

Within the talk, the new specific analytic work »A comparative analysis of paleo-tropical and neo-tropical circadian hi-def recordings through advanced EEDI methodologies: a case study« in collaboration with Almo Farina, will be presented, as well as the current developments in the construction of Sonosfera®, the last ecoacoustic theater dedicated to deep ecosystem listening.

The subsequent concert of Monacchi's »eco-acoustic compositions« will offer a journey through the most recent and oldest recordings made in the framework of the project, which represent a compositional complement of sound environments.