Animal Mechanical

Website using found and self-recorded audio

acauman.github.io/animal-mechanical

Animal Mechanical is a website that explores the relationship between biophonic (animal-generated) and anthropophonic (human-generated) sounds. The website lives as an interactive specimen archive of juxtaposed image and sound sequences. 

This project began with an investigation into soundscape ecology—the study of the relationship between various natural and human-generated sounds, and how they affect one another. I was particularly influenced by the work of soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause, who records soundscapes over long periods of time to identify ecological changes in the area.

Collaged animated GIFs reveal different sound pairings through a series of clicks. You can interact with each pairing individually, or create a new compositional soundscape of your own. While this website speaks to the conventions of specimen archives, it touches upon current issues surrounding the erasure of natural sounds in the environment due to human impact. At the same time, this project aims to provoke curiosity and dialogue through the lens of weirdness and humor.