Listening in the Wild (2020)

Listening in the Wild is a series of immersive soundscapes and site-specific photography exploring environments across the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The project was commissioned for Horizon Festival 2020 in Australia and produced live and streamed for listeners at home as remote experiences during Covid-19 lockdowns. These experiences are created by artists Lyndon Davis, Dr Leah Barclay and Dr Tricia King as transient listening experiences interwoven with Kabi Kabi stories.

The locations include virtual sound walks through Eudlo Creek National Park, a journey along the Maroochy River and an ocean expedition from Mooloolaba Beach with all audio produced and mixed live by Leah Barclay. Each soundscape is accompanied by site-specific photography by documentary photographer Tricia King. These virtual listening experiences are interwoven with Kabi Kabi stories from Lyndon Davis and investigate how remote embodied experiences of natural environments can facilitate ecological empathy, cultural knowledge and connection to place. Listening in the Wild builds on a large-body of research in immersive media art responding to ecological crisis and climate action. 
Under the cultural guidance of Kabi Kabi artist Lyndon Davis, Listening in the Wild explored new ways of using virtual technologies with live soundscapes and site-specific photography to connect audiences to locations and cultural knowledge across the Sunshine Coast. The project developed new tools for streaming audio in a high-quality format and asked how we can appropriately and effectively use audio-visual experiences to connect communities to place and develop a deeper understanding of cultural and environmental knowledge. 

The project was awarded the 2021 APRA Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music – the highest accolade for experimental music in Australia. Judges’ comments included ‘There are no projects more exciting and necessary in Australia at this time.’

This website serves as documentation for the project, with recordings of the live streams and photography highlights. Listening in the Wild is a deep listening experiences with binaural soundscapes that are best experienced with headphones. ​We encourage you to engage with Tricia King's images from the site, then close your eyes, put your headphones on and lie down somewhere quiet to listen.

OLD WOMAN ISLAND – JULY 26, 2020

Old Woman Island, also known as Mudjimba Island, is a significant cultural site on Kabi Kabi Country on the Sunshine Coast. Mudjimba is a coastal area between Coolum Beach and Maroochydore is 100 km north of central Brisbane. The Listening in the Wild team traveled by boat from Mooloolaba, recording dolphins and whales with hydrophones along the way. The rough waters meant swimming across to access the island once anchored near the local reefs. 
The was the final edition of Listening in the Wild and follows the ocean expedition from Mooloolaba to Old Woman Island with the soundscapes of migrating humpback whales, dolphins and our local reefs interwoven with Kabi Kabi stories of place from Lyndon Davis. This edition is supported by Subsurface Scuba and the Reef Clean Team Sunshine Coast

EUDLO CREEK –   JULY 19, 2020 

Eudlo Creek is a national park on Kabi Kabi Country on the Sunshine Coast in the south of Palmwoods. It is an incredibly biodiverse environment with a large scar tree and home to various vulnerable species including the Tusked frog. This sound walk focuses on the sounds beneath the surface and features the voice of Lyndon Davis and Brent Miller. 

MAROOCHY RIVER –   JULY 12, 2020

The Maroochy River is is culturally significant river system on the Sunshine Coast on Kabi Kabi Country. The river rises from the eastern slopes of the Blackall Range and flows east through Eumundi, before entering the sea at Cotton Tree, Maroochydore.