Zooillogix

I Know Why the Caged Researcher Sings

Posted by ableiman on November 29, 2007
(6)
More »

Researchers from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in the UK are conducting a study on the relationship between bird songs and… uh… apparently any facet of the human experience. In what sounds to me like an interesting premise with impossibly broad scope, they will attempt to determine “how bird sounds evoke time, place and season and how people experience and draw upon bird sounds in science, art, music and their everyday lives” explained Dr. Whitehouse, lead project researcher. In case that wasn’t enough, the good doctor has thrown technology into the mix. “For most people hearing is an activity we do unaided, but new digital technologies are making it much easier for people to record sounds. I’m interested in the effects this has on our interactions with birds.”

i-15cdae5df715978ab0bd33a80d697017-singing bird.gif

Apparently, Dr. Whitehouse is interested in the experience of anyone, anywhere, regarding the influence of birds on any part of their life. In support of this undertaking, a website has been created that will allow anyone to submit an experience they had that related to a bird’s song. Check out www.abdn.ac.uk/birdsong/

This project sounds…

…more like an experiment in sadomasochism on the poor research assistants tabulating the inevitable mess. The study has ₤400,000 in funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which will undoubtedly buy the team at least two years worth of marijuana.

i-e9729a360d198b1c660f4340f7445d6f-bird poop.jpg
How does this make you feel?

Keywords: ,
(6)
More »

Comments

  1. #1 Janne
    November 29, 2007

    You’re reading it wrong, I think. We get money to do the research projects that are approved, not necessarily the research we actually want to do. But with some tweaking you can usually fit the stuff you’re really interested in into the larger framework you get paid for. And the wider and more open-ended the overall project, the more participants can research what they want and still plausibly present it as results of the overall project at the end of the period.

    This one is obviously brilliant; I’d love to know how they could get away with such a broad project definition.

  2. #2 andrew
    November 30, 2007

    did you submit your experience through their website?

  3. #3 sikiş
    December 10, 2010

    Something, other than the undeniable beauty of this fish, kept bothering me about this photo.

  4. #4 sex
    December 11, 2010

    did you submit your experience through their website?

  5. #5 Spencer Feret
    July 1, 2012

    I posted about this a couple of weeks ago at squidoocool.com, but Megan emailed and said it was still buggy and not ready for that limelight yet. Appears to be like a lot better now! Shame it’s not in the UK much too

  6. #6 The New Beginning 2012
    July 7, 2012

    Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your site is quite cool. I’m impressed by the details that you might have on this web page. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this online webpage, will come back again for extra articles or blog posts. You, my pal, ROCK! I discovered just the information I already searched everywhere and just could not come across.