The Sensor Animal Assemblage

• In Event: The Body as Environmental Sensor - I

Abstract

This research presentation explores the technical assemblages of bioacoustics field research, along with the transacoustic objects and communities that contribute towards catching an event using a GPS/microphone cross-sensor in the form of a backpack for birds. Grounded in field research with bioacoustics researchers and research technicians, the presentation explores two modalities of a familiar technical sounding sensor, the microphone, to illustrate the ways in which data collected morph into the shape of the instrument(s) and/on/in bodies used to collect data. That is, at once capturing a world and contributing towards its creation, new research instruments combine with old to make new multitemporal worlds that fuse meaning between animals, technology, and researchers. I use the term “transacoustic community” to describe the technical objects that carve out the edges of empirical data, “crystallizing” it in a moment of collective individuation.

Author

• Mickey Vallee, Athabasca University