Hempton, a 55-year-old Washington-based natural-sound documentarian and audio ecologist, is one of the world’s top sound recordists. He’s measured the decibels in hundreds of spots across the country and the world, and has witnessed, painfully, a sharp decline of spaces devoid of mechanized sounds. “I don’t want the absence of sound, I want the absence of noise,” he says. “Listening is worship.”
Didn't know there was such a profession as an audio ecologist...
In this green rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula, Hempton relishes pointing out the instruments of nature’s symphony. Living in these mossy, fern-blanketed old-growth forests are some 300 species of birds, and we’re treated to the calls of many, including bald eagles, western winter wrens and the thumping bass beats from the wings of the ruffed grouse taking flight. The park is home to one of the country’s largest herds of wild Roosevelt elk, and these rivers hold some of the healthiest runs of Pacific salmon outside of Alaska.
thanks for the good read. here are a few things i thought interesting...
Hempton’s professional credits include radio and television documentaries, a collection of 53 natural-sound recordings and an Emmy award for the 1992 PBS documentary Vanishing Dawn Chorus.
Hempton had plenty of time to ponder that when he became bedridden with pneumonia. “I had to file for unemployment. We had a 3-year-old son and I was burning wood from old furniture for heat. But there’s always the morning, and that’s when I heard the dawn. In my mind’s ear I imagined listening to the sounds of the sunrise as it circled the globe.”
I've been trying to find "Vanishing Dawn Chorus", but can't seem to...not even Netflix has it.
Pneumonia can do some very strange things. My first hallucinogenic experiences were when I was sick with pneumonia as a kid. Some notable memories were being convinced that I was doing backflips endlessly, and then crying because it wouldn't stop...then obsessing with infinity for a good three days, even dreaming about it (I still remember how it was infinitely small and infinitely large at the same time, and it terrified me...I'd wake up in cold sweats).
I wondered what would happen under the same circumstances as an adult...Hempton's experiences are an interesting example.
i believe all the US' major military branches used to test people in sensory-deprivation chambers with and without drugs in their system. might very well also be heresay.
zeitgeist wrote:i believe all the US' major military branches used to test people in sensory-deprivation chambers with and without drugs in their system. might very well also be heresay.
Wouldn't at all being surprised if true, given the Federal psychadelic clusterfuck that was MKULTRA.
