Talks and Presentations
"Extraordinary and enriching in so many ways… " LH
"The thought provoking ideas that Andrew put forward have had me thinking all weekend and will stay with me. An interesting and complex subject extremely well presented." DA
Weaving beautiful recordings with fascinating visual analysis, Andrew communicates ideas that explore and deepen our relationship to nature.
Talks can be adapted to specific audiences, from naturalists interested in learning how to listen more attentively, to general audiences seeking to understand how to approach the future given our current environmental and biodiversity crises.
Popular presentation themes:
An invitation to Listening
How do we begin listening to nature? Andrew uses sound recordings and spectrograms to introduce ways of identifying species by sound, and discusses the behavioural purposes of different expressions of repertoire, and why particular species use the specific sounds that they do.
Tuning in to the Dawn Chorus
We all appreciate the festival of birdsong in the predawn hour known as the dawn chorus. But why do birds sing at that time as they do? Andrew explores the unique behaviours, vocal repertoires and interactions that are only heard at daybreak. He presents an understanding of how birds use sound to affirm their place in the landscape, negotiate their relations with neighbours and create communities of safety.
Our Ecological Future
We live at an extraordinary time of multiple crises, many of which have their roots in our cultural disconnection from nature. How can we renew this connection? What understandings can listening to the voices of other creatures offer us?
Sound tells us what is happening, allowing us to hear the underlying processes that inform the living world. The communicative interactions within ecosystems tell of how nature has evolved over half a billion years to sustain life.
Andrew proposes that we consider these principles in the context of our social and governance systems, and utilise sound as a measure of environmental wellbeing.
