Fragile Environments

Fragile Environments: harnessing creative interventions in sound composition and music technologies to encourage imaginative listening and increased agency in facing the climate emergency.

Evelyn Ficarra, Professor of Interdisciplinary Composition, School of Media, Arts & Humanities, University of Sussex

Heather Frasch, Professor of Music Technology. Department of Music. Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Myra Melford, Professor of Composition & Improvisational Practice, Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley

Fragile Environments is an artistic research project supported by the Peder Sather Foundation, in collaboration with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Sussex.

Project Abstract: Research has shown (e.g. Burtner, 2017) that artistic practice can be a powerful tool to disseminate knowledge around climate change and to counteract hopelessness and inaction. This project asks: how can we overcome a sense of powerlessness in the face of the climate emergency, through deep listening, creative practice, and technological sensitivity? Our trio, Concrete Sun, is an electroacoustic ensemble that explores sonic richness in real time performances; intricate musical soundscapes that open imaginative listening environments. How can we use our music, created from unusual combinations of instrumental, object-based sounds and field recordings, to encourage imaginative thinking around our environment? Can creative music technologies serve as a metaphor to challenge the destructive relationship between human behavior and environmental damage, creating the possibility for a renewed sense of agency? This project uses artistic practice as research, developing creative applications in the field of music technology to create new sonic worlds, inviting engagement with environmental fragility and climate change giving our listeners a sense of agency and possibility. We will achieve this by using collaborative methods to combine electroacoustic performance and spatialized sound, to explore ecological environments currently threatened by rising sea levels in the SF Bay and Trondheimfjord.

Stage 1: June 2024 Brainstorming residency at NTNU in Trondheim and Frosta, Norway. Meeting Ana Širović (bio acoustics, noise pollution) and Lena van Giesen (local coral reef spawning research).

Stage 2: January 2025. Residency at CNMAT, UC Berkeley. Project development and exploration.

Stage 3: May 2025 Collaboration with the EU funded artistic research project, SHORES. Site visit to NTNU research labs for ocean research, with presentations from Ana Širović (bio acoustics, noise pollution) and Lena van Giesen (local coral reef spawning research).

Upcoming Project Stages: August 2026 Artistic Residency in collaboration with SHORES in Trondheim Norway.