Lisa Schonberg

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, United States

Text Scores for Getting to Know the Invertebrates is a collection of creative scores that invite re-consideration of individual relations with insects (and more broadly, invertebrates) through prompts that guide interactions with them. These scores are inspired by composer Pauline Oliveros’ writing and scores, in which she challenges performers to listen as intently to sound as they possibly can – pursuing “perception at the edge of the new”, both globally and focally. My text scores do not require you to make music out loud, but rather prompt you to auralize – a term that Oliveros coined to mean listening or making sound in your mind. Blank ‘notes’ pages are provided for you to document your experiences with the scores.

In the scores, special attention is paid to our commonalities with insects and invertebrates – the homes, soundscapes, multispecies communities, and climatic and weather patterns we live in together. These scores are exercises in moving beyond anxiety and avoidance, and towards intentional exchange, whether that exchange is simply a conscious consideration, or a physical action we take. The scores ask us to give human-made sound (anthrophony) just as much consideration as we give nonhuman biological sound (biophony) and geological sound (wind and rain, etc). Importantly, it considers how invertebrates sense these sounds, rather than focusing on only on the human as listener. These scores consider anthrophony as part of the soundscape, and humans as actively engaged sound-makers, rather than as intruders, controllers, or spectators in soundscapes – part of nature, not separate from it.

See the text scores in full HERE

Text Scores for Invertebrates_soft launch version_ebook