> “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus.

The first recorded sound is only 165 years old, a cacophony of echoes recorded by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on a phonautogram. The temporal nature of sound demands that it commit sonic suicide with the ebb of time, leaving no trace of its presence, no material or visual remains. Thus, the archaeology of sound is heavily reliant on the visual description of past experiences and a conscious effort of our auditory perception to reimagine the (lost) aural reality. However, drawing upon Heraclitus, we can say that no man ever hears the same sound twice, meaning we must bear in mind that despite our best efforts to find the right note, we are often left with vague harmonies to make sense of.

> “There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.”  – Pythagoras.

### **Music of Spheres**

The history of soundscapes pre-dates the formation of planet Earth and goes back to the very dawn of Time in this universe: the Big Bang, prior to which, one could reasonably imagine, silence prevailed. It was an event that not only gave birth to billions of planets and galaxies over time but also created an ever-present cosmic composition that was inaudible to human ears until very recently.

The geocentric dance of the celestial bodies spacing themselves at relative distances from each other and from the Earth, mirrors that of tones and semitones forming chords and scales. This observation led the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras to believe in the existence of divine harmony. This symphony of the cosmos was first proposed philosophically in his Musica Universalis, or Music of Spheres, and he arrived at this theory by extrapolating his understanding of mathematics and harmonics to a planetary scale.

However, Pythagoras’ idea didn’t stand tall in his time, and it was only centuries later that it was picked up by Johannes Kepler who went on to reiterate it and further expand upon it in his own work, Harmonices Mundi. Centuries hence, our advancement in science and technology has brought us closer to listening to these songs of the universe, starting with the sound of the Black Hole, rendering a reality that was previously inconceivable and unperceived.

These extrapolated parallels drawn from our mathematical and musical understanding of the physical world have certainly helped in mapping the music of the cosmos to an extent. But when we turn our ears homewards, the story of sound takes new shapes and forms. The keynote sounds of this planet have evolved over time, leading to different soundscapes across different eras. The initial sounds on Earth, upon its formation billions of years ago, were primarily geophonic. The low-end rumble from the tectonic shifts to the crashing of water against the rocks and shores, along with world-defining cataclysmic events, dominated the soundscape till the end of the Paleozoic era 250 million years ago. The earliest forms of life in this era were underwater arthropods and cephalopods that experienced a quiet life except for soft, occasional disturbances caused by their movements and activities. The terrestrial world, on the other hand, invited life at a much slower pace and remained awfully silent for another 200 million years.

### **Evolution of Soundscapes**

The dawn of the Mesozoic era, post the Paleozoic period, paved the way for many terrestrial life forms to thrive on land. Insects had shown early signs of sound-producing characteristics in their anatomy by the end of the Paleozoic era but biophonics began to dominate the soundscape only during the Mesozoic period. The evolved vertebrates such as amphibians and reptiles, including the dinosaurs, developed a wide range of vocal abilities, inundating the world with their calls. Mammals made their debut in this period as well. However, the fossils of these creatures didn’t leave much for us to be able to study their voices. Nevertheless, their remains did give us an interesting insight about their ears, the shape and structure of which suggested that their auditory senses were attuned to higher frequencies, helping them prey on bugs and insects. These features would have also meant that they communicated in a frequency range that was inaudible to other species, giving these mammals an advantage over their prey and predators. Adapting to the environment, their ears would have further evolved and gotten specialised in picking up ultrasonic (in the case of bats) and infrasonic (in the case of whales) frequencies. So by the time we entered the Cenozoic period, mammals were able to navigate and survive, relying solely on their aural senses, giving rise to echolocation – a whole new way of experiencing and seeing through sound.

Near the tail end of the Cenozoic period, we could ear-witness a world that had developed its sonic signature with the marriage of biophonics and geophonics, establishing many keynote sounds, signals, and soundmarks. A majestic soundscape that took aeons to take shape, was then opened up to another world of sound with the evolution of Man.

### **Afforestation of Noise**

The earliest sonic revolution of Man began with the development of language, an ability to design and vocalise sounds that represent symbolic thought. This not only indicated a sophisticated development of the larynx and the tongue but also demonstrated a remarkable sign of evolutionary intelligence, allowing the formation of groups and civilisations that would eventually bring humans on top of the food chain and enable us to assert sonic dominance. In the next couple of millennia, this world bore witness to the life Man created at the cost of its endangerment.

Over the last few centuries, we have made immense progress in the name of development, bringing about tremendous change in not just the visual but also the aural landscape. From mining coal and oil to building railroads and airports, the rise of industrialisation and resulting global tensions engulfed the sonic spectrum like the waves of a tsunami, one after the other. The temporality of sound began to wane and we found the world sinking in this ocean of noise across frequencies. Anthrophonics took over keynote sounds of the ecosystem, overlapped essential signals, and brought down significant soundmarks, leaving many species stranded and searching for their own voice in the ensuing chaos.

Thriving in a visually driven world of progress, our primordial aural senses have taken a backseat, making us adapt to noise without protest. The essence of a world devoid of anthrophonics was briefly enunciated when Quiet rightfully reclaimed its space during the pandemic. Saving that world of sound which evolved over millions of years starting from the Big Bang not only requires us to listen attentively but also to make sonic decisions consciously in ways that are planet-driven.  In this universe of controlled chaos, the symphony of our world is best heard when we learn modes of being that complement our environment instead of overpowering it.

[A compilation of indicative recordings](https://soundcloud.com/roomfullofnoise)

*This essay was originally written and published for [Serendipity Arts Festival's Write Art Connect, 2022](https://serendipityarts.org/writing_initiatives/symphony-found-wilderness)*

A Symphony Found in the Wilderness of Noise

Sound Designer | Artist

Best Sound Designer

Exhibition art by Ravi Agarwal.

Digitally Printed Canvas Banners\*\
1 nos. 151cm x 215 cm: 2 nos. 70cm x 215 cm

Surround sound\*\*

Sound design by Padmanabhan J. (Beatnyk : https://bento.me/beatnyk)

Verse from Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, # 1823

 درشکنید کوزه را پاره کنید مشک را\
جانب بحر می روم پاک کنید راه من

چند شود زمین وحل از قطرات اشک من\
چند شود فلک سیه از غم و دود آه من

Break the vase, tear the musk\
I am going to the sea, clear the path\
The earth is caving in from my tears\
The sky is turning dark from my sorrow.

 

Note: The Indus and Ganges River freshwater dolphins have been swimming sightless, in the dark muddy waters of rivers emerging from the icy Himalayas, which have flown through three major channels of South Asia, for millions of years. The Indus, Ganges and the Brahmaputra. The mammals which evolved from the South Asian Dolphin, over 25 million years ago, in the murky, sediment-filled waters of the shallow Tethys Sea, as the Sub-Continental plate was colliding with the Eurasian plate, long precede their human counterparts and nation-state histories. The waters which had been free flowing for millennia, are however now politically controlled by bilateral river water treaties between these relatively new nation states.

Today the Indus dolphin (Bhulan, Platanista gangetica minor) is largely found in the Indus in Pakistan, while its Gangetic counterpart (Susu/Shushak, Platanista gangetica) exists in some stretches of the Ganges and Brahmaputra and tributaries. These genetically diverse but visually similar  toothed whales, evolved into two separate species, only about 550,000 years ago- as has been very recently confirmed (2021). Both these brethren beings are today endangered.

They struggle to traverse the rivers which are now riddled by borders, barrages, and dams besides threats of pollution, fishing nets and poaching. Their unique echolocation navigation through high frequency clicks has been severely hampered by anthropogenic sounds of machines and motors.  Though sightless, yet all-seeing deep time planetary beings, original South – Asians, nudge us to reflect on our very recent violent histories causing their extinctions, and urge us to listen to their more-than-human echoes across borders, and desire to return to long lost pasts.

 

Credits \*

Spectrogram image- Dey, M., Krishnaswamy, J., Morisaka, T., & Kelkar, N. Interacting effects of vessel noise and shallow river depth elevate metabolic stress in Ganges river dolphins. Scientific Reports 9, 15426 (2019)

Other images – internet

 

Sound\*\*

Persian Narration and Translation – Siena Fakhroddin Ghaffari\
Echolocation recordings of Gangetic River Dolphin-

Internet, extracted from [Gangetic River Dolphin communication through ultrasound clicks (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXVkH_2Y2WM)

Rumi verse sourcing acknowledgment – Elyas Alavi 

I am going to the sea, clear the path

Whales for Climate

Loss of Horizon & Converging Acts \[LoHaCA\]is a podcast developed by Anish Cherian \[multimedia artist\] and Padmanabhan \[sound artist\] as a digital confluence of conversations between 6 artists geographically separated \[from Kashmir, U.P, Karanataka & Telangana\] as they engage in a similar act of digging a hole.

Over a period of 10 days, the artists while engaged in the act are provoked to observe, inspect, discover, interact, and imitate non-human animals, insects, tools, and the soil among others in their respective sites.

The podcast becomes a space to imagine a new becoming between these artists as sensorial interactions become a medium for experiencing collective desires. Desiring other planetary forces from the soil.

The podcast is developed within LoHaCA a series of interconnected events by Sujit Mallick \[artist/organic farmer\] under Five Million Incidents, organized by Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, and conceived in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective.

Loss of Horizon & Converging Acts

“Agents of Malarkey” is a performative project developed by Anish Cherian and Padmanabhan, blending speculative research and sonic world-building that emerges from the absurd and the nonsensical. Where the extraordinary becomes ordinary. Within this theatrical experience, rivers may transform into humans, towering trees might become grass overnight, and beings on Mars embark on the construction of colonies.\
\
Central to "Agents of Malarkey" is the exploration of the bizarre and inexplicable elements of our world, conveyed through poetic narratives, mesmerizing soundscapes, and experimental visuals, inviting viewers to delve into the captivating and whimsical world of malarkey.

Agents of Malarkey

Influenced by the thoughts and works of Bernie Krause, I was interested in looking at, or rather listening to, the interplay of the bio- and anthro-phonics. My growing concern for noise pollution and its fostering uninhabitable space for birds, animals and humans alike became my prime motivation to simply listen. Recording dawn choruses in Delhi was particularly interesting for me because of my perception of Delhi - being the capital city of the country and bearing rich cultural as well as historical heritage. I was curious to listen to what the city sounds like as it wakes up and let myself take a walk in between my ears to hear what the city is becoming.

The City at Dawn

The basic essence of our project is telling stories about whales highlighting their role in carbon sequestration and creating a positive impact on the climate as a result of whale conservation. Using a format similar to children’s stories, which are laden with moral lessons presented in a non- didactic way, we intent to present these complex concepts to children and adults. Children make sense of the world through these narratives and their perception towards non-human actors in the world is often formed through the stories and experiences they have as young children. We wish to use this affordance to create a new kind of storybook and online narrative that uses the latest in machine learning and Augmented Reality technologies and brings them to life. Through stories told by real-life whale characters, we change the way children learn about animals or perhaps even other topics such as geography

These story narratives are presented in 2 primary formats: an online interactive choice based gameplay stories and an AR book. Interactive gameplay is a powerful and effective channel to enable a massive audience to engage with whales and positively impact their conservation. We want to harness the power of gameplay and social media to attract a broader audience to this cause.

Whales For Climate

In the second decade of the 21st century, a few acts altered our perceived reality causing fractures in the humanist project. The human subject signified by the altruistic machine - the state, the court etc., - became a contentious ground, with its underpinnings on the separation of man from the natural world. The transformation (not merely transfiguration) of the human body or natural being and their becoming have been sites of these fractures, revealing a new system of life beyond the human.\
 \
What catalysed a transformation which transgressed human?\
 \
1\. Goa amended the preservation of trees act to classify the coconut tree as a kind of grass.\
2\. the Ganges river became the first non-human entity in India to be granted human rights.\
 \
The ruptures caused by such incidents have transformed a few trees inside Lodi garden into post-human images. These trees reveal stories and memories of this post-human world, where they are not limited by human understanding and nomenclature.\
  \
Coming Out Party For The Androgynous Tree, is an audio/music compilation of post-human memories. The trees invite you to witness their transformation, which will be available through the [project page](https://www.desirecollective.com/event-2-coming-out-party) but audible only under the shade of these trees. Users are requested to take a walk in the garden, discover these talking trees, witness and embrace a similar transformation.

Coming Out Party for the Androgynous Trees

We are water and memory is what the body carries,\
Like information, like energy. \
Water is memory.

Responding to the insurmountable and collective grief, loss and the heaviness of memory experienced during the afterlife of the pandemic, Water Nodes is a hybrid immersive installation /performance (live +remote) that reminisces cross-cultural, personal, maternal histories inherited/passed on in the body. By evoking family archive photographs, spiritual and mythological references, the performance considers in the quality of water a passage for memories to flow, contain and dissipate.

Water Nodes

Sound Designer

The Dilli Improvisers Orchestra is a one-of-a-kind initiative in the Indian music scene, inspired by the legacy of ensembles like the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. The Orchestra aims to cultivate a practice of improvisation from the musicians in Delhi, creating a space for artistic expression through experimentation. \
 \
Under the mentorship of Raymond MacDonald, a globally recognized figure in the improvisational music community, the Dilli Improvisers Orchestra is poised to embark on a creative journey that bridges local and international musical perspectives.