conscient podcast

e149 spinning - let the sound take you wherever it might in your imagination

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

i came upon a 1980’s era ‘discman’ portable CD player that still work, sort of and listened to it trying to spin up TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (...

60 Minute Cities Ottawa (revisited)

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A special episode of The Place of Sound podcast featuring highlights from a project I did in 2017 for Bivouac Recordings, in Hong Kong, called 60 minu...

e148 ai - what is the sound of modernity for you?

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

i asked chatGPT what was the ‘sound of modernity’ in 4 modes : normal, critical, radical and optimistic and got some feedbackTRANSCRIPTION OF EPIS...

e147 worlding - what worlding stories do you hear ?

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

i learned about the concept of ‘worlding’ from Vanessa Andreotti’s Hospicing Modernity and I danced in the rain TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bel...

e146 countdown - can you turn back time?

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I recorded myself counting down from 100 to 1 in the snow and played in backwards, hoping, against all odds, to turn back time TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISO...

e145 bear - what do you think about grieving our dying planet and sitting with this sadness?

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

when I got up on September 25th 2023, while searching for my glasses in the dark, I touched a little mechanical bear TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell ...

e144 drifting - can you go with the flow?

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

while drifting on a river in a kayak i listenedTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(bell and breath) (kayak drifting on a river) * CREDITS One of my ‘happy ...

e143 defeatism - what are you not ready to see?

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I felt defeated by the ecological crisis, and by myself, so I created an episode about defeatism hoping to defeat my defeatism TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISO...

e142 consent - do keep listening

15 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

i asked a forest for permission to record it and got a response from a treeTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath)  (Wind in forest soundscape) ...

bonus episode - unlearning through sound

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a recording of a presentation I gave on October 6, 2023 about my ‘Sounding Modernity’ project to the XI International Symposium o...

e141 filature - what does gatineau sound like?

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

a bilingual soundwalk with city of Gatineau councillor (Hull-Wright) Steven Moran around ‘la filature’ for radio-hull 2023TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE (t...

e140 saturation - how can we tap into our boundless streams of love, connection and meaning?

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

my response to a colleague’s concern about feeling saturated by the omni presence of eco-awareness informationTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(bell and brea...

e139 stream - this episode. Is about listening. to this stream. for 5 minutes. enjoy.

24 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

while introducing a 5 minute recording of a bubbly stream I realized that the stream was flowing within meTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(bell and breath)(In...

e138 rouge - fishy, where are you?

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

a soundscape composition about soundscape composition at Rouge National Urban Park in TorontoTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(Bell and breath) (various field...

e137 ritardando - do slowing down sounds slow you down?

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

i’ve always been comforted and relaxed by sounds that gradually slow downTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(bell and breath)Slowing down sounds slow me down(l...

e136 electricity - are. you. powerless?

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I improvised a story during a power outage at the cottage about sound without electricityTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(bell and breath)It's Wednesday, July...

e135 layers - how do you feel now?

27 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

i played back four episodes from this season at the same time and listened to how they interactTRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE(bell and breath) Episode 105 ...

e134 drops - are you a drop of water?

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

one morning I heard rhythmic water dripping from a gutter and improvised this poem(bell and breath)(Voice synchronized to sound of water drop)I am a d...

e133 deconstruction - how can you constructively deconstruct?

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

while doing my qi gong one morning I heard roofers removing tiles and recalled simplesoundscape in 2016…TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE(bell + sound of roofer...

e132 slow - how does the pace of speech relate to the sound of modernity?

06 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

my zen practice taught me that unhurried speech invites us to slow downEPISODE TRANSCRIPTION(bell and breath)When I was a student at the White Wind Ze...

e131 modernity - are you modernity?

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

an exercise where I invite listeners to stop what they are doing, listen and to enjoy the experience(unedited improvised narration)Listening is at the...

e130 fiction - what stories do you want to hear?

22 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

a quote from robin parmar about speculative fiction that raises some questions(bell and breath)I love the sound of leaves dancing on hard surfaces. (...

e117 portrait of robin mathews (bonus episode)

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Here is another bonus episode, this one is called 'Portrait of Robin Mathews'. It is 3 part unpublished radio program I created in 2005 in collaborati...

e129 world listening day - what does world listening day mean to you?

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

e129 world listening day - what does world listening day mean to you?(bell and breath)Every July 18th is World Listening Day. It’s also composer and...

e128 revisited - what does decolonized listening sound like to you?

09 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)(movement 1 of vancouver soundscape revisited, eagle)You’re listening to the first movement, eagle, of my 1996 soundscape compositi...

e127 halfway - towards what are you midway?

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Note: the podcast recording was improvised based on this script and therefore has additional material.This 127th episode of the conscient podcast mark...

e126 sleepless - what keeps you up at night?

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(soundscapes of east vancouver at c. 5am)I can’t sleep tonight. What about you? I love nighttime soundscapes. They’re so bareboned, minimal, li...

e125 observer - how do you respond to climate news?

18 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell)I take stock of climate news by reading the headlines of the excellent daily newspaper, national observer, for example, on Tuesday April 25th, 2...

e125 promenade - how do you soundwalk?

11 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I decided to go for a walk this morning here in Kitchener, Ontario. A soundwalk.. Just because it's something to do; to be connected to a place. This...

e123 maps - what possibilities do you not yet know?

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(Bell and breath) I sometimes try to map out, on a piece of blank paper like this, where I think humanity is at with the ecological crisis…This hel...

e122 quiet - stop and listen

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)(Sounds of forest in winter with icicles)Sometimes we just have to stop and listen. Without passing judgement. Just listen….Somet...

e121 rumble - what killed dr decibel?

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell)(humming to urban drones) This is Dr. Decibel. Your sonic superhero on the unseated ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-...

e120 metro - stop and listen

14 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)(sounds of a subway car throughout)Sometimes we just have to stop and listen. Without passing judgement. Just listen….Sometimes w...

e119 construction - how does the sound of construction affect you?

07 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I invite you to listen to a construction site, unaltered and raw. How does the sound of construction affect you?*This episode was rec...

e118 toilet - where does your shit go?

30 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)where does your shit go?(toilet flush 1)where does your shit go?(toilet flush 2)where does your shit go?(toilet flush 3)where does yo...

e117 - deeper into the forest

23 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(in memoriam Robin Mathews : November 1, 1931 - April 25, 2023)(bell)(Deeper Into the Forest (2023) poem by Robin Mathews, narrated by Robin Mathews w...

e117 - deeper into the forest (bonus)

23 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

a conversation between robin and myself about the origins of this poem (in memoriam Robin Mathews : November 1, 1931 - April 25, 2023)(in memoriam Rob...

e116 loss - what does ecological loss sound like where you live?

16 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)(muffled sound of ocean waves)This recording filters out all high and mid-range frequencies that I captured of ocean waves at Canaver...

e115 ordinary - open your window and listen, what do you hear?

09 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell)I got up this morning, or I was awoken rather by the most beautiful sound. It was a snow plow, very gently pushing the snow from the sidewalk. I...

e114 privilege - what are the privileges in your life?

02 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(Claude Schryer n 2023)It's March 6, 2023 and I’m at Trout Lake Park in Vancouver. About 2 years ago, I went for a long soundwalk with climate activ...

e113 soundwalk (part 2) - how can we deepen our listening?

26 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(Jacek Smolicki)The ultimate question I'm asking is how can we move away from soundwalk as a kind of framed aesthetic experience or artistic experienc...

e113 soundwalk (part 1) - what is my position in listening ?

26 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(Claude Schryer)Jacek, what is soundwalking? (Jacek Smolicki)That's a very broad question, but I'll try to answer from two perspectives: my own and f...

e112 listening - how can listening help ?

19 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(various layered excerpts from my soundscape compositions throughout this episode) Conclusion 1 : we need to face reality and learn how to unlearnMay...

e111 traps - what are the traps in your life?

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell, breath and occasional balloon sounds)Me : have you ever had the feeling that you were being observed?Observer : I’m observing you. Me: Who a...

e110 drain - where does your bathwater go?

05 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(sound of bath draining, at first with a strong oscillating rhythm followed by water flowing and silence)It goes down the drain (again) and into the s...

e109 being - how can we listen through art?

26 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)On December 19th, 2022 I read David Maggs’ Art and the Ouija Board? blog, as part of his Metcalf Foundation Fellow on Arts and Soci...

e108 2048 - what speculative fiction stories inhabit you?

19 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(Sound of fire)This is another fireside storytelling episode, this time by a wood stove at our cottage. Thanks for joining me. Pull up a chair… As ...

e107 harm - what do you not know?

12 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)Today's episode does not have any sound other than my voice and a series of silences.  And I think you’ll understand why in a minu...

e106 fire - what can we do about our collective indifference?

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)(sound of campfire)I invite you to slow down, or maybe stop, what you’re doing and listen to a campfire storyWe’re sitting in the...

e105 rope - how did this episode make you feel?

29 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This recording is a rope holding a boat to the dock at Toronto Harbour on November 26th, 2022. Sketches by Sabrina Mathews. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISOD...

e104 time - what does a very small moment in a much larger space sound like?

22 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(bell and breath)(loud sound of train passing at close distance)(once the train has passed, cross fade between quiet city and very quiet mountain fore...

e103 heat - what does decarbonization sound like to you?

15 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(sound of bell and breath)On December 5th 2022 we had a heat pump installed in our house in order to reduce our carbon footprint. What is a heat pump...

e102 aesthetics - how can we 'de-modernize' art?

08 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(ocean shoreline)The problem with beauty is that it can distract us from reality.Sit with me, please, take a moment. Sit and listen… Over there, ab...

e101 tension - how do you feel now?

01 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

(Deep breath)TensionI was thinking about the tensions in our lives and the art of finding a balance point… So I went for a sound walk in Vancouver ...

e00 what is sounding modernity?

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to episode 0 of season four of the conscient podcast, Sounding Modernity, five-minute sound meditations, published every Sunday from January 1...

e99 (b) winter soundscape revisited – homage to r. murray schafer (composition only)

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'What would the Prairies be without wind?  It’s the keynote sound here, the one against which everything else is registered. But to record it? Impo...

e99 winter diary revisited – homage to r. murray schafer (25′ introduction + 40′ composition + 3′ credits)

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Episode NotesBarn on the farm of R. Murray Schafer and Eleanor James, Indian River, Ontario, January 19, 2022 (photo by me)Note: the text below is a ...

e98 epilogue – perspectives on season 3

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'I came to realize that in season three that I continue to be very deeply moved by the layering of words and soundscapes. There's something about it, ...

e97 chantal chagnon, kevin jesuino, melanie kloetzel – climate art web

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'We are missing so many voices that could be the change. Art gives us that opportunity to amplify those voices and I think it's important that now, mo...

e96 joan sullivan – the liminal space between what was and what’s next

08 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'We find ourselves in a liminal space right now and liminal space means it's that time between what was and what's next. That's where we are. It's a p...

e95 charles c. smith & kevin a. ormsby – IBPOC arts in planetary renewal

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Yes, we agree that anti-racism is important. Yes we agree that anti oppression is important. Yes, we agree that equity is important. Yes, we agree th...

e94 devon hardy – data is a powerful thing

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'We have a national data set that's about to emerge and that's a really powerful thing. If we can gather data from across the country from arts and cu...

e93 anthony garoufalis-auger – national cultural climate policy

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'The economic models and the way that policy is guided in Canada and around the world at the moment assumes that culture will not change. It assumes t...

e92 santee smith – about SKéN:NEN and interconnectedness

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'The environment and sustainability is an integral, if not the founding process, of how we view the world: interconnectedness, responsibility as human...

e91 keith barker – telling a really good story

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I look for stories that are not there just to educate people. If I tell a really good story and it happens to be about the global crisis, about globa...

e90 shannon litzenberger – state of emergence : why we need artists right now

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I would first and foremost love to see artists really lean into experimentation with their creative practices and to share what comes out of those pr...

e89 excerpts from ben okri’s ‘artists must confront the climate crisis’

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

‘Here we are on the edges of the biggest crisis that has ever faced us. We need a new philosophy for these times, for this near-terminal moment in t...

e88 robin mathews – on radical listening & political poetry

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I don't know how many people in Canada who would immediately understand what radical listening is, because it would occur to me that the listener wou...

e87 kendra fanconi – on the artist brigade, ben okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief & reauthoring the world

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'We are all artists of the Anthropocene. We inherently are because this is the world that we're living in right now. There's no other world. We were d...

e86 arts policy, equity and activism class at centennial college

25 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I'm interested in what we can do to both mitigate the climate emergency and adapt to it but there's another level which is revisioning the world and ...

e85 tracey friesen – narratives of resilience for a post carbon world

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'What's starting to interest me is stories of resilience for a post carbon world. What are we going to need for our emotional well-being? It's going t...

e84 viviane gosselin + mauro vescera of the museum of vancouver

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Museums have been very good at normalizing social values and so when you have this shift and the government is seeing it, we have to change behavior, ...

e83 the greatest mass movement in history

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

‘This episode lasts 59 seconds. I want to share a November 13th, 2021, tweet by British writer and climate activist George Monbiot: 'Now we have no ...

e82 washable paint

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

My goal with this episode was to record the soundscape of a public protest : the singing, chanting, speeches, random chatter and marching as well as t...

e81 – inspiration

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'Art is a practice of expanding consciousness, which gives us a tremendous opportunity to explore and to embody possibility and to engage with the ear...

e79 manifesto – accelerating climate action through the power of arts, culture and heritage

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'We, the undersigned, declare that people, their cultures, and the natural and cultural heritage of the earth are profoundly at risk from human-caused...

e78 milena droumeva – art needs to get on the street

04 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I think art needs to get on the street, because raising awareness in a gallery is really speaking to the choir. I'll leave raising awareness, because...

e77 seth klein – identifying a shared vision and a set of actions

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I think the same model (climate emergency coalitions) could and should be used by SCALE to have these arts and culture groups come together, identify...

e76 kim richards – seeding a green new theatre in canada

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I wrote an article called Seeding a Green New Theatre in Canada that is drawing on a lot of principles of conversations happening around a green new ...

e75 radical listening as climate action

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'To me, radical listening is about stepping out of our comfort zone when we listen. Radical listening about thinking beyond what we think we know when...

e74 letting go

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I’ve come to realize that the main barrier to my re-education, and I might not be the only one in this situation, is… ‘me’. My personality, m...

e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I feel really at the base of myself that creating anything, art, sofas, whatever it is, allows us to give of ourselves to something that may not be l...

e72 richard wagamese’s what comes from spirit

22 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'It’s 2.29am on Sunday October 17th, 2021. I can hear the rumble of the city in the background, but the rain has stopped for a few minutes. Yesterda...

e71 green sessions debrief

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'The Green Sessions was invented because this small group of people got together and decided we wanted to do something that created impact. I'm really...

e70 one step at a time

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'We make choices by not making choices And we live with unbearable consequences We hear alarm bells, but do not respond We cling to uncertainty like a...

e69 soundwalk in the dark

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'It's 4 56 am on Tuesday, rather than Wednesday, September 29th. I'm about to do something I've never done before, a soundwalk in the dark. I wanted t...

e68 andrew davies and no. 9 gardens

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I think the transformation of knowledge is really important. What we can do from our generation to the next is try and help prepare them for the impa...

e67 wanna be an ally

16 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I've been thinking about decolonization and reconciliation and other issues in our relations with indigenous communities. I was reading the 'wanna be...

e66 stillness

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I’m interested in doing episodes that are in the moment, unedited moments of thinking out loud and not thinking too much because the rest of my bod...

e65 drifting into season 3

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'What I'm looking for, ultimately, is an anchoring point: where are we at and what can we do to ensure the continuation of life?'Claude Schryer, Duham...

e64 a case study (part 2)

07 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'Welcome back to the History of 2021 in Canada seminar. We’re going to conclude our case study today of the 2nd season of the conscient podcast....

e63 a case study (part 1)

04 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'Welcome to the History of 2021 in Canada seminar. We’re going to do a case study today of the second season of the conscient podcast.'Claude S...

e62 compilation – season / saison 2

14 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I think capitalism is over, but the problem is we have nothing to replace it with. Here's when we need artists, and others, to tell us what kind of v...

e61 sokoloski – from research to action

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I think that there needs to be greater capacity within the art sector for research to action. When I say that the art sector itself needs to be drivin...

e59 pearl – positive tipping points

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'SCALE (Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency) is a national round table for the arts and culture sector to mobilize around the climate ...

e58 huddart – the arts show us what is possible

05 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is now an existential crisis, and we have in a way, a conceptual crisis, but just understanding we are and what this is, this moment, all of hist...

e54 garrett – empowering artists

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I don't want to confuse the end of an ecologically unsustainable, untenable way of civilization working in this moment with a complete guarantee of ex...

e53 kalmanovitch – nurturing imagination

29 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the larger crises we face right now is actually a crisis of failure of imagination and one of the biggest things we can do in artistic practice...

e52 mahtani – listening and connecting

26 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If we can find ways to encourage people to listen, that can help them to build a connection, even if it's to a small plot of land near them. By helpin...

e51 hiser – the emotional wheel of climate

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What motivates me is talking to students in a way that they're not going to come back to me in 10 years with this look on their face, you know, Dr. Hi...