Wolf Listeners: An Introduction to the Acoustemological Politics and Poetics of Isle Royale National Park

Listening to wolf howls as both material object and socially constructed metaphor highlights the contested relationship between nature and culture. The author conducted field research on Isle Royale National Park from 2011 to 2015, from which data he offers a narrative wherein citizen-scientists who listen for the howl literally “lend their ears” to a wolf biologist who has led the longest continuous predator-prey study in the world. The theoretical framework of this essay extends acoustic ecology, first theorized by R. Murray Schafer, to include environmental history and cultural theory, which problematizes definitions of “nature” and “natural.” Ultimately, this introduction describes a nuanced form of participatory, situational environmental music that plays out in the everyday lives of those listening on this remote, roadless island on Lake Superior.

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Selling Nature to Save It: Approaching self-critical environmental sonic art

Organised Sound ◽

10.1017/s1355771817000292 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 71-79

Author(s):

Erik Deluca

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Environmental History ◽

Cultural Theory ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Environmental Activism ◽

Material Object ◽

Land Art ◽

Acoustic Ecology ◽

Sonic Art ◽

Socially Constructed

With similarities to the emergence in fifteenth-century landscape paintings, to poems by the Transcendentalists and to the more recent 1960s land art movement, environmental sonic art is always context-based and conjointly performs as environmental activism with aims to break down the nature/culture dualism. Nature, however, is both a material object and a socially constructed metaphor that is infinitely interpretable and ideologically malleable based on one’s values and biases. Does the environmental sonic artist acknowledge this? The theoretical framework of this article extends acoustic ecology, first theorised by R. Murray Schafer, to include environmental history and cultural theory – ultimately problematising definitions of ‘nature’ and ‘natural.’ Through this framework, the author critiques the way composer John Luther Adams represents his environmental sonic art. This analysis will illuminate a dialogue that asks, ‘What is self-critical environmental sonic art?’

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The Moose of Isle Royale: An Unnatural Condition?

10.1101/019984 ◽

2015 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samuel V Scarpino ◽

Rafael F Guerrero ◽

Philip V Scarpino

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Lake Superior ◽

Local Extinction ◽

Isle Royale ◽

Predator Prey ◽

Isle Royale National Park ◽

Population Crash ◽

History Of

The now iconic moose of Isle Royale National Park arrived on the island sometime between 1910 and 1915. Prior to that period there is no evidence of moose in either naturalist reports or in the archaeological history of the island. Early naturalists—while observing the moose during their first 20 years on the island—noted both their dramatic expansion, and equally dramatic population crash in the 1930s, see Figure 1. Around 1950, and just as the moose were rebounding, wolves crossed a frozen Lake Superior and began what is now one of our most emblematic predator/prey systems. Recently, the wolves on Isle Royale appear headed for local extinction. Calls to repopulate the island have renewed the vigorous debate surrounding what is and what is not wild about Isle Royale.

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