Remix, Reuse, Recycle : Music, Media Technologies, and Remediating the Environment

How do we remix the environment? What do the sonic landscapes of video games, friendship bracelets made and shared by Taylor Swift fans, and experimental music composed from the sonification of climate change data have in common? They are examples of environmental remix, a creative and political practice of reshaping, translating, and recycling environmental knowledge into sound media. Organized around a series of case studies ranging from the well-known to the rare and fascinating, Remix, Reuse, Recycle explores how artists work with sound technologies to remediate and repackage environmental information, including climate change data, soundscape field recordings, sensory experiences of nonhuman nature, and environmentalism discourse into sound-work that can be understood by a non-specialist audience. Author Kate Galloway argues that practices of remixing, reusing, and recycling are interpretive tools through which artists challenge conventional ways of communicating pressing environmental issues and aesthetic experiences of sonic environments to the public.