Session 10: The Terrain of Infrasound
Sunday 1 March
12:00 - 14:00
Paradiso, Main Hall
Infrasound is extremely long sound waves (up to 171 kilometres) below the threshold of human hearing. They literally connect the solid Earth to oceans and weather as well as to industrial practices. Infrasound-sensing stations all over the world record, for example, rocket launches, auroras, collapsing glaciers, mudslides, atomic tests and mine explosions. The largest infrasound event recorded so far was the air burst of the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013. Environmental infrasound exhibits an intermingling of large-scale human industrialised activity with earth- and atmosphere-related frequencies. Sound artist Raviv Ganchrow explores this aspect of infrasound in his work-in-progress, Long Wave Synthesis, a sound installation on land-art scale. A ‘field trip’ to his work presents the occasion for three lectures on different aspects of infrasound. The panel is followed by a bus trip to the Long Wave Synthesis installation site.
Hillel Schwartz: 'The Ups and Downs of Waves'
Sunday 1 March
12:00 - 14:00
Paradiso, Main Hall
Waves are implicitly historical, as they require time and have been regularly inventoried for their cycles. Do ‘long waves’ necessitate, or implicate, a peculiar sense of history or a particular notion of change, force, inclusiveness or conclusiveness?
Jon Hagstrum: 'Avian Navigation, Pigeon Homing and Infrasound'
Sunday 1 March
12:00 - 14:00
Paradiso, Main Hall
Birds can navigate accurately over hundreds to thousands of kilometres. Their senses outnumber those of humans and can detect small changes in barometric pressure and the weak geomagnetic field. Jon Hagstrum discusses how birds might use natural infrasonic signals for long-range navigation.
Raviv Ganchrow: 'In the Company of Long Waves'
Sunday 1 March
12:00 - 14:00
Paradiso, Main Hall
The saturated spectrum of infrasound suggests that toned-down sounds don’t necessarily diminish. The lowest threshold of human hearing is also the upper register of an immense sonic territory that literally interfaces landmass with oceans and skies.