Researchers will explore ways that sound can deepen our understanding of the environment at the 2018 International Ecoacoustics Congress.

The four-day conferencewill feature research presentations, live performances, scientific workshops and immersive installations, attracting scientists and international artists.

The event is part of an exciting portfolio of collaborations across the creative arts and environmental sciences at Griffith University that are investigating the creative and scientific possibilities of acoustic ecology.

The keynote speakers include Italian composer and ecoacoustics researcher David Monacchi, who has conducted field research in the world’s remaining areas of undisturbed primary equatorial forest.

The creative program features Dr Ros Bandt, one of Australia’s leading experimental composers, who has forged a unique career as a designer, multi-instrumentalist and curator of acoustic spaces.

The congress is organised by the Australian chapter of the International Society of Ecoacoustics, and is co-hosted in collaboration with Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology.

The congress offers a highly interdisciplinary program and has attracted delegates from arts, humanities, engineering, environmental sciences and industry.

The chair of the Creative Program, Dr Leah Barclay, fromthe Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre,believes that the congress offers opportunities to expand and advance the field of ecoacoustics by bringing artists and scientists together and make connections.

“This will be the first time the International Ecoacoustics Congress has had such a strong creative program, despite being such an active interdisciplinary field,” she said.

“The conference team is thrilled with the final program — there is an incredible diversity of work that really demonstrates how rapidly the field of ecoacoustics is expanding internationally.

“Ecoacoustics is an emerging ecological discipline that requires interdisciplinary collaborations and Brisbane is home to many of the research projects that are propelling the field nationally.”

A fellow member of the congress team, Dr Simon Linke from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute believes that the field of ecoacoustics can have a significant global impact.

“Ecoacoustics is going to play a critical role in how we monitor environmental change in the future,” he said.