Hum/Ine: Interspecies Empathy, Composition, and Horses

This project explores the relationships between horses and humans, primarily focussing on the empathetic aspects of sound and communication. The research investigates how working with sound can deepen our understanding of and connection with horses and, how a creative compositional practice could provide an opportunity to enhance interspecies bonds and interactions.

The portfolio uses a combination of methodologies to explore these ideas of interspecies empathy. Key elements include: sound and listening technologies (including binaural microphones) that allow for detailed sonic capture; the idea of creative interspecies collaboration; the creative implications of zoomusicology; and the importance of listening with- as well as to- animals. The research outputs take the form of electroacoustic compositions, text-based scores, and an installation. In encouraging horses to participate in the process, the work aims to investigate or facilitate interspecies communication, co-creation/collaboration, and extra-linguistic communication.

The pieces in the portfolio do not seek to replicate the listening experience of the horse but are proposals for how we might creatively approximate such experiences to explore ideas of interspecies empathy. The research is inherently multidisciplinary and provides novel methods of exploring equine experiences and empathetic connections through creative and playful means. The work offers new frameworks for collaborative and co-creative art practices involving non-human participants. In the portfolio I present innovative approaches which attempt to blend artistic practice with scientific curiosity.