Karen Bakker’s The Sounds of Life presents a deep critique of the idea that only humans use language and intelligence, by showing the complex ways that nonhuman species like whales, elephants, plants, and corals communicate. This book supports a view that encourages a deeper, two-way relationship between humans and nature, and it challenges our usual ideas about intelligence and consciousness.
Bakker's views are also explored in Interspecies Future: A Primer, where she writes, “Understanding the language of other species alters our ethical landscape and enlarges our ecological responsibility.” An interspecies future is one where humankind adopts a more planetary, empathetic and inclusive approach to nonhumans, recognising our shared interdependence. Incorporating advancements in technology and science, new discoveries in nonhuman intelligence, as well as posthuman theory and Indigenous knowledge, we can usher in a new era of interspecies relations – to the benefit of all living beings. Interspecies Future: A Primer was published by LAS Art Foundation, Berlin.
Details from the scrolls “3000 days … and counting …“ by Sharon Field. Left: Juniperus chinensis (Chinese Juniper), Sparassidae sp (Hunstsman Spider exoskeleton), Gumnorhina tibicen (Magpie feather), Tagetes sp (Marigold) and Callistemon sp (Bottlebrush) Right: Tetrachroa edwardsi (Hawke Moth), Seaweed sp (unknown)
Artificial Intelligence and technologies like machine learning, underwater microphones, and bioacoustic sensors are key to her research. These tools help scientists unlock and understand communications that were previously out of reach, offering critical insights into how various species behave, migrate, and handle stress. This technology is crucial for conservation, as it processes huge amounts of sound data and supports remote monitoring of species with little disturbance. These abilities are critical in spotting illegal deforestation, tracking whale migrations, and predicting environmental changes from sound patterns.
Bakker emphasizes how AI is key to interpreting the ultrasonic sounds that plants emit when they're stressed, such as trees signaling drought to nearby plants or alerting each other to pest invasions, showcasing complex inter-plant communications. In the world of insects, AI decodes sounds linked to behaviors like the mating dances of bees and the territorial chirps of crickets, improving the ability to manage and conserve these populations. For larger wildlife, AI is crucial for analyzing low-frequency sounds that are vital for long-distance communication. This is particularly useful in studying migration and social structures, for example, elephants using infrasound to connect with distant herd members, and whales whose deep-sea songs are essential for navigation across ocean expanses. Overall, this technology significantly enhances conservation strategies, improving the understanding and management of a broad range of biological groups, from plants to giant mammals.
Bakker also looks into “bioacoustic translations,” the possibility of using AI to turn the complex calls and sounds of nonhuman species into something humans can understand. This could lead to real-time communication tools between humans and wildlife, improving our interactions and co-living with nature. By using AI to close communication gaps, Bakker hopes for a future where we can not only understand but also react to the needs and signals of different species, boosting conservation work and encouraging a deeper moral connection with the natural world. As noted in Interspecies Futures, “This technological mediation invites a new form of interspecies diplomacy that could be foundational for the survival of many species, including our own.”
Overall, Bakker calls for a big shift in how we see nature—from a resource to exploit to a community of intelligent beings to understand and protect. Her work shows how AI and digital listening tools could change conservation tactics and reshape our relationship with Earth’s diverse life forms, proving the powerful role of AI in bioacoustic research and its ability to boost studies and conservation of biodiversity.
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Karen Bakker (1971–2023) was a Canadian author, researcher, and entrepreneur known for her work on digital transformation, environmental governance, and sustainability. A Rhodes Scholar with a DPhil from Oxford, Bakker was a professor at the University of British Columbia. In 2022–2023 she was on sabbatical leave at Harvard, as a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Stanford University's Annenberg Fellowship in Communication, Canada's "Top 40 Under 40", and a Trudeau Foundation Fellowship.
Bakker's research focused on the intersection of digital technologies and environmental governance, digital environmental humanities, digital geographies, political ecology, and political economy. In the early part of her career, she focused on water and climate issues. Later, she concentrated on digital technology and environmental futures studies as critical yet pragmatic projects aiming to advance regenerative sustainability and environmental justice.
Sharon Field’s artwork is embedded in the tradition of European botanical art, which has always responded to the needs and the cultures of the time in which it was being created.
She began her botanical art career in 2009 after careers in teaching and working in the Australian Public Service in Canberra. She lived and worked for 8 years in Papua New Guinea, and for another 4 years in Australia’s aid program in the Pacific and in eight countries in south eastern Africa focusing on capacity building to meet local educational needs. Sharon also spent 20 years as a volunteer firefighter in NSW, including 7 years as Brigade Captain and a remote area firefighter involved in some of the most environmentally destructive fires recorded during that time. These experiences have influenced her attitudes to the environment and the focus of her artwork.
Sharon’s most recent and major artwork connects the point at which, towards the end of 2021, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told the world it needed to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius by 2030, which was the cut-off date for action. The artwork "3000 days ... and counting ..." began as a personal protest about climate change, and she determined to do a drawing a day for 3000 days. This artwork has taken on a new meaning for people in a number of countries around the world. For Sharon there is a universe to be found in even the smallest of things, and in a time of serious climate challenges, and a population that is increasingly divorced from nature, appreciating and acknowledging these small things and working to protect them is vital.
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Read more at Streaming Museum: Forests have social lives: the science + paintings by Fedele Spadafora Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi. What are they sharing with one another?