Pick a topic relating to bird vocalisation or sounds. Collect together references, links and videos and write a short summary of the topic (max 350 words). 

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, (you may however choose different topics for your main project) 

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 chorus 
• Comparison of bird’s and human voices
• Sonation (birds making sounds without singing) 
• Spectrograms for bird song analysis

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.
• Marcus Coates: Artist between biology and shamanism who trains himself in becoming animals.
• 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.
• Did Dinosaurs sound like birds?