This indoor multi-loudspeaker concert continues a weekend long celebration of World Listening Day and this year's focus by NAISA on water sounds. Created in 2009 "A Sound Map of the Housatonic River" is the third in Annea Lockwood's seminal series of river sound map pieces. The piece takes the listener on an imaginary voyage from the source of the Housatonic River in the Berkshire Mountains to the river’s mouth in Long Island Sound, Connecticut. The mid-summer journey includes sounds from the natural world and those placed there by the human commercial activity.

Voice of the Water is an interactive rotary telephone-based listening station. Using sounds collected from inside the lakes and rivers around South River, Voice of the Water encourages listeners to connect with the local waterways as they explore the boundaries and overlaps between planes of existence. The Artist's goal is to create a venue for contemplation, catharsis, and a deeper engagement with the surrounding environment.

Sound Fishing Invitation

Go on a listening expedition with a staff member from NAISA to record underwater sounds in the vicinity of South River. Equipped with a recorder, hydrophones and other sensitive microphones you will explore the sounds of the world in intimate listening proximity to one of the many water ways within 30 KM of the village of South River.

The sounds you record will be included in Voice of the Water. Participation is FREE and the invitation is ongoing. Call NAISA or Email to make a 2 hour (maximum) appointment to record sounds at a nearby lake, river, stream, or creak. All weather conditions are possible save for thunder and lightning storms. Dress appropriately for the conditions, including bug protection.

Borderline is a critical mapmaking project that uses sound to illuminate social and economic differences in local geographies. Visitors to the NAISA North Media Arts Centre are invited to contribute to a large-scale soundmap of the Almaguin Highlands by borrowing a toolkit to map sounds in one of the villages of their choice, or by using the Borderline mobile app. The sounds collected are added to the map on an ongoing basis.

The Borderline iOS app enables users to automatically map sounds in their environment, put them in dialogue with other forms of data, and generate interactive soundscapes by playing sounds back into the environment. Click here to download

The Sensation of Distribution is a reprise of Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters’s 2019 work, The Distribution of Sensation, which they created while artists in residence at The Bentway, a large, urban public space situated under an elevated highway in downtown Toronto. The Distribution of Sensation was a sound sculpture composed of PVC pipes installed around The Bentway that invited visitors to listen through the natural resonance of the cylinders, creating a series of musical experiences across the site. Mimic the plumbing infrastructure of the site, the installation was meant to create aesthetic slippages that might potentially lead to confusion as to what exactly functioned or counted as art.

The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.

Celebrate World Listening Day weekend with a silent walk through the forests and lakefront of the Warbler's Roost property led by NAISA Executive Director Nadene Thériault-Copeland.

World Listening Day, organized in part by the World Listening Project, celebrates the art of actively listening to the sounds of the environment. It aims to raise awareness about the significance of listening as a cultural practice and promotes sonic stewardship of the environment. Through various events and initiatives, it encourages individuals worldwide to engage with and reflect upon the soundscape around them.

What does the world sound like underwater? Cast a hydrophone into the lake and find out. Eric Powell will lead participants on an exploration of the underwater sounds of Deer Lake. Meet at Warbler's Roost. Equipment provided. Event happens rain or shine.

Go on a listening expedition to record underwater sounds in South River and vicinity. Equipped with a recorder, hydrophones and other sensitive microphones you will explore the sounds of water in intimate listening proximity. The sounds you record will be included in the Voice of the Water installation opening July 18.

Eric Powell will introduce the Voice of the Water installation at NAISA and talk about the evolution of his project which uses a rotary telephone to connect listeners to underwater recordings.