Friday 31 January 5pm
In Conversation with:
Marine biologists Dr. Craig Radford and Louise Wilson
As part of the closing celebration for Why is matter so intelligent, though? artist Amy Jean Barnett is joined by Dr. Craig Radford and Louise Wilson from the Leigh Marine Laboratory to discuss their recent collaboration and delve further into the biological role of underwater sound, in particular how human induced noise in the marine environment might be affecting the various creatures that inhabit this space.
Light refreshments served. Free entry.
Amy’s exhibition is running at Toi Poneke Gallery from 11 January - 1 February
Biographies:
Amy Jean Barnett is a composer, electronic musician, and media artist that has returned to Wellington from Germany where she completed an MFA in Media Art & Design at the Bauhaus Universität Weimar. Amy holds awards from DAAD and Victoria University and is currently the 2019 Sound Artist in Residence at Toi Pōneke. Through her sonic investigations, Amy has established a practice that considers notions of observation and perception that questions our physiological relationship toward environments beyond our perceivable lifeworlds.
Dr. Craig Radford is the Associate Professor at The University of Auckland’s marine research facility in Leigh. His research focusses on understanding the role that underwater sound plays in the life history strategies of marine animals. For this work, he has won numerous international and national awards including the prestigious Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, which recognised him as an emerging scientific leader in New Zealand. Recently Craig has broadened his research to include how human induced noise in the oceanic environment might be affecting the biological sound processes of various marine life forms.
Louise Wilson graduated from the University of Glasgow with an MRes in Ecology and Environmental Biology in 2017, and is now working towards a PhD in Marine Science at the University of Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory. Her research investigates the impacts of anthropogenic noise on coastal marine life, looking at changes in the soundscape across space and time and how these disruptions can mask communication between members of a species, cloud out habitat cues, and disrupt ecosystem processes. She is interested and keen to engage with those similarly interested in the role of sound art and field recording for reconnecting human societies with ecological processes.