Find a topic relating to bird vocalisation or sounds. Collect together references, links and videos and write a short summary of the topic (one paragraph).
You will present your background research to the class, and your notes will be collected and shared on the wiki.
This background research will inform the exhibition content. After the presentation, groups will be formed around topics based on individual interest (i.e you may change topic after the presentation if you wish) .
Possible Research topics:
- Why do birds sing (for attracting a partner/female, for territory defence)?
- Which other functions do bird’s sounds have (contact, predator alarm, ...)
- Role of sexes (mostly male sing but not always)
- Complexity of songs (two voices by one bird, microintervals, temporal resolution)
- Producing bird’s songs ourselves (or the history of reproducing bird songs)
- Birds imitate noise, sounds or other birds
- Orientation in bird’s concert
- Singing despite of noise (birds on rivers, birds in cities)
- Dawn concert
- Comparison of bird’s and human voices
- Sonation (birds making sounds through stridulation)
Furthermore, there are some research topics, which relate to approaches to birds in music and the (sonic) arts. Here, the following topics are possible to start from (some Materials available through Readings and Links):
- Olivier Messiaën´s take on bird song: "Ich habe die Vögel gewählt, andere den Synthesizer".
- General: Bird song as motive in music (e.g. Modest Mussorgsky (1873); Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells; Igor Strawinsky (1919); L’Oiseau de feu et sa danse, Charlie Parker (1947); Bird’s Nest (and Bebop in general), Duke Ellington (1959); Sunset and the Mocking Bird, etc....)
- Use of bird song as the quintessential "relaxing sound" on meditation CDs and Youtube compilations...
- Red Bird by Trevor Wishart, works with alienation of sounds of birds, humans, and other animals.
- Did Dinosaurs sound like birds?
- Did humans learn language from birds? Why do many myths suggest exactly that?
- Indirectly related: Flocking and swarm movements in the arts, e.g. the ICST swarm orchestra.