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Dr. Susanne Schmitt
Naturkundemuseum Bayern mit Biotopia Lab
schmitt@biotopia.net
Dr. Katrin Petroschkat
Naturkundemuseum Bayern mit Biotopia Lab
petroschkat@biotopia.net
Dr. Lisa Gill
Landesbund für Vogelschutz (LBV)
lisa.gill@lbv.de
PR / Communications
Franziska Back
Landesbund für Vogelschutz (LBV)
franziska.back@lbv.de
09174 / 4775-7187
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Press Releases 2024
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Press Releases 2023
Dawn Chorus 2023 - Press Release 1
April 28th 2023
Take a break for Biodiversity: Join Dawn Chorus from May 1st through 31st
Munich/Hilpoltstein, 28.04.2023 – Monday May 1st marks the start of the Dawn Chorus project’s main collection period. This year the motto is “Stop and Listen. Free your mind.” Together, the Naturkundemuseum Bayern/BIOTOPIA Lab and the Bavarian nature conservation association LBV (Landesbund für Vogel- und Naturschutz) invite people all over the world to take time out from their hectic everyday lives to experience, record and share the morning bird chorus on their own doorstep. Without prior knowledge, everyone can make an important contribution to biodiversity research: the recordings form a valuable database for science to identify changes in biodiversity – for example, due to climate change or changes in habitat conditions. At the same time, the project offers various opportunities to get creative. By linking science and art, the project partners join to make nature heard.
Press Releases 2022
Dawn Chorus 2022 - Press Release 5
June 21st 2022
Record participation in Dawn Chorus: more than 13,500 bird voices collected for biodiversity research
First evaluation of the Citizen Science and Arts project by BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern and LBV reveals: twice as many recordings from Bavaria as in the previous year.
Dawn Chorus 2022 - Press Release 4
Mai 19th 2022
What does your bird concert sound like?
On International Biodiversity Day, let the birds be heard – take part in the citizen science and arts project Dawn Chorus
Dawn Chorus 2022 - Press Release 3
April 26th 2022
Listen and record: Collect this May’s morning bird songs for Citizen Science and Arts project Dawn Chorus
May 1st marks the start of the main collection period 2022 – The more people participate, the more valuable the results: with a free app, people all over the world record bird concerts, and become biodiversity researchers.
Dawn Chorus 2022 - Press Release 2
April 07th 2022
LBV joined BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern as project partner for „Dawn Chorus“
Recording early-morning bird songs to make nature’s voice be heard: the Citizen Science and Arts project Dawn Chorus as a contribution to biodiversity research
Dawn Chorus 2022 - Press Release 1
January 19th 2022
New digital artwork “Survival Songs” released
Follow this link to Daisy with Rider’s press release around the publication of Survival Songs, a digital artwork by Mika Johnson and Marcel Karnapke.
Press Releases 2021
Dawn Chorus 2021 - Press Release 1
PRESS RELEASE
April 29, 2021
Get ready! May 1, 2021, marks the start of the second annual, one-month campaign of the Citizen Science and Arts Project DAWN CHORUS to collect birdsongs worldwide – now, with a new app!
With a new free app, DAWN CHORUS invites people around the world to record and share their local morning bird song and make an important contribution to biodiversity research. The integrated new media art feature even allows them to add an artistic dimension to their personal nature experience.
The Citizen Science and Arts Project DAWN CHORUS is calling on people around the globe to record and share the morning birdsong on their doorstep during May 2021. There was a resounding response to the first Dawn Chorus campaign initiated in May 2020 during the “pandemic silence” caused by reduced human noise during the initial lockdown. More than 4,000 uploads of bird song from 50 countries were uploaded to the project’s portal www.dawn-chorus.org, and more than 65,000 followers joined the project on social media which received international press coverage and was awarded as part of the “UN Decade of Biological Diversity.” The project was initiated by BIOTOPIA, the new museum for life sciences and environment in development in Munich, and Stiftung Kunst und Natur / Foundation Arts and Nature (formerly the Nantesbuch Foundation), with support from the Max Planck Society.
The Dawn Chorus as indicator of threatened biodiversity
Birdsong is a powerful and evocative indicator of ecosystem health. During the dawn chorus, many birds are highly vocally active. In an effort to make their voices heard, DAWN CHORUS 2020 took advantage of the unusual silence afforded by the first lockdown – the reduction of human-generated noise, such as airplane and road traffic – to motivate people around the world to listen to the birds in their immediate environment in the early morning hours, record the bird songs with their smartphones, and upload them to the DAWN CHORUS website. The collective data submitted by participants has since been included in a digital global sound map, where visitors can listen to and discover the myriad of bird songs from around the world. The songs have also become part of an invaluable collection of scientific data from which initial research questions have already been investigated in collaboration with the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and other scientific institutions (https://dawn-chorus.org/report2020-en/).The collection has also been made available to the European Commission’s Global Coalition #UnitedforBiodiversity which is mobilizing international institutions to raise their voices on the global environmental
crisis ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15).
The goal, now, is to sustain and expand this initiative. Every year in May, when the bird herald the start of the breeding season with their mating songs, we hope to expand our public reach to citizen scientists with renewed calls for collecting bird song data that will help track developments in species diversity and habitats, as well as the effects of noise pollution through comparative analyses of annual data.
DAWN CHORUS 2021 hopes to inspire people to, once again, actively engage with nature and develop a personal awareness of the biodiversity in their immediate surroundings. It is well known, for example, that birds in the vicinity of airports start their morning song earlier. Are there also changes in the number and type of bird songs in the local city park, at bodies of water, or even on the village street? Which birds can be heard where? The aim of DAWN CHORUS 2021 is to increase the number of participants, generally, and encourage returning participants to make new recordings at the same location, on the same day and the same time as last year.
DAWN CHORUS 2021: New free app combines citizen science with innovative art
This year’s funding from the German Federal Cultural Foundation enabled DAWN CHORUS 2021 to develop a new free app to complement and expand its web platform. The intuitive DAWN CHORUS app not only facilitates the recording and uploading process, but significantly improves the quality of uploads for scientific evaluation by standardizing data collection. In the future, the app will integrate the automatic recognition of bird calls using machine learning – a development that will involve experts from the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
A newly developed artistic feature adds another dimension to DAWN CHORUS 2021: Sonic Feather, created by multimedia artists Mika Johnson and Marcel Karnapke, allows participants to draw using their own recorded bird calls as if with “acoustic ink” to create unique, multi-layered media artworks that can then be shared on community networks. This interlinking of scientific curiosity and art intensifies and cements participants’ dialogue with nature and their experience of the morning bird concert.
This year DAWN CHORUS is also excited to work with World Migratory Bird Day who have the theme “Sing, Fly, Soar like a Bird”.
As an interactive, community-based citizen science and art project, DAWN CHORUS 2021 opens the door to nature for everyday people around the world, piquing their curiosity and raising their awareness of its endangerment. It provides each and every participant the opportunity to make both a scientific and artistic contribution to biodiversity research.
“Dawn Chorus is a project that invites people to stop and listen, and connect with their local biodiversity through the medium of sound, while contributing to a global citizen science and art project. Birdsong is a vital indicator of the health of our ecosystems, and we want this project to be an alarm call to wake people up to the need to protect shrinking habitats for wildlife, and to make our cities and surrounding areas more hospitable to bird life. BIOTOPIA, Bavaria´s new museum for environment and life sciences in development, is deeply committed to nurturing a deeper understanding of the ecosystems we depend on, and of inspiring people to action to protect our planet.”
Prof. Dr. Michael John Gorman, Founding Director, BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern
The DAWN CHORUS app is now available at no charge for iOS and Android:
Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.natural_apptitude.dawnchorus
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/dawn-chorus/id1557441003#?platform=iphone
The Sonic Feather art feature will be available as an update from mid-May.
Hear the call!
From May 1 to May 31, 2021, DAWN CHORUS is calling on citizen scientists to get active once
again:
Get up very early and record the bird concert between dusk and dawn with your phone using the DAWN CHORUS app. Create your own media artwork with the recordings. Upload the recordings to the global sound map and share your experience with people around the world at https://dawn-chorus.org/en/.
Through your participation, you are making an important contribution to a growing collection of scientific data on biodiversity research and thus to species conservation. Be a part of a global artistic project.
You can hear the voices of the DAWN CHORUS at
#dawnchorus2021 and #stopandlisten
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DawnChorusStopAndListen
@DawnChorusStopAndListen
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dawnchorus_stopandlisten
@dawnchorus_stopandlisten
or by visiting www.dawn-chorus.org.
“Dawn Chorus – the App” is developed as part of the “dive in. Programme for Digital Interactions” of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) with funding by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BMK) in the NEUSTART KULTUR programme.
DAWN CHORUS is a collaborative project of BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern and Stiftung Kunst und Natur / Foundation Arts and Nature, as well as Förderkreis BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern e.V.
DAWN CHORUS – PROJECT PARTNERS:
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art)
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz (Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection)
Bayerische Akademie für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege (Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management)
Bayern 2 (Bavarian Broadcast 2)
BirdLife International
BUND Naturschutz in Bayern e.V. (Bavarian Society for the Protection of Birds e.V.)
Landesbund für Vogelschutz in Bayern e.V. (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union of Germany e.V.)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Lehrstuhl für Didaktik der Biologie (LMU Munich, Institute for Biology Education)
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max-Planck-Society)
Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie (Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology)
Museum for the United Nations – UN Live
NABU – Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union Germany
Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
UN-Dekade Biologische Vielfalt (UN Decade on Biodiversity)
Universität Salzburg, Didaktik der Biologie (University of Salzburg, Institute for Biology Education)
VBio
World Migratory Bird Day
WWF
Advisors:
Dr. Bernie Krause, Bioacoustician
Prof. Dr. Manfred Gahr, Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
Prof. Kathrin Böhning-Gaese, Senckenberg Gesellschaft (Senckenberg Natural Science Society)
Dr. Robert Lachlan, Royal Holloway University of London
Prof. Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (University of Freiburg)
DAWN CHORUS – FOUNDING MEMBERS:
BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern is currently in planning as a new museum of environmental and biological sciences in Munich-Nymphenburg/Germany. It reinvents the concept of the natural history museum for the “age of biology” and is, thus, to expand and eventually replace the existing Museum Mensch und Natur (Museum of Man and Nature). As an interface between science, art and society, BIOTOPIA will feature interactive exhibitions, events, festivals, digital education programs and Bavaria-wide mobile programs, as well as serve as a new discussion and education platform on life sciences and sustainability issues. BIOTOPIA is an international lighthouse project of the Free State of Bavaria with private support from the Friends of BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern, chaired by Dr. Auguste, Princess of Bavaria. Learn more at: https://www.biotopia.net/en
Stiftung Kunst und Natur / Foundation Arts and Nature (formerly the Nantesbuch Foundation) offers facilities and interdisciplinary programs for the sensory engagement with art and culture, as well as nature and the landscape. It aims to inspire and motivate people to action. Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Susanne Klatten, the foundation operates at two locations: In Nantesbuch, in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps, it is developing a large nature site with comprehensive measures in renaturation, landscape preservation, forest conversion, and extensive agriculture and forestry, and hosts a diverse cultural and educational program on art and nature. In Bad Homburg, Hesse, the Museum Sinclair-Haus offers an exhibition venue for contemporary international art. Learn more at: www.kunst-und-natur.de
Dawn Chorus 2020 - Press Release 2
PRESS RELEASE
May 17, 2021
Birdsong as Acoustic Ink: Nature lovers can make their own artistic contribution to the citizen science and arts project DAWN CHORUS
On 1 May the citizen science and art project DAWN CHORUS began to collect audio recordings of early morning birdsong from all over the world. Anyone can easily use the new smart phone app to take part by recording birdsong right at their own doorstep, and thus combine an enjoyment of nature with the protection of species. All the recordings are stored in a scientific database for the purposes of biodiversity research. Participants can also add an artistic dimension to their own audio contributions by using the newly developed media art feature Sonic Feather in the DAWN CHORUS app, turning citizen scientists into citizen artists.
Many artists have taken an interest in the sounds of landscapes and the songs and voices of animals. The multimedia artists Mika Johnson and Marcel Karnapke developed the Sonic Feather media art feature for the DAWN CHORUS project. This not only transforms the sounds of nature into visual art, but also adds the innovative function of allowing users to create their own illustrations of the birdsong they record, drawing with “acoustic ink” and thus making their own exclusive and original works of media art. By sharing experiences of nature in both acoustic and visual form via the app in a global sound map, the DAWN CHORUS project combines science, art and social participation. The aim is to raise awareness of the biodiversity of our immediate ecosystems and to sharpen our sensitivity for the endangered richness of the natural world as a source of artistic inspiration.
From Birdsong to Art: Creating Your Own “Sound Picture” with the DAWN CHORUS App
This is how it works. Anyone who wishes to take part can use the DAWN CHORUS app to record morning birdsong, can then add further information for scientific uses, and ideally also upload a photograph of the place where the birdsong was recorded. In the next step, users can create their own “sonic feather.” When playing the recorded birdsong back to themselves, users can touch the display showing the uploaded photograph of the recording location to create striking graphic traces that are directly generated by the sound and frequency patterns of the recordings. This leads to a kind of visual animation of the birdsong, whereby every transformation of the audio track into an illustration is unique – just like the birdsong itself. Here birdsong becomes art. Users can then share their own individual Sonic Feather together with the birdsong audio recording in the global DAWN CHORUS sound map and in social media. In this way, citizen scientists and citizen artists create their own active DAWN CHORUS community.
Mika Johnson, multimedia artist and co-creator of the app on the idea behind Sonic Feather:
“Every Sonic Feather will be as unique as a person’s fingerprint, just as every feather on this planet is unique. In this case, it makes us aware that sound is never just sound, but also creation. When participants share their creations online, they become part of a bigger story about how science and art combined with technology can reshape the world. This is about inspiration and awareness, about creation, and about science and art joining forces to celebrate the mystery and the beauty that birds and their songs give us.“
Very High Participation in the Citizen Science and Arts Project
The citizen science and art project DAWN CHORUS – initiated by BIOTOPIA – Naturkunde- museum Bayern and Stiftung Kunst und Natur (formerly Stiftung Nantesbuch) – was first conducted during the first Corona lockdown in 2020, and takes place for the second time this May. The project aims to promote people’s access to their own natural environments all around the world, to reinforce awareness of the dangers to biodiversity, and also to facilitate scientific and artistic contributions by individual participants. In order to continue to gain comparative data for biodiversity research the project will be repeated yearly.
During the first phase of the project in 2020 DAWN CHORUS achieved more than 4,000 birdsong uploads from fifty different countries, and the project now has more than 85,000 followers on social media. During the current collection phase since 1 May 2021 more than 1,100 new recordings from around the world have been added, and interest is increasing by the day.
Börries von Notz, managing director of Stiftung Kunst und Natur, a cooperation partner of the DAWN CHORUS project, says:
“The dawn chorus is a special opportunity for everyone to become more aware of their own natural surroundings – right in front of their doorstep. This gains in value when we share this experience with other people on the internet platform or by social media. With Sonic Feather in the new app participants who get up early to hear the dawn chorus can now add their own artistic expression to their contribution, by creatively transforming their experience of nature and sound. Then sound becomes art! We find this really exciting. We are looking forward to many fascinating contributions from the acoustic feathers of the citizen scientists and artists of the DAWN CHORUS project.“
DAWN CHORUS – THE SONIC FEATHER ARTISTS:
Multimedia artist Mika Johnson (born 1975 in San Diego/USA) works in the design of XR experiences and also in various media, including as a director for fictitious and documentary projects. He explores dream-like narratives, myths, rituals and biological diversity in the broadest sense. He worked for example with the Goethe-Institut in New Delhi to establish a virtual library connecting global knowledge systems, and for the Lost Forms and Found Forms project (produced by Expanded Focus Leipzig), which enables users to interact with an iceberg and to immerse themselves in the complex relations between fungi, trees and plants.
Berliner artist Marcel Karnapke (born 1983) is a theatre director, a developer, and a teacher. He is co-founder of the artists’ collective CyberRäuber, which creates new formats and applications for mixed realities in the context of classical theatre, opera and ballet. The main focus of his work is on merging high technologies with architectures of the human narrative. His work has received numerous prizes and encompasses themes such as virtual reality, the artificial intelligence of future architecture, archaeology, and the construction of realities.
The Invitation
From 1 to 31 May 2021the DAWN CHORUS project is for the second time inviting people to:
Get up very early and record the dawn chorus of birdsong at your own doorstep, between dawn and sunrise, using the free new DAWN CHORUS app. Use the Sonic Feather app feature to create your own media artwork from your recording. Upload your contribution to the global sound map and share your experience with people from all over the world at www.dawn-chorus.org.
The DAWN CHORUS app including the art feature Sonic Feather is available free of charge for iOS and Android:
Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.natural_apptitude.dawnchorus
App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/dawn-chorus/id1557441003#?platform=iphone
The DAWN CHORUS birdsong recordings are available at
#dawnchorus2021 and #stopandlisten on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DawnChorusStopAndListen
@DawnChorusStopAndListen
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dawnchorus_stopandlisten
@dawnchorus_stopandlisten
and at www.dawn-chorus.org.
Online Event Accompanying DAWN CHORUS:
On Monday 31 May at 7 pm the DAWN CHORUS project will feature the BIOTOPIA online event THE SOUNDS OF EXTINCTION: An Evening with Leah Barclay, Dan Stowell and David Rothenberg. These three renowned international experts for bio-acoustics and natural soundscapes will discuss questions such as what sound can tell us about the precarious condition of our ecosystems, and what we can learn when we listen to the sounds of nature. This panel discussion will be moderated by BIOTOPIA founding director Prof. Dr. Michael John Gorman and introduced by Dr. Auguste von Bavaria.
Registration and further information:
https://www.biotopia.net/de/events/46-2021-ueber-leben-sound-of-extinction?date=2021-05-31-19-00
“Dawn Chorus – the App” is developed as part of the “dive in. Programme for Digital Interactions” of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) with funding by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BMK) in the NEUSTART KULTUR programme.
DAWN CHORUS is a collaborative project of BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern and Stiftung Kunst und Natur / Foundation Arts and Nature, as well as Förderkreis BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern e.V.
DAWN CHORUS – PROJECT PARTNERS:
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art)
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz (Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection)
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus (Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture)
Bayerische Akademie für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege (Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management)
Bayern 2 (Bavarian Broadcast 2)
BirdLife International
BUND Naturschutz in Bayern e.V. (Bavarian Society for the Protection of Birds e.V.)
Haus der Kunst Munich
Landesbund für Vogelschutz in Bayern e.V. (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union of Germany e.V.)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Lehrstuhl für Didaktik der Biologie (LMU Munich, Institute for Biology Education)
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max-Planck-Society)
Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie (Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology)
Museum for the United Nations – UN Live
NABU – Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union Germany
#NatureForAll / IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns (The Bavarian Natural History Collections)
Soundtent
UN-Dekade Biologische Vielfalt (UN Decade on Biodiversity)
Universität Salzburg, Didaktik der Biologie (University of Salzburg, Institute for Biology Education)
VBio
World Migratory Bird Day
WWF
Advisors:
Dr. Bernie Krause, Bioacoustician
Prof. Dr. Manfred Gahr, Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
Prof. Kathrin Böhning-Gaese, Senckenberg Gesellschaft (Senckenberg Natural Science Society)
Dr. Robert Lachlan, Royal Holloway University of London
Prof. Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (University of Freiburg)
DAWN CHORUS – THE INITIATORS:
BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern is presently planned as a new museum for the natural and environmental sciences in Munich Nymphenburg. It will redefine the concept of a museum of natural history for the ”age of biology,” expanding and replacing the present Museum of Man and Nature. As an interface between science, art and society, BIOTOPIA will present interactive exhibitions, events, festivals, digital education and mobile programmes across Bavaria as a new platform for discussion and education in the life sciences and sustainability. BIOTOPIA is an international lighthouse project of the Free State of Bavaria with private support from the Förderkreis BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern e.V., chaired by Dr. Auguste Princess of Bavaria. More information: www.biotopia.net
Stiftung Kunst und Natur (formerly Stiftung Nantesbuch) provides spaces and interdisciplinary programmes for the sensory exploration of art and culture and of nature and landscape. It aims to inspire and activate people. This cultural institution was founded in 2012 by the entrepreneur Susanne Klatten and operates in two locations. In Nantesbuch in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps the foundation is developing a large natural site with comprehensive renaturation, landscape management, and forest transformation projects, as well as farming and forestry, presenting a diverse programme of cultural events and education on art and nature. In Bad Homburg in the state of Hesse, the Museum Sinclair-Haus offers a venue for exhibiting contemporary international art. More information: www.kunst-und-natur.de
Press Releases 2020
Dawn Chorus 2020 - Press Release 1
PRESS RELEASE 1
April 24, 2020
Stop and listen – to the Dawn Chorus
Announcing a new international Citizen Science Platform to capture birdsong: Stiftung Nantesbuch and BIOTOPIA are together launching www.dawn-chorus.org
In the exceptional situation of the “Corona-Spring 2020”, a new international citizen science project invites us to record and share the sounds of the Dawn Chorus.
The current lockdown is causing a dramatic reduction in the noise due to human activity – traffic noises, airplanes, industrial noise – all of these have become significantly reduced in the past weeks, allowing us to hear the often overlooked sounds of nature with ever greater clarity, especially as we are confined to our homes and local areas.
As Spring progresses, the songs of hundreds of species of birds can be heard ringing out every morning, from about one hour before sunrise.
This is the moment to stop and listen, and then to record and share the unique acoustic fingerprint of the bird species of your local area with the world.
Responding to the unique conditions of the lockdown, and inspired by the work of the American musician, bioacoustician and artist Bernie Krause, the father of soundscaping, the idea was born to make the birds heard.
In cooperation with many figures from science, culture and the digital world, and now emerging on the initiative of BIOTOPIA and the Nantesbuch Foundation, a new Citizen Science platform has been developed which will invite people to contribute Dawn Chorus recordings from May 1until May 22 2020 (International Day of Biological Diversity).
The platform www.dawn-chorus.org aims to survey the dawn chorus of birds worldwide, to encourage people to take an interest in protecting their local biodiversity, and to make this data usable for science in understanding, for example, the impact of climate change and other factors on bird biodiversity. In cooperation with artists, further dimensions of processing and communicating the results will be explored.
BIOTOPIA and Nantesbuch are now inviting people all over the world to record the dawn chorus on their own doorstep and share it on the newly created website www.dawn-chorus.org The recordings can then be brought together for the first time in a global soundmap.
“We hope to encourage people, even from windows and balconies in city apartments, to make and share recordings of the dawn chorus at this exceptional and challenging time, when human activity is drastically reduced in our cities. Through this project we hope to stimulate greater understanding of biodiversity through inviting people to listen to the natural sounds that surround us, and launch a multiannual project around the enchanting everyday phenomenon of the dawn chorus”
Michael John Gorman, Founding Director, BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern
“With Dawn Chorus, we are initiating a project that combines sensual experience of nature with digital possibilities, scientific contribution and artistic approaches. This is a particularly fruitful connection when it comes to meeting the great challenges of our time. Dawn Chorus makes us feel that we are all part of a worldwide orchestra of nature and art.”
Börries von Notz, Speaker of the board, Stiftung Nantesbuch
This collective action to record and share the dawn chorus will be repeated at the same time every year to document changes through comparable data, and discover how the voices of the dawn chorus are changing through time.
_____
The call
www.dawn-chorus.org
Share the dawn chorus on your doorstep with the world and help support research and conservation.
Many species of birds sing loudest shortly before sunrise: on the meadow, in the forest, but also in the middle of the city, in the garden, on the balcony – everywhere.
Anyone who can hear can experience this phenomenon – adults and children, healthy and sick people, scientists or artists.
Get up early, go to the window or outside if possible and listen to the birds. Record the voices with your mobile phone. Upload the recordings on this site and share your experience with people around the world by uploading it to our soundmap. Strengthen the sense of community by recording in parallel with friends, colleagues or peers, as a school class or members of a society.
Simple instructions for creating and sharing your recording will be made available on April 30th on the website www.dawn-chorus.org
From May 1 to 22, 2020 we will collect your sound recordings on the platform. Your local recordings will be mapped worldwide. You will make an important contribution to a growing scientific data collection on biodiversity research, which from now on will take place every year, and at the same time become part of a worldwide artistic project.
_____
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Initiators
BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern und Förderkreis Biotopia Naturkundemuseum Bayern e.V.
Stiftung Nantesbuch
Scientific Partner
Max-Planck-Society
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
Advisors
Dr. Bernie Krause, Acoustic Ecologist
Prof. Dr. Manfred Gahr, Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology
_____
DAWN CHORUS @ INSTAGRAM:
@dawnchorus_stopandlisten
#DawnChorus2020
Dawn Chorus 2020 - Press Release 2
PRESS RELEASE 2
May 19, 2020
Dawn Chorus keeps on singing –
Citizen Science and Arts Platform for birdsong extended until the end of May
The new Citizen Science and Arts Platform www.dawn-chorus.org for capturing the morning concert of natural birdsong was launched on May 1. Since then people around the world have been sharing their recordings of bird songs and in doing so have supported research and wildlife conser-vation. Thanks to the enthusiastic participation the initiators, Stiftung Nantesbuch and BIOTOPIA, have extended the project until the end of May.
The decline in the noise of human civilization resulting from Corona-related restrictions on movement is currently rendering the concert of the birds all the more audible almost everywhere in the world. This unique historical situation was the impulse for an innovative Citizen Science and Arts initiative: Within a short period of time BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern and Stiftung Nantesbuch Kunst und Natur joined the Max Planck Society and developed DAWN CHORUS with the support of renowned partners from research and nature conservation.
Since May 1 people from around the world have been sharing their recor-dings of the morning birdsong heard at their front doors on www.dawn-chorus.org. For wildlife conservation purposes the recordings are collected worldwide, can be experienced digitally and can be made usable for science. Additional dimensions of life in nature are to be further explored in collaboration with artists.
The initiators are very pleased by the amazing reaction which Dawn Chorus has inspired in the short time since the project began. Originally planned to last until May 22, the initiators are now extending the first concentrated phase of worldwide collection until the end of the month.
Due to enormous response, collection period is extended until
May 31, 2020
Now it will be possible to record morning birdsong until Mai 31, 2020 and upload the recordings to www.dawn-chorus.org. Participation is easy and requires no special equipment other than a smartphone. Instructions are available online.
Worldwide soundmap for birdsong
All the uploaded birdsong recordings will be collected on the platform in a global soundmap. Very many uploads from the german speaking area meet with birdsongs from India, Thailand, North Amerika, Japan and whole Europe. Taken together, the different birds’ songs form a unique soundscape reflecting the diversity of species.
The resulting collection is to be updated each year at the same point in time and will thus provide a valuable growing data basis for scientific research on the topic of the development of biodiversity and noise pollution. The data will be analyzed in collaboration with the Max Planck Society.
Citizen Science and Arts
DAWN CHORUS combines the sensual experience of nature with the digital perception of joint involvement on behalf of wildlife conservation and science. Artistic approaches render this connection perceivable in a particularly moving manner.
Participants are already being invited to combine their audio recordings with images of the environments in which the recordings were made, enriching the combination with their own creative involvement. Above and beyond the scientific data basis, the result is a vivid visual atlas of habitats.
After the end of the collection phase the project will then be further developed in collaboration with artists. Visual designers, video artists, musicians, visual and performance artists will use the periods between the annual recording phases to explore new dimensions in working with the voices of the world-wide orchestra of nature.
Strong partners and an active community
A highly appreciated number of robust partners and friends have come together on short notice to work on behalf of the Dawn Chorus. Major organizations from research and nature conservation are supporting the Dawn Chorus with their networks and media. The partners include World Wildlife Fund, Bund Naturschutz, NABU oder LBV.
Only two weeks after the project’s launch, countless smaller groups and well over 10,000 fans are already sharing their joy in nature and are networking in social media, sharing their experiences with the great worldwide concert of the bird.
DAWN CHORUS can be experienced on
Facebook www.facebook.com/pg/DawnChorus2020
Instagram www.instagram.com/dawnchorus_stopandlisten
and www.dawn-chorus.org
Press contact
Stiftung Nantesbuch
Kunst und Natur
Anke Michaelis
Head of Kommunikation
am@stiftung-nantesbuch.de
T +49 (8046) 23192-208
M +49 (175) 4008221
www.stiftung-nantesbuch.de
BIOTOPIA
Naturkundemuseum für Bayern
Ulrike Haardt
CONTENT | PR | SOCIAL MEDIA
mail@ulrikehaardt.de
M +49 (0)163-478 3522
www.biotopia.de
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PROJECT PARTNERS:
Initiators
BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern und Förderkreis Biotopia Naturkundemuseum Bayern e.V.
Stiftung Nantesbuch
Scientific Partner
Max-Planck-Society
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
Advisors
Dr. Bernie Krause, Acoustic Ecologist
Prof. Dr. Manfred Gahr, Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology
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DAWN CHORUS @ INSTAGRAM:
@dawnchorus_stopandlisten
#DawnChorus2020