Identification of Ambiences– Biophony
When we enter the garden we are introducing the biophony, this has many psychological and narrative implications. The biophony is the ‘voice of the natural world’ (B.Krause), this is an invaluable resource and can be used to evaluate the health of a natural environment. The sound of animals can represent the health and prosperity of space. In the context of this film, a pocket of life within a desolate plane. Harmony after destruction.
There is an extremely powerful narrative value to this biophony, Krause writes that there is reason to believe that animals and insects taught humans how to sing and dance.
‘Experienced composers know that in order
to achieve an unimpeded resonance the sound of
each instrument must have its own unique voice and
place in the spectrum of events being orchestrated.
All too little attention has been paid to the fact that
insects, birds and mammals in
any given environment have
been finding their aural
niche since the beginning of
time.’
(Krause, 1987)
Hesapia is a rebirth of life, a harmony between machine and biology. The biophony represents a teacher for the infant protagonist, and for the intelligence developing out of the mountain. An auditory representation of organisation from chaos, much like humanity filters itself into sections of functional niches, each animal occupies it’s own aural niche.
Bibliography-
Krause, B. (2022) Biophony, Anthropocene. Available at: https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2017/08/biophony/ (Accessed: November 29, 2022).
Krause, B. (1987) The niche hypothesis: How animals taught us to dance and sing. Available at: http://www.xenopraxis.net/readings/krause_nichehypothesis.pdf (Accessed: November 29, 2022).