e180 mary edwards - capturing the beauty and terror of reality

conscient podcast

• We're all going to be affected by the same outcome. When I went up to Svalbard (Norway), I went with the intention of also capturing the beauty and the terror of the reality of these changes and how they can be at once fascinating to listen to, but also devastating to the environment.

You’ve just heard an excerpt from composer and environmental sound artist Mary Edwards’ Everywhere We Are is the Farthest Place composition, an ode to the transforming Arctic landscape, climate vulnerability, elemental sensuality and Terrestrial Space Analogues.

Mary kindly shared a compilation mix from this soundscape composition with me to provide an example of her work that you’ll hear throughout this episode.

Mary holds an Interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts in Sound and Architecture from Goddard College, and has been awarded residencies and commissions around the world.

I met Mary for the first time at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology’s Listening Pasts/Listening Futures Conference in Florida in March 2023 and was immediately struck by the originality of her art and her positive energy, generosity and curiosity. We spoke by Zoom on May 24th, 2024 when we were both recovering from an unseasonable cold snap.

We talked about her interdisciplinary arts and listening practices that encompass notions of temporality, impermanence, nostalgia and the natural world. For example:

• Listening is an inherent part of what I do. It’s not just creating sound and music, but raising awareness. If we listen more intently to our environment, we can understand the health of our environment.

Welcome to the wonderful and engaging sonic world of Mary Edwards.

Mary recommended the follow :

• Silent Spring and other writing on the environment and Sea Trilogy by Rachel Carson
• Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives by Jane Brox (note: during our conversation Mary accidentally called her Suzanne Knox)
• The work of composer Sven Libaek see https://theroundtable.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-sven-libaek

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners,

Thanks for your presence. Season 5 of this podcast is now completed. I'll be back with season 6 on art and culture in times of crisis and collapse (see trailer for details) sometime in 2025.

Background on the conscient podcast

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It’s my way to give back and be present.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays about collapse acceptance, adaptation, response and art’. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.

Also, please note that a complete transcript of most conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 5 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.

Your feedback is always welcome at [e-mail] and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin.

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible.

Claude Schryer

Latest update on November 6, 2024