TY - JOUR
T1 - The sound of water
T2 - sensing a wetland intervention through interactive environmental audio
AU - Whitelaw, Mitchell
AU - Wassens, Skye
AU - Mackenzie, Adrian
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023/9/12
Y1 - 2023/9/12
N2 - The Sound of Water (https://flow-mer.org.au/napnap) microsite documents an environmental intervention at Nap Nap Swamp, a wetland in the western reaches of Australia’s Murrumbidgee River. A collaboration between a designer (Whitelaw) and an ecologist (Wassens), it was supported by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. We use audiovisual data storytelling to engage audiences with Nap Nap as it transitions from a dry to wet state. Focusing on a 9-day period in mid-2020, we combine audio and hydrological data to show the ecosystem’s response to a managed environmental flow, narrating this change through the wetland’s charismatic frog species, including the threatened Southern Bell Frog. In this paper we reflect on the technical and creative contributions of the project in visualising environmental audio, as well as its significance for wider practice. We highlight the value of creatively re-purposing ecological data and the importance of multi-stakeholder networks, and we argue that our celebration in this project of environmental management, intervention and care should be a key concern for future digital ecologies practices.
AB - The Sound of Water (https://flow-mer.org.au/napnap) microsite documents an environmental intervention at Nap Nap Swamp, a wetland in the western reaches of Australia’s Murrumbidgee River. A collaboration between a designer (Whitelaw) and an ecologist (Wassens), it was supported by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. We use audiovisual data storytelling to engage audiences with Nap Nap as it transitions from a dry to wet state. Focusing on a 9-day period in mid-2020, we combine audio and hydrological data to show the ecosystem’s response to a managed environmental flow, narrating this change through the wetland’s charismatic frog species, including the threatened Southern Bell Frog. In this paper we reflect on the technical and creative contributions of the project in visualising environmental audio, as well as its significance for wider practice. We highlight the value of creatively re-purposing ecological data and the importance of multi-stakeholder networks, and we argue that our celebration in this project of environmental management, intervention and care should be a key concern for future digital ecologies practices.
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U2 - 10.1177/14744740231197813
DO - 10.1177/14744740231197813
M3 - Article
SN - 1477-0881
SP - 1
EP - 6
JO - Cultural Geographies
JF - Cultural Geographies
ER -