Bioacoustics: Imaging and imagining the animal world

Through an exploration of the use of technology within bioacoustics and the interpretation of the resultant data in order to assess human acoustic impact on nonhuman species, Mickey Vallee introduces the term “transacoustic community” in order to illustrate the nefarious and transgressive means these data are put to. Vallee makes the charge that the bioacoustics community hears without listening, having a different imagination of sound to other sound-based researchers. This imagination springs not only from the specific aims of that community but also from the audio technology used (that ultimately relies on visualization for its data access), and this leads to a visually biased interpretation rather than a refined aurality.