Why Do Whales and Children Sing?

This is my response after reading Why Do Whales and Children Sing? (written by David Dunn) and listening to the accompanying CD:

Wow! This was a very delightful book. I enjoyed how the recordings—contrary to what some may think of recording technology—were so “colorful” and full of life. I loved the fact that the book focuses a lot on communication. In many of the examples, we hear animals making a vast variety of noises in different ecosystems. Dunn also mentions that many animals (insects included) communicate with each other in distinct ways as he juxtaposes that with the sounds that humans make (i.e. the video arcade), showing the contrast between intelligible communication and a cacophony of noises that aren’t associated with each other at all (which is very ironic, considering that we think of ourselves as the epitome of intelligence).

I found the “zen moment” in track 8 to be awe-inspiring. I never experienced anything quite like it in real life (the only time I’ve heard something similar was in films where the sound designers create the acoustical environments from scratch; it’s a “fabricated phenomenon,” so to say). It’s amazing how the frogs are very well aware of the raven and how, in just a few seconds, the frogs became silent to avoid becoming a meal. So often we only think of animals as things that produce random noises in nature, and with that said, the absence of noise clearly shows that there’s actually a deeper understanding between animals.

I also really liked the recordings of the underwater sounds, and yes, I can totally understand the point that Dunn brought up regarding how humans aren’t able to directly experience the richness of sounds in these underwater environments: I’ve recently been trying to consistently swim at Northwestern’s SPAC (Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center), and whenever I’m submerged in the water, I can barely hear anything (While underwater I can make out the faint sounds of water splashing and reverberating in the spacious indoor pool area, but everything is severely muffled). It’s awesome hearing real whales and walruses make noises that we would never even think of hearing on the surface! (Yes, they really do sound like alien noises!)

The idea of communication also got me thinking a lot about the works that we’ve experienced thus far (particularly Prairie and Florasonic): the sounds produced by these installations weren’t totally random like the video arcade, but instead, the way the sounds were programmed actually shows an awareness of communication. In a way, these works were successful at fabricating some sort of authenticity through that organic communication. Perhaps this element is also what makes the works more immersive and believable.