About this Event
Listening (with) Vliegenbos: A datawalk between live, recorded, and generated soundscapes
Have you ever stopped to listen to the soundscape of a forest?
Listening (with) Vliegenbos explores plural ways of listening and becoming-with the forest, together.
For the past two months, Marco A. Finardi (designer and researcher) has been meeting the forest through its sounds, working with recording devices and AI models. This walk is a way of sharing this work back, and an invitation to get to know the Vliegenbos urban forest in Amsterdam Noord by listening closely to the sounds of its ecosystem.
Approached from a more-than-human perspective, listening becomes a collaboration between humans, ecosystems, sensing devices, and AI models, rather than the measurement of objective audio properties.
We will experiment with three listening practices:
· First, we will listen with our human senses, focusing our attention on the different elements that collectively shape the soundscape.
· Then, we will expand human hearing by listening together with AudioMoth, a bioacoustic recorder that captures sounds for long time-spans and across frequencies inaudible to the human ears.
· Finally, we will listen together with AI, through soundscapes generated by models fine-tuned on the sounds of Vliegenbos.
The datawalk will end with a short 5-mins research survey, and a round of sharing and sensemaking.
By encountering Vliegenbos trees through live, recorded and generated soundscapes, this datawalk invites you to reflect on how we relate to more-than-human entities. Listening through different senses, datasets and instruments becomes a collective exploration of sound as a form of knowledge and imagination.
This datawalk is part of the PhD research of Marco Andrea Finardi at the Design Intelligences Institute, Politecnico di Milano, which investigates the role of data in representing more-than-human entities, and the possibilities of AI-generated synthetic data as a speculative design instrument. The walk builds on and contributes to the format of DataWalks, creating ways to experience datasets while inhabiting situated ecosystems.
The research on Vliegenbos soundscapes is developed in collaboration with Lucidminds AI, and this event is jointly developed with Baltan Laboratories with the support of Stichting Cultuur Eindhoven.
Special thanks to TU Delft’s AI Futures Lab (prof. Dave Murray-Rust) for hosting Marco’s research visit, and to Play the City (Ekim Tan) for facilitating Marco’s relationship with the forest.
Limited spots available!
Registration is required.
Donations will cover the production costs of the event sustained by Baltan Laboratories.
Practical info – read carefully.
Saturday 7 November, 14:00 to 16:30
Vliegenbos, Amsterdam Noord
The walk will be held in English.
Meeting point
West entrance of Vliegenbos
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3zLJPy5KRGPrrzR97
52°23'24.1"N 4°55'31.5"E
Materials
The datawalk is based on listening to multiple audio tracks, accessed on your phone. To participate, please bring:
- Headphones or earbuds that connect to your smartphone;
- A smartphone with internet connection;
- Outdoor shoes and rainproof clothing, as we will walk in the forest.
Weather
The walk will still take place in case of light rain. In case of severe weather, it will be postponed to the following weekend, on Saturday 14 November, 14:00 to 16:30.
Accessibility
The datawalk includes walking and stopping in the forest for about 2.5 hours, on paved and unpaved paths. Please share any accessibility needs in advance, through the form or by writing to [email protected].
Research participation and privacy policy
This activity is part of the PhD research of Marco Andrea Finardi on more-than-human design.
Participation requires reading and signing a consent form at the start of the walk (see links below), and providing your contact details (only for research-related communications). Photos, videos and audio will be recorded for research and communication purposes.
The research received ethical approval from the Politecnico di Milano Ethics Committee (ref. 50/2026).
Data collection is minimised and managed in line with the EU GDPR. More details:
- GDPR Privacy Information NoticeResearch Participation Notice
[MAF1]Meeting a forest through more-than-human soundscapes.
OR A walk-shop to meet the forest through live, recorded, and generated soundscapes
Event venue & nearby stays
Vliegenbos West Entrance, 52°23'24.1"N 4°55'31.5"E, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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