tekhnē

This fifth issue of the tekhnē journal, compiled by Skanu Mesz, explores the intersections of nature, technology, and sound. The essays approach nature not merely as scenery but as a network of organisms, processes, and relationships, while technologies appear not as instruments of control but as tools for perception. Across topics ranging from field recording, radio transmission, and sonification to microorganisms, ecology, and speculative listening, the contributors examine how artistic and technological practices can reveal relationships that extend beyond everyday human experience.

Adomas Palekas explores the relationship between microorganisms and sound, examining how cells respond to vibrations and how bio-sonic practices can reveal microbes as active participants in ecological systems rather than passive matter. Artūrs Punte reflects on the Strenči Sonification Station, tracing a shift from complex technologies toward simpler methods of environmental listening through field recordings, sensors, and sonification experiments. Līga Pentjuša describes her journey from field biology into experimental art, exploring how collaboration with artists reshaped perceptions of ecosystems, biodiversity, and interdisciplinary exchange. Leif Elggren investigates sound as a medium between presence and absence, combining performance, objects, dreams, and metaphysical ideas to explore communication across boundaries of life, death, and history. Pierce Warnecke and Matthew Biederman discuss Phytomorphic Topologies, a project combining sound, imaging technologies, and ecological fieldwork to treat landscapes as active collaborators rather than passive subjects. Shortwave Collective examines CB radio as a space of atmospheric unpredictability, communal communication, and experimental listening, exploring its potential for more inclusive and alternative forms of connection.