By Megan McElhone
Hosted across three days (18th – 20th June) at the Edinburgh Napier University Craiglockhart Campus, the Unquiet Shores: Coastal Acoustics and the Terpsichorean Ocean conference provided a platform to consider the many intersections between perceptions of the sounds and movements of the coast and ocean. The conference included papers and showcases by a wide range of academics and practitioners and was well attended by both in person and online participants. The conference, co-hosted by research networks Haunted Shores and Macabre Danse, was the first in person conference of the HS network.
Panels across the three days included multiple different considerations of the sounds and movements of the coast, including ‘Littoral Listening’ and ‘Shoreline Creatures’. The structure of the conference ensured a balance of different voices, including a combination of papers, workshops, roundtables and performance viewings. This dynamic structure highlighted one of the main strengths of the conference: the inclusion of art and performance panels, combined with the academic papers. Harriet Crisp’s sonic workshop on ‘Coastal acoustics around Edinburgh’ as a successor to the earlier ‘Audio, Technology, Terror’ panel created a distinctly immersive atmosphere and sensorially transformed understanding of the ideas presented.
The ‘New Sound Waves: Arts and Practice-based Approaches to Ocean Epistemologies’ roundtable, held at the close of the second day, was a high point for all attendees. The roundtable, chaired by Giulia Champion and Kaja Franck, offered a variety of different approaches to the study of ocean epistemologies and prompted interesting conversation around how this is discussed on a wider level. The roundtable also acted as a unique bridge between the art/performance and academic panels – a true reflection of the dynamic nature of the ocean’s sounds and movements. This was also particularly evident in the complimentary panels held during the final afternoon of the conference: ‘Unquiet Shores and Drowned Worlds: Aural Afterlives of Flooded Communities’ – including Mererid Puw Davies’ compelling ‘Drowned Villages, Silent Waters’ paper – and the ‘Bodies of Unquiet Shores’ movement workshop, led by Ambre Emory-Maier. This combined finish to the conference marked the importance of interdisciplinary and multimodal approaches to study surrounding the oceans and coasts.