AnthropoSonic: Seismic Studies

Kayaking around Lake Maurepas

Sunday, March 5

7:00AM-6:00PM

AnthropoSonic: Seismic Studies

Featured Artists: Demi Ward, Cory Diane, Clementine Hartman, Ryan Clarke

Part I: Kayaking and the Sound of Lake Maurepas

The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS) continues its exploration of the Anthropocene highlighting the interdependence of humans, animals, and the earth by presenting AnthropoSonic: Seismic Studies. The Anthropocene is a useful concept—and proposed geological epoch—recognizing the present era in which human-generated forces have altered the earth’s surface, atmosphere, and planetary patterns. AnthropoSonic: Seismic Studies is a two-part series that will allow researchers to explore seismic studies in our region and participate in a sound art workshop that will consider the impact of these studies on plant and wildlife. In the first part of the series, we will kayak close to Lake Maurepas, a lake that has been determined as an ideal site to sequester CO₂. Lost Land Bayou will take 13 students, faculty, and staff on a kayaking journey where we will paddle and learn about the plant, marine, and avian life that live in the marshes and swamps surrounding the area. We will discuss coastal erosion, climate change, and how the survey impacts local wildlife from West Indian manatees to waterbird nest colonies and blue crabs. Composer and ecological researcher and sound artist Cory Diane will present on their research of the seismic studies in Lake Maurepas and the Gulf South Rice’s Whales impacted by anthropogenic sound. 

Bio: Cory Diane is a composer, researcher, and recent graduate in Music Composition at Tulane University. They are working on a project that uses sound as a means for exploring the complex ecologies and histories of the Gulf of Mexico, centering one of its most endangered and little-known inhabitants, the recently named Rice’s Whale, a being whose critically endangered status is connected directly to the sounds of industry and oil exploration in the Gulf. While most people are aware that marine mammals rely on sound for basic survival, navigation, and communication, it’s less understood that oil companies and the U.S. military also rely on sound, that nearly every day of the year they use sonar guns to map the floor of the Gulf of Mexico for oil exploration. These sound waves have the capacity to kill animals who are close to their line of fire, to injure those who are further out, and, because of how sound travels underwater, to diminish the precious sonic space available for marine animals living across the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico. The prevalence of sonar blasts is just one contributing factor to the soundscape of the Gulf, one with devastating consequences, that connects the well-being of these marine mammals to those of us living in cancer alley, to all whose presence and futures are compromised by extractive fossil fuel economies.

This series is sponsored by New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, the Dorothy Beckemeyer Skau Art and Music Fund, and Newcomb Institute. 

This event is free and open to the public, and there is limited seating. Email New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at gulfsouth@tulane.edu for registration and logistics information. All meals are provided.