The Importance of Listening to Mud
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Mud is one of the most commonplace substances, but it defies attempts to describe it. Mud can be thought of as an archive in miniature, holding secrets about environmental change in deep time. This essay asks what we might be able to learn if we could listen to mud, to give voice to the history locked in its murky matrix. With examples from the arts and science, it explores mud as an environmental archive with the potential to provide rich, multisensory experiences of the past, particularly when transformed into soundscapes. By moving from scientific language to the immersive and empathic experience of soundscapes, knowledge can be shared more widely and everyone can play a part in interpreting environmental change.
Source: Kronos
Authors: Simon Connor, Rufus Maculuve
Language: English
Topic: Sound Studies and Aurality
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W6887598393