Documenting natural soundscapes untouched by humanity

By Falah Faisal | NT

Bengaluru: I ’m led into a dark room, made to sit on a cushion on the floor and given noise canceling headphones playing nature sounds. In front of me on a wall is a wide projection of rainforest that slowly morphs into a mountain and then a desert. It looks like the beginning of an epic Hollywood blockbuster like Dune or Jurassic Park. But there are no mercenaries hiding in the mountains and no dinosaurs popping out of the greens. Just shots of pristine nature as they fade my night to day and then night again.

Next I’m led into an even darker room where there is nothing to see, but everything to hear as sounds of water flowing, birds chirping and wood being cut is played through 32 specially placed speakers to give the feeling of 3D. Like, you’re actually in nature and in the darkness you can even picture it. A stark contrast from the cacophony on the CMH Road right outside Goethe Institute where the exhibition is being held.

What would the world be like if humans disappeared? That’s the question Nikhil Nagaraj and Felix Deufel’s exhibition ‘If We Vanish’ is asking as they document natural soundscapes untouched by humanity in a rapidly changing world.

Shot over 40 days in the most remote locations in the country after nearly two years of preparation. The duo traveled 4,500 miles from the and recorded nearly 434 hours of sounds that range from biophony (sounds from non-human lifeforms), geophony (non biological natural sounds) and androphony (human generated noise).

“The project began in 2019,” Nikhil Nagaraj explained, “Felix and I are sound artists and have recorded sounds all over the world. We decided to pool our resources and capture these sounds since we felt it was important to document and preserve these natural soundscapes.”

They used specially designed high quality, low noise 3D mikes for the project that were designed by a Bangalorebased engineer Uma Shanker of Brahma microphones. “We used mikes that you could easily hide. Because when you have a big microphone the animals get aware of their presence and their behavior changes. That’s why we would set up the equipment and leave. And then come back two days later to check what we’d captured,” Nagaraj said. “The reason why we chose to have a dark room is that sometimes we see with our eyes. What we see is what we hear. So when we close off our eyes, our ears become sharper. That’s what we want to do,” he said.