Thursday, April 24: step into the immersive environment of “The Elephants of Dzanga Bai.” A pre-conference photo and sound installation by Ivonne Kienast (K Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics) and Annie Lewandowski (Department of Music). In collaboration with the Society for the Humanities, this installation engages with the 2025-26 focal theme of "Silence" and kicks off the Society's program for the Annual Spring Fellows' Conference. 
 

“The Elephants of Dzanga Bai”

Situated in the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Area (DSPA) in the Central African Republic, the Dzanga Bai forest clearing is an exceptional window into the lives of the critically endangered forest elephant, the elusive gardener and architect of the Central African rainforest. The clearing hosts a 35-year long-term study on individually recognized elephants, providing unique opportunities to gather much needed conservation-relevant information to inform local and regional conservation strategies.

Elephants enter the clearing seeking minerals needed for their diet, and spend their days searching for those minerals in water pits. They also feed on grass and clay, bathe in mud, and use the space as a social arena, interacting with conspecifics of all ages.

At Dzanga Bai elephants become a canvas, and nature the greatest artist. Marvelous colors mix, and low frequency roars and infrasonic rumbles create a scene nowhere else to be seen, heard or felt. An ecstatic experience that awakens all of the senses.

Photographer Ivonne Kienast is a behavioral biologist who has spent the last 10 years in the central African rainforest working for wildlife conservation and engaging with local communities. Since 2021 she manages the research station at Dzanga Bai, training central African researchers, working with children from the local communities and applying passive acoustic monitoring on a landscape scale to inform the park authorities about illegal firearm activity, as well as about biodiversity in the area. She is part of the Elephant Listening Project of the K.Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and collaborates in the field with the WWF and the central African government.

Sound installation artist Annie Lewandowski is a composer/performer, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music. Annie writes: “When Ivonne first shared her incredible photographs with me, I thought it would be fantastic to exhibit them in the acoustic space of the Dzanga Bai elephants. Today, we bring that space to you within the AD White House, in a setting where you can both hear and feel the elephants’ calls.” The recordings you experience today are from the Elephant Listening Project archive.

Thanks to Michael Ashkin, Alex Livingston, Kevin Ernste, John Eagle, Leslie Brack, the Elephant Listening Project, the Department of Music, and the Society for the Humanities.