Deep Recording - A Proposal
The idea of “Deep Recording” is a direct result of our field expeditions and conversations around sound. In their turn, these conversations are both informed by the literature that accompanied us at that time and by sharing our listening impressions on-site and when playing back the sounds.[7]
Deep Recording is inspired and informed by Pauline Oliveros’ practice of Deep Listening which proposes “to include the whole space/time continuum of sound” (Oliveros 2005: xxiii). It is also informed by the practices of field recording and soundwalking for which the geofón is a manifestable tool. As researcher and entrepreneur Karen Bakker (2022) demonstrated, technology can open novel paths and options for perceiving (and preserving) nature. Deep recording connects with an understanding of listening to all that is vibrating, even if not audible, towards an understanding of sound that is a product of its context and a result of many variables. This follows the line of deep ecology as an environmental philosophy based on a holistic worldview, wherein humans have no intrinsic right to overexploit natural resources in the name of economic growth, progress, comfort, and well-being (see Seed, Macy, Fleming and Naess 2007). We should consider all forms of life to be of equal importance. Deep ecology states that diversity of life is innately valuable, that resources should only meet the vital needs of humanity, and that the human population should therefore strive to be able to live sustainably and ethically. Deep ecology criticizes mainstream environmentalism for its anthropocentric perspective, as it considers nature and its preservation in terms of its value as a resource for humans.
Indeed, many of the early scientific and sound studies failed to understand other species' auditory systems, mainly because they would try to do so by comparing and mirroring these auditory systems to the human (Horowitz 2012; Bakker 2022). Deep Recording resonates with other considerations beyond just listening, namely, Timothy Morton’s proposal of “the symbiotic real” (Morton 2017), Eduardo Kohn’s (2013) suggestion that a conception of the world should include entities beyond the human, and Donna Haraway’s proposal to “stay with the trouble of living and dying in response-ability on a damaged earth” (Haraway 2016: 2). Respectively, amongst themselves and in accordance with Deep Recording, these proposals have in common the ambition for a horizontal relationship between the different entities that occupy the planet, a symbiosis that advocates and leads to a smaller scale humans should occupy in order to come to a more balanced planet and a becoming-with other species. In addition, Deep Recording advocates for an extensive mode of listening, a mode of listening that is not oblivious to geology and promotes ecological engagement.
Deep Recording comprises a practice of field recording that unfolds beyond what is immediately accessible to humans towards protecting the environment, as a “tool of care” (LaBelle 2020a). It puts forward an idea of sound beyond sound; sound beyond what is audible. It is an acoustic revolution, “positioned as a critical framework for engaging a politics of listening” (LaBelle 2020b: 551). It defends the idea that sustainability and communal well-being need to be extended to audition.