Our Ears Are Collecting Data. Are We Using It?

Palmer Morse (left) and Matt Mikkelsen take to the woods and leave no sound unheard. Photos courtesy Spruce Tone Films

Matt Mikkelsen and Palmer Morse are outdoor data collectors.

They're not carrying vials or baggies though. They're toting microphones and cameras, recording the audible environment we all experience but mostly fail to perceive.

As Spruce Tone Films, these two adventurers are helping bridge the gap between visual and audible information, doing research and sharing stories with sound ecologist Gordon Hempton and others.

We caught up with them to learn more about what the soundscape can tell us about the landscape, to understand the struggle to preserve natural sounds in our human-filled world, and to discover how we can train our own hearing to give us more information and more enjoyment on our adventures and explorations.

​Learn More
Watch Matt and Palmer's film about Gordon Hempton, Being Hear.
Explore Gordon's work at soundtracker.com.
See (and hear) more clips at sprucetonefilms.com.

With practice, any hearing person can train their ears to distinguish sounds in nature. Photo by Spruce Tone Films