Clemens Pitschke is an acoustician and field recordist. He is a co-founder of the multidisciplinary sound exploration project “Land.Schafft. Sound,” within which he organizes and leads workshops and has invited experts from various fields—including nature conservation, science, and music—who engage intensively with sound in their work. He is also a board member of GERÄUSCHKULISSE e.V. in Leipzig, an association that places a clear focus on listening and has been providing a platform for formats such as radio features, sound art, and performances for over 10 years. In recent years, Clemens has engaged intensively with the topics of bioacoustics and soundscape ecology and, through field recordings, has both contributed to citizen science projects and produced creative works for outlets such as Deutschlandfunk. His work focuses on knowledge transfer and actively engaging with our acoustic environment through soundwalks, workshops, and field recording sessions.
For this year’s Range, I’d like to offer a combination of a soundwalk and a bird-song tour. We’ll begin by exploring hearing and the perception of sound as it relates to humans and the animal world. We’ll start with two short listening exercises to sharpen our sense of hearing, and then explore a location in Kassel on a 1–2-hour soundwalk. Unlike a traditional soundwalk—which focuses exclusively on listening to and experiencing the acoustic environment and typically involves no talking—we’ll occasionally discuss what we’re hearing in the moment. This quickly makes it clear, on the one hand, how individual each person’s perception is and, on the other hand, how difficult it can sometimes be to describe sound in words in a way that makes it tangible for everyone and allows us to find a shared language of sound. In October, most birds become less active. Some migrate away, stop by as guests on their journey, or arrive for the winter months. It is precisely this slightly lower level of activity that helps us focus on specific species and thus find a way to explore bird songs and shared listening.
