Distinguished scholar Mitchell Akiyama will discuss the subject of animals and language in relation to Bik Van der Pol’s Speechless, currently on view at PAMM. Akiyama’s text in “Land & Animal & Nonanimal” served as an important point of reference in the development of the exhibition. 

Mitchell Akiyama is a Toronto-based composer, artist and scholar. Akiyama recently completed his PhD at McGill University in communications. His doctoral research examined “field recording” across a variety of disciplines, from biology to folklore to sound art. He has been published on numerous subjects, from sound art to urban ecology in journals and magazines. A book chapter entitled “The Recording that Never Wanted to be Heard and Other Stories of Sonification,” co-written with Jonathan Sterne, was recently published in the Oxford Handbook to Sound Studies.