2nd Advisory Board Meeting
Photo: From left-right top-down, Mike Bell, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino, Peter Batchelor, Mark Plumbley, Louise Fedotov-Clements, and Leigh Landy.
We had our 2nd Advisory Board (AB) Meeting on 10th April 2024. This meeting aimed to present the updates of the project to the AB and seek their feedback. We discussed where we are at the moment focusing on two of the three work packages: WP1 Artistic Audio Ecology Intervention Concerning Forests and Climate Data and WP3 Public Conversations and Debate.
After short introductions, we started giving a quick overview of the project and updates. In particular, we welcomed the new collaborators Freesound, Locus Sonus and the University of Surrey as well as we introduced the new Co-Investigator Mike Bell (Forest Research) to the Advisory Board, who joined us in January 2024.
We then moved to present the status of WP1, which we are working on intensely these days. The WP was presented by Luigi, Mike, Pete, and me. Luigi presented the development of the audio streamers. Mike talked about the customised data logger and the data that is relevant to their scientific models as well as that will be available for both the artworks of the summer school participants and Pete’s sound installation. Pete gave an update on the multichannel sound installation including the latest field trip visit reported in this blog post. Pete described the potential area where the artistic intervention will take place. I gave an overview of the past, present and forthcoming activities of the summer school. Finally, Luigi described our intention to organise a series of concerts using the soundscape data later this year.
One important aspect that we discussed related to this work package is how can we bring AI to the Raspberry Pi’s that is relevant to the Alice Holt site and sonic phenomena. An important aspect that was raised by Louise was what are we expecting to record as well as by Mark on whether we should consider switching off the audio streamer when non-nature sounds come in, otherwise there can be ethical issues. Another relevant aspect raised by Louise and Leigh was about the series of concerts and how to make them accessible.
Concerning WP2 Community Science Intervention with Forests and Climate Data, we simply mentioned that the start of the WP will be delayed for one month, starting around July 2024.
The WP3 Public Conversations and Debate was presented by me. In summary, we covered the impact of the website/videos in numbers (we have received more than 1.4K visits so far since the start of the website on 29th October 2023), the community/public engagement so far through our different online outputs, and the forthcoming web plans of including an interactive map and online exhibition. Here we discussed with the AB that perhaps it is the right time to start a mailing list so that we can announce more clearly and target our forthcoming activities.
The AB received very positively how the project is progressing, which is motivating for us the team to continue doing what we are doing in the same exciting and intense spirit! Mark mentioned that it sounds fantastic and really interesting to see so much interest in the summer school and that working with Freesound is a fantastic idea. Louise said that the project is very inspiring and that the team is doing a great job. Leigh praised the good work.
We are now clearly in the development phase with some anxiety on board about our forthcoming deliveries. The AB meeting has been very helpful to take a pulse of the project and obtaining fantastic feedback from the AB. Thank you to Louise, Leigh and Mark for your time, help and valuable feedback!