Listening in the Wild is a series of immersive soundscapes and site-specific photography exploring environments across the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The project was commissioned for Horizon Festival 2020 in Australia and produced live and streamed for listeners at home as remote experiences during Covid-19 lockdowns. These experiences are created by artists Lyndon Davis, Dr Leah Barclay and Dr Tricia King as transient listening experiences interwoven with Kabi Kabi stories.

The locations include virtual sound walks through Eudlo Creek National Park, a journey along the Maroochy River and an ocean expedition from Mooloolaba Beach with all audio produced and mixed live by Leah Barclay. Each soundscape is accompanied by site-specific photography by documentary photographer Tricia King. These virtual listening experiences are interwoven with Kabi Kabi stories from Lyndon Davis and investigate how remote embodied experiences of natural environments can facilitate ecological empathy, cultural knowledge and connection to place. Listening in the Wild builds on a large-body of research in immersive media art responding to ecological crisis and climate action. 

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Under the cultural guidance of Kabi Kabi artist Lyndon Davis, Listening in the Wild explored new ways of using virtual technologies with live soundscapes and site-specific photography to connect audiences to locations and cultural knowledge across the Sunshine Coast. The project developed new tools for streaming audio in a high-quality format and asked how we can appropriately and effectively use audio-visual experiences to connect communities to place and develop a deeper understanding of cultural and environmental knowledge. 

The project was awarded the 2021 APRA Art Music Award for Excellence in Experimental Music – the highest accolade for experimental music in Australia. Judges’ comments included ‘There are no projects more exciting and necessary in Australia at this time.’