Environments 12

Environments 12, 2023 listening environment: 8-channel sound installation, 35 mins (looped); turntable, vinyl record and record sleeves

Researched, written and produced: Sean Dockray, James Parker, Joel Stern Voices: David Chesworth, Jasper Dockray, Jenny Hickinbotham, Roslyn Orlando, Francis Plagne, Catherine Ryan, and their clones Design: Stuart Geddes Commissioned for the exhibition WILD HOPE: Conversations for a Planetary Commons, RMIT Design Hub

‘Is it difficult to reproduce the sounds of nature?’

Environments 12 is a new, speculative addition to the once-popular Environments series: a sequence of 11 records released between 1969 and 1979 that anticipated a mass-market in mood-altering nature recordings. The work takes the form of a multi-channel audio installation, presenting a world in which the environment itself has been updated. In this world, the reproduction, synthesis and management of soundscapes has become ubiquitous and planetised. Loudspeakers and microphones are laced through the biosphere, all in the name of a cybernetic ecology.

Unfolding across a series of historical, contemporary, and speculative scenes, the work is narrated by an ensemble of vocal performers and their generative voice clones. Together, this more-than-human chorus tells and retells stories of ‘psychologically ultimate seashores’, reef lullabies, natural symphonies designed for zoo enclosures, and large language models for whales and crows. A collection of songs and fables recovered from the ruins of a future history.

Link to audio, sleeve art, and liner notes.

For information about installation, email us at machinelistening2020@gmail.com