Artist Talks: Mélia Roger

Wind Is the Original Radio

Welcome to our very first episode of this series where we have conversations with the best nature listeners in the world.

In this episode, Mélia Roger discusses how her approach to sound has changed; intimacy and empathy through sound;, and the context of politics and ecosocial conflicts in which sound and listening exists.

"Her work explores the sonic poetics of the landscape, through field recordings and active listening performances. Exploring human non-humans relations, she tries to inspire ecological change with environmental and empathic listening. She believes in the importance of participatory projects in order to share knowledge and personal experiences through sound." (from Portfolio - Selected Works, 2016-2021).

"Mélia Roger is a sound designer for film and art installation. She has a classical music background and owns a Master[’s] Degree in sound engineering (ENS Louis-Lumière, Paris, France). She spent her last year of Master in the Transdisciplinary Studies Program at ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland), where she developed an artistic approach of sound, working with voice and field recordings. She is now living between Paris and Zurich, working for post-production film and her own artistic works."

Find out more about Mélia on her website.

Episode's references:

Donna J. Haraway - Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene

Environmental philosopher Vinciane Despret

Karen Barad -: “On Touching the Stranger Within – The Alterity That Therefore I Am”

Field recordist Marc Namblard

Philosopher Timothy Morton

Glenn Albrecht - Environment Change, Distress & Human Emotion Solastalgia

Bernie Krause - The Great Animal Orchestra exhibition

Solastalgie podcast [French language]

Land Body Ecologies podcast

Field Recordist and Sound Artist Félix Blume