Interview: Nahun Saldaña
“I prefer to live in the fantasy, not in the desperation of the crisis […], you know?”
This latest episode of Earth.fm’s Wind Is the Original Radio podcast finds site curator Melissa Pons in conversation with Peruvian sound artist and ‘resilient designer’ Nahun Saldaña. In his work, Nahun explores the intersections between soundscapes and sound ecology, especially in relation to climate change and speculative sound future.
Together, they discuss:
- The possibility of using soundscapes to drive the awareness that we all depend on the natural world – and even of using them to make companies prioritise caring for the planet rather than solely the pursuit of profit.
- The ludicrousness of carbon credits (“Okay, you contaminate, but you pay for the compensation”), but the way that a similar model of mitigation could be applied to noisy manufacturers.
- The impact of individualism on people’s awareness (or lack thereof) of the sounds that they make and how those sounds may impact neighbours or the broader community around them
- How, in urban spaces, silence has become a new kind of luxury – one denied to people living in lower-income areas
- A tendency, within the nature-sound-recording community, to fetishise tragedies in the natural world by recording “the sounds of extinction” or the last examples of particular species, despite this not curtailing those tragedies. Is there an argument for focusing, instead, on “stories of regeneration and flourishing”?
- Whether sound technology can be harmful, and, if so, is it “more important to teach the kids to listen”? Nahun describes an instructive visit to a small jungle town where younger generations no longer have the ability to recognise specific sounds, such as the sounds of honey-producing bees – meaning that resources are lost as older members of the community pass away.
- The power of deep listening and the notion of “politicians with a capacity for […] deep listening”, and what groundbreaking policies might emerge from such a (sadly improbable) possibility.
- Nahun’s one of many projects Escuchadores: a physical structure installed in sound conservation areas conceptualized exclusively to listen and stay in the moment.
We hope that you enjoy this episode, including Nahun’s irresistible exuberance and enthusiasm! You can follow him on Instagram, and check out the work – writing, photography, video, sound art, and ambient music – on his (Spanish-language) website.
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