ECOACOUSTICS: APPROACHES TO LISTENING, STUDYING AND TRANSMITTING ECO-CULTURAL SOUNDWORLDS WITH ALICE ELDRIDGE, GRANT SMITH, HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP AND LEAH BARCLAY
STARTS 2025-05-28 | 14 PLACES LEFT

THE BASICS

  • Six nights accommodation in a private room with mountain views
  • Five full days of teaching, workshops, discussions, activities and use of our excellent arts facilities
  • All inclusive - breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks included
  • Return transport from Toulouse included

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Explore the theory and practice of ecoacoustics - art, science, ethics, and politics
  • Build field transmitters for listening to sounds around Aulus and experiment with ecological radio
  • Explore the sound of diverse ecocultural systems, from the village and its surrounding water bodies and forests, to high altitude plateaus, during the annual transhumance
  • Explore a range of transmission and recording techniques
  • Unlimited use of our recording facilities, editing suites, arts library and performance spaces
  • Optional outdoors activities including ascent of Mont Ceint, and the spectacular Cascade d'Ars

BOOK NOW

This session costs $1,499 (or 4 monthly payments of $374.75).
To reserve, click below - no payment is required at this stage. You'll receive a booking confirmation email with secure payment links, and you'll have three days to confirm your booking by making a payment (either in full, or by starting a 4-month payment plan).
BOOK
This workshop takes a wide and inquisitive approach to ecoacoustics, listening, and sonic environments. You will be introduced to ideas, technical approaches and ways of working to develop your thinking and practice around soundworlds.

Following three consecutive sell out years of super inspiring sessions, Alice, Grant, Leah and Hildegard return for another installation of our Ecoacoustics workshop with fresh perspectives. This year, as well as exploring local ecocultural habitats, there will be options to engage with the transhumance, the seasonal movement of people and animals to summer pastures as snow recedes from the high Pyrenees.

By tuning in to the sounds of this event, we’ll consider its impact on the landscape, its effect on the soundscape of this mountainous region, its meaning for human society and our changing relationships with land.

Combining practical fieldwork in transmission, recording and data collection with talks and space to experiment, we'll dive into the art, science, technology, ethics and politics of ecological sound practices. Talks from pioneers in the field will frame excursions in the unique alpine landscape and around town. Opportunities for listening, transmitting and recording will be combined with research, discussion and practice back at CAMP.

Working with the sounds of Aulus and the surrounding area will give opportunities to reflect on your own practice, while exploring as a group how sonic ecologies provide rich opportunities for listening, study and collective action.

How does live transmission and remote listening enliven, deepen or alter alter our relation to other places, organisms, or events or ourselves?
What can listening tell us about the status of a particular ecosystem and our relationship to it?
How can listening, and listening to what others hear, help develop critical practice and thinking on nNature and Culture, Self and Environment, or questions of ecological and acoustic justice and help shape action?


The workshop will be led by Alice Eldridge and Grant Smith onsite, with guest video calls from Leah Barclay , and Hildegard Westerkamp .

Grant Smith (Soundcamp cooperative) will bring a hands-on workshop building streamboxes - affordable field transmitters that can relay live sounds from air microphones, hydrophones and bat detectors. By placing them in Aulus and the mountains above, we will bring sounds into the space for listening, mixing and discussion.

Alice Eldridge will introduce transdisciplinary perspectives on theories and practices of ecoacoustics. Approaching the soundscape as a semiotic interface, a variety of scientific, microphenomenological and indigenous perspectives on listening will be introduced; you will be invited to experiment with how different modes of ecological listening shift your own experiences of listening in relation to place, environment and other beings.

Joining us via Zoom from the Sunshine Coast, Leah Barclay will look at current perspectives and inclusive practices for Ecoacoustics research and creative practice. We will explore ethical and reciprocal approaches to listening, field recording and creative practice in addition to exploring the design and development of Ecoacoustics research projects that sit at the intersection of art and science.

Hildegard Westerkamp will join us for a 1-2hr video call, to talk us through the use of soundscape and ecoacoustics in her work, show her perspectives on the field, and answer questions. Hildegard will use her sessions to explore listening practice as a path to building resilience, flexibility and strength in unsettled times.



WHERE AND WHEN?

The course takes place at our residential centre in Aulus les Bains. It's two hours south of Toulouse, high in the French Pyrenees, very near the border with Spain. For detailed travel information, see the transport section. The course starts on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. We advise that you arrive the evening before (27/05/2025) - dinner and accommodation that night is included. The course runs for five days, ending on Saturday night. Accommodation on Saturday night is included, then we leave on Sunday morning (02/06/2024). If you decide to take the minibus with us, you will be picked- up in Toulouse at 6pm on 27/05/2025, and will be back in Toulouse at 11am on 02/06/2024.

HOW TO BOOK

To book your place on the course, click the button in the green section above. You won't pay anything right now - we'll send you a booking confirmation email with everything you need to know next. Your place is reserved without payment for three days.

You'll find a payment link in the booking confirmation email - follow the link to make a payment (either in full, or the first payment of a 4 month payment plan). In the latter case, a monthly payment plan will be put in place, so your card will be charged 1/4 of the fee today, and 1/4 each month (on the same day) for an additional 3 months. All card payments are handled by Stripe, and are extremely secure. We don't store any card data ourselves - all of this is handled securely off-site by Stripe. If you have a discount or grant code, you will be able to add it when you follow the payment link in your confirmation email.

Once you've made a payment, you'll receive another email containing your receipt, links to resources, contact information and access to our group chat to discuss the workshop with other participants.

IMPORTANT: BY SIGNING UP TO A COURSE (OR A PAYMENT SPLIT), YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS

INCLUDED IN THE COURSE FEE: SIX NIGHTS ACCOMMODATION, AND FIVE DAYS OF CLASSES AND ACTIVITIES, A COMFORTABLE PRIVATE ROOM AT CAMP, ALL MEALS (ALL DIETS CATERED FOR), UNLIMITED USE OF OUR RECORDING EQUIPMENT, EDITING SUITES, REHEARSAL STUDIOS, LIBRARY AND OTHER FACILITIES, POST-COURSE BENEFITS & SUPPORT (SEE BELOW)
NOT INCLUDED IN THE COURSE FEE: TRAVEL
STUDENT LEVEL: ALL WELCOME
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED: LAPTOP AND HEADPHONES WILL BE VERY USEFUL. IF YOU HAVE FIELD RECORDING EQUIPMENT, BRING IT WITH YOU.
POST-COURSE SUPPORT: BROADCAST OPPORTUNITIES ON CAMP RADIO; RELEASE OPPORTUNITIES VIA CAMP EDITIONS; PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION AND TOURING OPPORTUNITIES AT FUSE ART SPACE AND VIA OUR NETWORK OF PARTNER VENUES AND ORGANISATIONS.