Mixing a radio show with your studio windows open is, generally speaking, not a recommended way to work.
While sound designing this week’s episode, it felt right to break that rule. I work from my home in rural Wisconsin, a house surrounded by birds, crickets, horses and frogs. Wouldn’t these creatures want to hear their feathered friends sing from my studio monitors? The answer to that is uncertain, maybe anthropomorphism on my part. But regardless, it’s what I needed to feel while working. So on it went, the summer breeze drifting in with the sound of mourning doves, mockingbirds and the occasional mare. It inspired choices and a healthy merriment.
Thankfully, the majority of the episode was completed before the Canadian wildfire haze arrived this week. The studio windows were closed and the central air started, an oppressive signal that nature is a gift, even a privilege. It can easily be taken away; something we’re forced to separate ourselves from due to unpleasant realities. I am reminded of Christian Cooper’s experience in New York’s Central Park. My old colleague, James Edward Mills, also writes about this perspective in his Joy Trip Project and book, The Adventure Gap. I was separated from nature by a distant fire. These men are experiencing a separation even more systemic and difficult to navigate.
If anything comes from our episode “Avian Obsessions” this week, I hope it’s a sense that we should seek out the closed windows and open them, for ourselves and for others. Nature is calling to us; it makes us a weaker human race when only certain people can afford the privilege of listening.
– Joe