On Monday 20th July, PSL researchers joined the Munich City Soundscapes Team in leading a ‘listening salon’ in Munich’s Ostpark, taking members of the public on a walk through the park to listen, contemplate and discuss the sounds of urban nature.
Participants listened out for grasshoppers, crickets, the elusive ‘Mountain Cicada’, and a variety of other insects during a short walk amongst the wildflower meadows, water bodies and trees of the park. The City Soundscapes Team – who regularly lead such walks throughout Munich – introduced participants to listening techniques designed to help connect humans with nature, and invited them to think about the connections between human wellbeing and the wellbeing of other species, and questions around the limitations of human senses, and how these limitations can be co-operatively mitigated.
PSL researchers invited participants to listen out for the almost-inaudible Cicadetta Montana (German: Bergsingzikade), present in Munich’s Ostpark but notably (from a human perspective) more muted than their well-known Mediterranean cousins. Luckily, ultrasonic microphones can help detect the species, allowing for their high-pitched calls to be reproduced at a pitch humans can hear more easily. Participants were also lucky enough to spot a Cicada skin – left during shedding – on a tree in the park:
The event was part of the Cicadas and Fireflies Project of the PSL, which is experimenting with qualitative-first approaches to understanding biodiversity loss, and invites creative and qualitative input (stories, audio, images) from those with experiences of these atmospheric insects (https://pianeta-lab-storia.vercel.app/). It formed the first of a summer programme being run by the Ostpark Activation Team in Munich.
Public Science Lab 