Jan 11: Playing for Change: Music and Environmental Activism

Many have argued that the climate crisis is not only an environmental but also a social crisis, and this suggests that music has a role to play in environmental activism. Of course, many music festivals and bands have worked to ‘green’ their operations, but can music itself affect how we feel about, react, and adapt to climate change? Do songs on environmental themes simply make us feel sad and hopeless or inspire us to action? What about instrumental music? In this short presentation, Dr. Ellen Waterman will talk about the Tar Sands Songbook by Tanya Kalmanovitch, a violinist from Fort McMurray who set out to explore her family’s roots in oil and created a one-person show that combines music and storytelling. She hopes that this example will give us a basis for asking questions about the relationship between the arts and climate change. You can also check out the Tar Sands Songbook at https://www.tarsandssongbook.com.

Speaker: Dr. Ellen Waterman holds the Helmut Kallmann Chair for Music in Canada and is a Professor in the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University. Her interdisciplinary research in music and sound studies engages with improvisation, performance ecologies, listening, and community-engaged research-creation methodologies. Waterman is also active as a flutist/vocalist specializing in creative improvisation, a practice that informs her research-creation. Her instructional score Bodily Listening in Place (2022), commissioned by New Adventures in Sound Art, explores an expanded concept of listening across different sensory modalities. Waterman’s books include three edited collections: Sonic Geography Imagined and Remembered, The Art of Immersive Soundscapes (with Pauline Minevich and James Harley), and Negotiated Moments: Improvisation, Sound, and Subjectivity (with Gillian Siddall). In 2021 Waterman founded the Research Centre for Music, Sound, and Society in Canada, dedicated to exploring the complex and diverse roles that music and sonic arts play in shaping Canadian society.

Actions

Experiencing Live music
Mindfulness practices
Listen to more music
Imagine worlds with music
Play/make music
Mix mediums with music
Listen to a variety of radio stations
Think about the ways that we listen and how we listen
Consider all the senses as we are listening
Consider the sounds around us as we are doing tasks that do not automatically acknowledge listening as priority
Reflect on how sounds and listening can ground us in our bodies and in the present