WEBVTT

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I'm going to stand
here because I'm really

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too short to stand at a podium.

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It never seems to
work very well.

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Anyway, it is indeed
my great pleasure to--

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Stand closer too.

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It's indeed my great pleasure
to introduce David Dunn, MFA,

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ecologist, composer,
musician, and acoustics expert

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extraordinaire.

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The recipient of the prestigious
Alpert Award for Music in 2005

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and the Henry Cowell Award
from the American Music

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Center in 2007, David brings
both aesthetic and scientific

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perspectives to his explorations
of sound and sound monitoring.

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Indeed, his work spans the
sound spectrum from subsonic

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to ultrasonic.

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His compositions and
environmental soundscape

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recordings have
appeared in a wide array

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of international forums,
concerts, broadcasts,

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and exhibitions.

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And I do see that we have some
of his CDs available over here.

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So please do check those out.

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Much of his current work focuses
on developing technologies

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and strategies for actually
listening and monitoring

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environmental sound.

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And this is in both aesthetic
and scientific contexts.

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By way of background,
David studied with

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and assisted the highly
innovative American composer

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Harry Partch and performed
in the Partch Ensemble

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for more than a decade.

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He current-- David, that is,
currently resides in Santa Fe,

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New Mexico, where
he's president--

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Barbara, you're touching the--

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Oh, I'm sorry.

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[LAUGHTER]

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[INAUDIBLE]

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Unfortunately, I'm not one
of these people that speaks

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very well extemporaneously.

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So I have to have my notes in
order to get all this straight.

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Anyway, he currently
resides in Santa Fe,

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where he's president
of the Art and Science

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Laboratory and the
Acoustic Ecology Institute.

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Personally, it's been an
extraordinary experience for me

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to talk with David
and to learn about

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the many different contexts
in which he has worked.

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He studied ultrasonic landscapes
in hospital environments, which

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are guaranteed to make you
run for the nearest exit,

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I might say, and
collected acoustical data

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in any number of different
environments around the world.

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He's not only devised ingenious
and inexpensive devices that

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can easily be assembled and used
for acoustical investigations,

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but he's also worked on
highly sophisticated systems

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for producing more
natural ambient landscapes

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and constructed environments
such as zoos and aquaria.

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His work in bioacoustics,
bark beetles and the conifers

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that they attack, promises
to advance our understanding

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in some very intriguing
ways with regard

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to the dynamics of drought,
the trees' response to drought

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stress, and the bark beetles'
response to those stress

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signals.

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This latter work he has
carried out in collaboration

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with people, including Jim
Crutchfield, a physicist at UC

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Davis, and forest ecologist
Richard Hofstetter.

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I just wanted to say a
word about our institute

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and why we're
interested in this.

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As Gail said, we not
only are interested

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in environmental
research across campus,

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but we're very much interested
in bringing together

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collaborations among people
from many different areas

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and disciplines.

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And being able to bring
art and humanities

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into our family of
collaborators is really

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an exciting new development
that's just now unfolding.

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And this, in fact,
is our first foray

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here into actually
seeing and experimenting

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with what might be possible
with regard to moving

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into the future with
more of these activities

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and some actual fundamental
research as well.

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It's been a real pleasure
for me personally

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and for our institute to
collaborate with the folks

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here at the Poetry Center
on their series Oh Earth,

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Wait for Me.

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And I would like to thank Gail
Browne and Cybele Knowles,

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particularly for their
patience and assistance

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in helping me figure out all the
logistics of not only helping

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to fund his, David's,
appearance tonight,

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but also putting together
a wonderful workshop

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that he conducted Tuesday
night with UA graduate

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students and a couple
of us professors

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who were there as well.

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It was really a
fantastic evening.

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And I would especially
like, in that regard,

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to thank Alison Deming
for her particular support

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with this workshop.

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It really helped
make it go very well.

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And besides that, I
would also like to say,

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I've been attending as many of
these poetry events as I can.

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And I think it's just
a spectacular series.

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And I really look
forward to seeing

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more of these kinds of things.

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It's been enlightening,
provocative, and revealing

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in many ways, highly unexpected.

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And so with that,
I am especially

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pleased and honored
to introduce David.

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I have wondered increasingly
over the years what

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would happen if we could
bring some of the theories

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and techniques of music and
acoustics more generally

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into our ecological thinking.

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And as David's works
reveal only too well,

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we don't pay nearly
enough attention

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to what's happening in our
bioacoustical landscapes

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around us.

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It's truly an amazing adventure
to speak with someone like him.

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So in my mind, David's
work constitutes

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a very special example of what
creative collaborations can

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produce.

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And it's also a
remarkable example

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of what poiesis and
poetics are all about.

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So please join me in
welcoming David Dunn.

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[APPLAUSE]

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