Great short article out from @sebnemsaraeva.bsky.social, asking important ethical questions about possible interspecies human-whale communication, from the perspective of translation studies. "Most importantly, who will be the translators and interpreters in human-whale encounters?" #bioacoustics

'Keening - Song of the Stranding' album launched today to commemorate the mass stranding of pilot whales that occurred in Lewis in July 2023. Please have a listen! Musical collaboration with @nordicviola.bsky.social and Nerea Bello. alexsouth.bandcamp.com/album/keenin...

A collaboration between me, @amsouth.bsky.social & Lesley Harrison, performed at @rethinkingfable.bsky.social (www.rethinking-fables.org.uk). Lesley & Alex weave together pieces by me and Alex and a poem by Lesley to create a new fable, "The Gannet and the Whale". www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55d...

Here's a short blog I wrote for @iashedinburgh.bsky.social about a recent visit to @hias-hamburg.bsky.social. Had some fun sharing ideas about artistic research with a fabulous group of NetIAS scholars from across Europe. www.iash.ed.ac.uk/news/what-do...

Happy that "The Fox" is back in the water again, heading north to Orkney in September with a preview performance in Dunblane 31 August.

Great to hear that the Multispecies Sound and Movement Study Group has been approved as an official study group of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance. Further, that the study group board will be curating a special issue of the AAWM Journal of Music and Nature. CFP below.

Our #zoomusicology #animalwelfare paper "Playing music to animals," co-authored by Pralle Kriengwatana, @amsouth.bsky.social, Martin Ullrich, @ruedinager.bsky.social and me is now open access. This has been such a great team to work with & fun paper to write! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This looks like an interesting paper on cultural evolution, in that it moves the focus away from more-or-less passive consumers. However, let's not forget that in many cultures (including Western subcultures), the dominant model of 'production' vs 'consumption' is far less relevant.

Super-excited to be performing in UNESCO's #WeekOfSound in Edinburgh next Monday with Una MacGlone. Composed/improvised musics inspired by sounds and environments #BeneathTheWaves. University West Court 7pm. digital.eca.ed.ac.uk/weekofsound/...

Very excited to be part of the next phase of this project led by writer @rebeccasharp.bsky.social. Music very much inspired by important places in the legend of Tenew/Thaney, including Traprain Law, Aberlady Bay, and Culross #TheBorders #CreativeScotland.

Great to see our interdisciplinary paper on music and animal welfare out in the journal Animal Behaviour. Very much a team effort with @emilydoolittle.bsky.social, @ruedinager.bsky.social and Martin Ullrich, steered by Pralle Kriengwatana. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kYdDmjMA3XG

So pleased that 'Keening - Song of the Stranding' has been given the green light, thanks to funders Creative Scotland, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Make It Happen Fund, and the Hope Scott Trust. Some details here, more to follow! #SongOfTheStranding @nordicviola.bsky.social

This lovely programme discusses the killer whale populations in the waters around the Shetland Islands, and the vocalizations they use. Nice to hear one of my PhD supervisors @emilydoolittle.bsky.social 🐋https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0026w74

Over the past c.20 years @rothenbird.bsky.social has done more than just about anyone to draw public attention to the musicality of the sounds of whales. My review of his 'Whale Music' is out now in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies doi.org/10.1386/jivs... 🐋#cetaceancitations

Wonderful to see that the Ocean has been elected to be a Trustee on the board of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, in an attempt to shift the dial further away from anthropocentric attitudes. Highly relevant to the #MOTH project (MOre Than Human rights). #SAMS #CetaceanCitations

New study out of humpback whale paternity patterns in a South Pacific population recovering from intensive whaling. I was particularly interested to read that these results suggest higher levels of interchange between populations than previous estimates.🐋

Interesting paper out examining the ethics of human intervention designed to reduce suffering in wild animals.

Beautiful textures here!

Planning on learning this great piece by @emilydoolittle.bsky.social soon! Details to follow.

There's a great compilation of online resources for music scholarship (including journals) at H-Music (a branch of @h-net-humanities.bsky.social ) networks.h-net.org/h-music

My first sight of my hardbound thesis #cetaceancitations. The wonderful @lrendell.bsky.social has had a busy year of steering PhD studentships into safe harbours (in some cases not quite the destinations originally envisaged!)

Slightly misleading headline, but health/stress indicators in this humpback whale population showed 2021 was a better year than 2020. In original paper authors are careful not to link this with any specific anthropogenic factors. Longer datasets required methinks! #marinemammals 🐳

Interesting-looking paper on Bergson's view on animal consciousness, and implications for the scientific study of animal creativity/inventiveness/innovation in animal cultures. It's in French so I'll need to put time aside to read it.

Detailed survey of ocean floor off California found far more large whale skeletons than had been predicted. #whale #whalefall #marinemammals 🐳

This looks great, looking forward to review from @bjking.bsky.social

Sorry to see that my belief that #wolves reversed ecological changes in Yellowstone Park may not be grounded on good evidence... #trophiccascade. This #natgeo article cites exptl work by Hobbs et al 2024.

#whalesgettingsmaller Drone studies show that #graywhales are shorter than they were in 2000, likely due to declining habitat quality associated with #globalheating

Super-interesting conversation on Martin Wikelski's 'The Internet of Animals', Kapka Kassabova's Anima, and Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas's research into technologically-mediated animal communication, e.g. video-calling for parrots. #animalcommunication #internetofanimals www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Yet more evidence that same-sex sexual behaviour is widespread in other animals yet rarely makes it into scientific journals. Original study by Andersen et al. published in PLoS One #animalhomosexuality

Here's NOAA's take on #windmills and #whales: "At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site...cause whale deaths. There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities." www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-...

"ChatGPT is bullshit" is a fun read and I think nails something important about LLMs: there's no difference to the model when its output is true, and when it isn't. It's not that sometimes it's concerned with truth and sometimes it's hallucinating, it's that it's always bullshitting.

Great new open source article from Hersh et al on how the study of cetacean vocal rhythms might shed light on the adaptive functions of rhythm more generally. Nice overview of what is known, and reminder of the vast amount that remains unknown... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I'm a musician... Somewhat surprised to score more highly at colour than musical tones. Maybe I've been playing free jazz for too long!

Listening with cicadas... Nice to come across some #multispeciesmusicking

Elegant study of elephant rumbles shows that individuals (addressees) are addressed in individual ways by other elephants (callers)... I'm not sure that 'name' is right as patterns don't generalize across callers. Maybe it's closer to each caller expressing its relationship to the addressee.

This is a good start!

Well time to dip my toes in to the blue (sky)... asked if I had any thoughts about talking to whales. Turns out I do... Thoughts invited, please share 🧪🦑 theconversation.com/are-we-reall...