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Before writing ANTHRONOISE, I took a deep dive down the internet rabbit hole of recorded fish sounds. I listened to fish, & to crustaceans & cetaceans, & transcribed (onomatopoeically, in English) their aural traces. Alongside this research, I read a whack of scientific papers documenting the centrality of sound to marine creatures—oceans as sonic environments—and the effects of human sound at sea. I also listened to recorded noises of ship propellers and seismic air guns. In the chapbook, I include a diagram showing the spatial scale and duration of various underwater sounds—including shipping noise, which spans all regions and intervals—and a version of the diagram which I wrote into to document impacts to sea creatures. Very little underwater sound crosses the water-air interface; the poems register some of this sound.
ANTHRONOISE is part of a book project focused on global and local shipping practices and environments. In addition to the sonic/aural material, the chapbook also includes entries from “Lexicon,” a series composed by selecting and combining words drawn from shipping industry magazines. This procedure drew out ideas woven throughout the industry articles, including a recurring commitment to sustainability only/as long as development and growth continues at pace. One of the pieces in the “Anthronoise” section, “Song-with,” highlights the risk of unsustainable growth by using erasure to show how shipping noise can mask up to 90% of whale communication underwater. The chapbook amplifies some of this noise.
Brook Houglum has previously published poems in magazines such as Tinfish, Event, and Interim. She teaches at Capilano University and lives near Sen̓áḵw, in the area now known as False Creek, Vancouver, on unceded Skwxwú7mesh, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ lands. A second title through above/ground press is forthcoming.
