JEFF RICE
Hidden Soundscapes 2023
sound installation of ambisonic recordings of the High Plains ecosystem played on nine speakers
This installation featured a series of rare and fleeting sonic moments. Visitors were dropped into the middle of a bison herd. They walked through a dawn chorus of songbirds and heard the cacophony of tens of thousands of sandhill cranes. The proximity of the microphone provided a close-up and unique perspective on the often hidden world of prairie soundscapes.
Grasslands, where they exist, support some of the richest biodiversity on earth. This exhibit documented and celebrated that biodiversity while acknowledging the fragile beauty of prairie ecosystems and the need to preserve them. With the help of Tinworks, Rice presented these sounds — from coyotes to chorus frogs — in a fully immersive multi-speaker audio format. Recording locations include Montana’s American Prairie and sites in Texas, Indiana, Nebraska, and Washington.
ABOUT JEFF RICE
Jeff Rice is a Seattle-based sound artist with a long-standing interest in natural soundscapes. He has produced multimedia for museums, radio, television, film, theater, and the web. His work as a field recordist has been featured in media outlets such as NPR’s All Things Considered, Outside, and The New York Times Magazine. He is the co-founder of the Acoustic Atlas at the Montana State University Library where he curates a collection of thousands of natural sound recordings from around the western United States.
More information about his work is available at ecosystemsound.com.
2023 Tinworks Artist Jeff Rice. Photo by Giselle Wyers.
ABOUT THE ACOUSTIC ATLAS
The Acoustic Atlas is housed at the Montana State University Library and includes more than 3,000 recordings of species and environments from throughout the western United States. The collection emphasizes the strong connection between natural sounds and regional ecosystems, and features a growing number of recordings from Montana and the Yellowstone corridor. In 2017, the Acoustic Atlas began documenting the sounds of Montana's shortgrass prairies through a collaboration with American Prairie.
HIDDEN SOUNDSCAPES REVEALED
The sounds in this exhibit represent 24 different scenes featuring many different prairie species and locations. They change continuously over the course of a 30-minute time frame. As a result, most people who attend will have very different experiences of this exhibit. That is okay and by design.
As is the case in the natural world, the sounds here are ephemeral and rare. They emerge and then they are gone. Sometimes for a day, sometimes for a season, and sometimes forever.
A full list of species and their occurrences in Hidden Soundscapes at Tinworks Art is provided below.
SOUNDS
00:00
Thousands of sandhill cranes taking off (Rowe Sanctuary, Nebraska)
01:10
Insects in a gully at the American Prairie in Montana
02:10
Coyotes (American Prairie)
03:40
Prairie falcon and wind (American Prairie)
04:23
Red-tailed hawk (American Prairie)
04:45
Bison and faint thunder (American Prairie)
07:40
Wind, meadowlark, and prairie dogs (American Prairie)
08:55
Grouse (American Prairie)
09:40
Nighthawks and barn swallows (Central Montana)
10:33
Antelope (American Prairie)
11:05
Bison (American Prairie)
14:15
Sage thrasher (Palouse prairie, Eastern Washington)
15:25
Wind and prairie dogs (American Prairie)
16:22
Prairie falcon (American Prairie)
17:00
Grass fire (Palouse prairie, Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington)
18:40
Brood X cicadas (a prairie forest in Indiana)
20:00
Millions of bats emerging from Bracken Cave (Texas Blackland Prairie Ecological Region)
21:45
Millions of bats returning to Bracken Cave (Texas Blackland Prairie Ecological Region)
23:40
Surprise rain storm (Texas Blackland Prairie Ecological Region)
24:30
Creek and boreal chorus frogs (American Prairie)
26:15
Creek, songbirds, and sandhill cranes (short-grass prairie near Dupuyer, MT)
27:40
Wind and songbirds (American Prairie)
28:10
Wind and bison (American Prairie)
29:58
silence
Sounds are presented in a fully immersive multi-speaker audio format with the help of Tinworks staff, engineer KC Luchsinger, and Jason Bolte of the Montana State University School of Music.
