World Listening Day

You are invited to participate in the first World Listening Day, which happens on Sunday, July 18, 2010. The purposes of World Listening Day are:
• to celebrate the practice of listening as it relates to the world around us, environmental awareness, and acoustic ecology
• to raise awareness about issues related to the World Soundscape Project, World Listening Project, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and individual and group efforts to creatively explore phonography
• to design and implement educational initiatives which explore these concepts and practices

World Listening Day is being organized by the World Listening Project, in partnership with other organizations. July 18 was chosen as the date for World Listening Day because it is the birthday of the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. Schafer is one of the founders of the Acoustic Ecology movement. The World Soundscape Project, which he directed, is an important organization which has inspired a lot of activity in this field, and his book Soundscape: The Tuning of the World helped to define many of the terms and background behind the acoustic ecology movement.

Here are some organizations and projects that will be part of World Listening Day:
American Society for Acoustic Ecology
Auroral Borealis Listening Group (Alaska)
Berg 26 (Berlin)
Chicago Phonography
Citizen Sound
Community Sound [e]Scapes
free103point9’s broadcast of GIANT EAR))) archives
Fruit for the Apocalypse – “The Stepney Soundscape”
Global Soundmap
Hellenic Association for Acoustic Ecology – “A Listening Demonstration-Performance and Sunset Silence Meditation” (Corfu, Greece)
Im Namen des Raumes (Berlin)
“Improv with Nature” (Sterling Heights, MI)
KKWNE (Paris)
LagosSoundscape
“Listening Around the A4074” (Oxford, England)
Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology
Music for the Soul: A Performance of Inspiring Music for Choir, Ensemble & Concert Band (Mackay, Qld, Australia)
New England Phonographers Union
New York Society for Acoustic Ecology
OISTAT Sound Design Working Group -- SixtySecond Theatre(Taipei)
PVA (Bridgport, England)
Radio Aporee
Seattle Phonographers Union
“Song Path” (Banning State Park, MN)
“Sonic Survey of Weymouth Seaside” (Dorset, England)
Sound Studies / Berlin University of the Arts
“Sounds Like Radio” (WDBX FM)
Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (Dorset, England)
Wild Sanctuary
World Forum for Acoustic Ecology
World Listening Project

Here is how you can participate in World Listening Day:
• You can set aside some time when you pay attention to your soundscape.
• You can organize a listening party when people play field recordings.
• You can organize a soundwalk.
• Other possibilities…

Updates regarding more events and participating individuals on World Listening Day will be announced soon. For more info, please email worldlistening@gmail.com.