BioMusic, Extinct Bird Calls, and Walking Through Earth's History
The stories and music of extinct species, our planet, climate grief and healing, and how nature can positively impact our mental health.
Hi everyone,
Time for a more normal change-of-pace from the last newsletter; I’m bringing a collection of interesting environmentally-related things I’ve come across recently. As this newsletter developed from my outline, the theme of this substack is music. Soundscapes, the calls of long-gone birds, albums around climate/physical grief and healing, and a walk literally back in time. This set veers a bit tangential to direct design, and leans a bit into climate anxiety and how we can sit with it. Creativity can come from anywhere, and this is what I’ve been exploring lately.
BIOMUSIC
Soundscapes from extinct birds as a form of meditation.
Where The Wild Love Is is a meditative app that focuses on nature art and the soundscapes from our natural environment and different ecosystems to create a calming experience. From what I’ve listened to, there aren’t any talking elements, just beautiful soundscapes. But what I found really interesting and creatively engaging was that they’ve taken samples of extinct bird calls to develop meditative audiovisual experiences around, to increase awareness for bird extinction and to ensure that these recordings are not forgotten about and lost to the sands of time.
A small snippet from their Instagram account:
I believe the extinct voices are behind a small paywall (ew), but there are some free options for nature meditations which are interesting, this little snippet sample, and also the option to sign up for a free trial and then unsubscribe but you didn’t hear it from me ;) I just really thought it was an awesome idea, (it isn’t too expensive), and I really liked the sample.
It reminded me of this incredible short animated film by lemoncholy on YouTube–telling the true story of the last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō birds in Hawaii. Before they went extinct, field biologist John Sincock recorded their calls in Kauai. The film is only a few minutes long, entirely hand-animated, and breathtakingly gorgeous. I’ve re-watched it countless times. It makes me weepy without fail.
If you’re interested and want to be extra sad and want to listen to the calls without any additional background tracks or music:
If you’re interested in more about John Sincock and his expedition to observe and document the Kaua‘i ‘Ō‘ō, this is a great article here that even features scans of his original typewritten experiences with the birds.
Lemoncholy’s video also has an official soundtrack on Spotify too, the music for it was beautiful as well, if you liked the video as much as me!
MEDITATION
Deep Time Walk: An Interactive Walking and Listening Experience of the History of Earth
Come with us. Walk with us. We’re going back to the beginning. Not of everything, but of the Earth.
Deep Time Walk is a 4.6km walking audio book that tells the history of the Earth. It begins from 4,600,000,000 years ago (4,600 Million Years Ago) to the present with each metre walked representing 1 million years.
It’s an app as well, free this time, for both Apple and Android. “As you walk through time, the dramatized audio narrative combines scientific evidence with poetry to tell the story of Earth’s formation, providing a unique and educational perspective of deep time. Sensitively designed and engineered by a team of experts using appropriate technology, the experience encourages you to focus away from the digital screen and connect with the natural world around you.” (Deep Time Walk Website). A sample:
Dr. David Abram who’s a key creator behind this has this to say on the app:
We tend to think of history as just a human thing. And the land as a passive backdrop against which our human history unfolds. But our real history is the deep story of the land itself. The story of how these continents, oceans, this air, these winds and waters came to structure the world in the way it is structured today.
MUSIC
An album inspired by climate grief, healing and the passing of the months.
Complete Mountain Almanac is a concept album that revolves around being “a climate change record”. According to an interview in Uncut, the album is “an intimate, immersive mix of folk, classical and chamber music. Its 12 songs, one for every month of the year, address decay and healing, both global and personal.”
Each song is titled as a month, spanning January to December, with the goal of capturing the uniqueness of each month, the relationship between the seasons, alongside a climate change message. During production, Jessica Dessner was also diagnosed with breast cancer, and some parts of the album reflect her experience during this time.
I’ve found it both beautiful and intriguing, and am looking forward to listening to it closer and reading the lyrics when they become fully available for a more intimate experience with the music.
IN CONTEXT
So why does any of this really matter for our mental health? An app doesn’t replace going outside or stop animals from going extinct.
To pair with their app, WTWLI has a series of really interesting blog posts on nature and wellbeing. I thought this would be an interesting way to tie up some of these loose threads in the newsletter with an overarching theme.
In their blog post titled “How Observing Wildlife Affects our Well-Being”, Elena Goldberg describes how experiences with nature have a direct correlation to ”good health and well-being”, and how studies have shown that by disrupting our daily lives to experience nature, cathartic experiences can occur which can have profound emotional impacts on our physical and mental health. Obviously, going for a walk is great, but it can be hard if you don’t live nearby green-space. Goldberg discusses how:
Exposure to natural sounds have been associated with a decreased sympathetic response, that “fight-or-flight” feeling, and an enhanced parasympathetic response, which is sometimes referred to as the “rest-digest” response. (Scientific Reports, 2017).
Which seems like a leading idea behind their work, allowing accessibility to the calming effects of nature. Apps aren’t perfect, but the ability to take a small pause, breathe, and experience something else, even inside your own home, can be important.
There are definitely plenty of bio-inspired meditations, so while I’m using their work as a case study and particular point of interest, they’re not the only folks out there using bird songs and nature inspiration and incorporation into meditation. I’m confident YouTube and Spotify also have similar content if you’re interested in giving it a try as a break from your workday!
And that’s all for this week, folks! Hope you enjoyed!
Emma
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Reading: Babel by R.F. Kuang.
Watching: Catching up on seasons of our favourite anime. Right now: My Hero Acadamia Season 6.
Listening: Tropic Morning News by the National. I really feel it captures a lot of my emotional state around burnout and long covid and feels relatable to the general state of the world right now, and trying to do one’s best to get through it.