World Listening Day 2025: DOCUMENTING CHICANO PARK

In celebration of World Listening Day, July 18th, 2025 at 6 pm, Collide Arts and Phonography Austin will present a workshop at Chicano Park, focused on documenting a soundscape that will change significantly through 2031.

We will present a brief talk about World Listening Day and acoustic ecology, describe the parameters of the project, describe possible documentation methodologies, then get to work. Phonography Austin members will be on hand to assist with documentation tech, as extensively as necessary. We are happy to celebrate World Listening Day with our tenth annual event.

Presented by Collide Arts with support from the City of Austin’s Elevate Grant Program and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

WHAT TO BRING	Water, sturdy shoes, attentive ears, writing device/paper for sound maps
TECH TO BRING	Field recorder and/or sound pressure level meter (apps OK for both, see below)
WHERE	2101 Jesse E. Segovia St, Austin, Texas 78702
WHO	Free and open to the public
WHEN	July 18, 2025. 6:00 - ?

For a sound pressure meter app we recommend Decibel X or NIOSH Sound Level Meter (iOS only).

For a field recording app we recommend the sound recording app you are most familiar with. If you haven't used any we recommend Voice Record Pro.

About World Listening Day
Since its inception in 2010, thousands of people from six continents have participated in World Listening Day. July 18th is the birth date of renowned Canadian composer, music educator, and author, R. Murray Schafer. With the World Soundscape Project he developed the fundamental ideas and practices of acoustic ecology in the 1970s. These inform the current, burgeoning interest in our changing acoustic environment. Thus, World Listening Day honors Schafer’s contribution to understanding our world.

World Listening Day is a project sponsored by The World Listening Project, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit charitable organization devoted to fostering understanding of the world and its natural environment, societies and cultures through the practices of listening and field recording.

 

Monthly Meetup Update

We are restructuring our monthly meetups. 

Going forward they will be the first Tuesday of the month, 6:30 PM, at the Ralph W. Yarborough branch of the Austin Public Library, 2200 Hancock Dr, Austin, Texas.

We’ll discuss future events and projects, present works in progress, and share skills.

All are welcome.

 

Call for Submissions:
Seventh Annual Report

We’d like to open the call for entries for our seventh annual report. Artists who reside in Texas are invited to submit field recordings (made anywhere) in 2024.

The deadline is December 1, 2024 at 11:59PM CST. The compilation will be released on our Bandcamp site on December 16, 2024, simultaneously with our annual report event.

If you would like to submit please follow the link: https://forms.gle/4uoRGRpCqBczhPYHA.
 

Call for Submissions:
Sixth Annual Report

If you resided in Texas in 2023, we invite you to submit a field recording to our Sixth Annual Report compilation album. We make the Annual Report to both document the year and to encourage listening to the spontaneous, non-musical sounds surrounding us.

For full details and to submit, please use our Google Form https://forms.gle/NvyqtqKsSFLPJSqB8.

Deadline: December 31, 2023 11:59PM CST

 

World Listening Day 2023:
Up Shoal Creek

Join us as we explore and record the sounds of an urban waterway in celebration of World Listening Day on July 18, 2023.

Beginning at 7:30, we will have a brief talk about World Listening Day and acoustic ecology followed by a listening exercise. Each participant will be given a map before setting off to listen, record, and independently explore Shoal Creek and the surrounding area. By 8:30 we will reconvene at The Tavern to play back our recordings.

WHAT TO BRING: Water, sturdy shoes, pen or pencil, field recording equipment or cellphone to make recordings
WHERE: Duncan Neighborhood Park
900 W 9th St, Austin, TX 78701
WHO: Free and open to the public
WHEN: July 18, 2022. 7:30 - ?

About World Listening Day
Since its inception in 2010, thousands of people from six continents have participated in World Listening Day. July 18th is the birth date of renowned Canadian composer, music educator, and author, R. Murray Schafer. With the World Soundscape Project he developed the fundamental ideas and practices of acoustic ecology in the 1970s. These inform the current, burgeoning interest in our changing acoustic environment. Thus, World Listening Day honors Schafer’s contribution to understanding our world.

World Listening Day is a project sponsored by The World Listening Project, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit charitable organization devoted to fostering understanding of the world and its natural environment, societies and cultures through the practices of listening and field recording.