DURHAM, N.C. – Acoustic ecologist and musician Peter Cusack will present a free, public lecture at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, at the Nicholas School of the Environment at 91.

His talk will be in room A158 of the Levine Science Research Center on Duke’s West Campus.

Cusack is senior lecturer in sound arts and design at the London College of Communication. His research into the contribution sound makes to our sense of place blurs the line between art and science by treating ambient noise and nature sounds as both anthropological and ecological records, and avant-garde music.

In his acclaimed Sounds from Dangerous Places project, he traveled the world to collect sounds from sites that have sustained major environmental damage, including Chernobyl, the Ajerbaijan oil fields, and the areas around controversial dams in the upper Tigris and Euphrates riversheds in southeast Turkey.

Cusack incorporates environmental sounds into his musical compositions and performance art, and is widely cited for his work to identify and record sounds that define a location or community’s unique character – from the hustle-bustle of London city streets, to the cracks of spring ice breakup on Siberia’s remote Lake Baikal.

A Sonic Tour of Duke Forest
Prior to the talk, Cusack will accompany Nicholas School researcher Jeff Pippen and members of the public on a tour of Duke Forest to identify and record nature sounds emblematic of the Carolina Piedmont.

The 90-minute tour will depart at 1 p.m. from Gate 26 on Whitfield Road. (From campus, take Cameron Boulevard west, past Hwy. 15/501, to the roundabout at Erwin Road. Turn right onto Erwin and follow it to Whitfield Road, which will be the third stoplight. Turn right onto Whitfield and proceed about ½ mile to a gravel drive on the right marked “Gate 26.”

Cusack’s talk and Duke Forest tour are sponsored by the Nicholas School Office of the Dean.