Sonic Geographies of Extinction

Keywords: sound, extinction, more-than-human geographies, political ecology, pollution, animals, acoustic ecology, sound art, environmental justice
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Sonic geographies are being remade in the Anthropocene. On one end, we are faced with the sounds of extinction: the clamour of intensive industrial activity like rocket launches and sonar mapping; terror-filled soundscapes of increasingly devastating weather events; sound art installations of melting glaciers and extinct animals’ voices. On the other, the extinction of sounds: iconic songbirds disappearing from our everyday soundscapes; more-than-human lines of communication being drowned out by mechanical noise; the apparent endangerment of ‘natural soundscapes’ as objects or places in need of protection. In this paper, I ask about sonic geography’s place to comment on the extinction crisis. What can a sonic lens reveal about the politics, affects, and everyday experiences of extinction, and what can a focus on extinction reveal about the sonic production of space? To explore these questions, I consider three disparate contexts in which sound, space, and extinction are intertwined: the declaration of a “sensory extinction crisis” by acoustic ecologists, the burgeoning genre of extinction memorials in sound art practice, and the environmental injustices of sound pollution. Through these cases, I argue that the extinction of sounds and the sounds of extinction are deeply spatial and political processes; affecting diverse geographies in unequal, embodied, and intense ways. Sonic geography, I argue, is well placed to explain and interrogate the role of sound in the extinction crisis— allowing us to address environmental sound not only as an antagonistic actor or an object of concern, but also as a potential route to more hopeful futures.