ABSTRACT
Hearing and acoustic well-being are both anthropocentrically and technologically defined. Yet studying the auditory communication of animals –as in the field of bioacoustics – requires a different perspective on auditory thresholds. However, researchers that explore bioacoustics phenomena are confronted with the fact that the media technology that helps them to collect their data is often exclusively made for, and thus limited, to human ears. This chapter explores technological interventions in the acoustic interaction between humans and animals. It shows, on the one hand, how sonic devices help to explore nature and the hearing abilities of animals, and on the other hand, how these media technologies and anthropogenic sounds have influenced animals and even threatened their well-being. ‘Hearing like an animal’ means imagining, then learning, through an interplay of senses and technology, about acoustic experience. This forms the basis for understanding well-being beyond human hearing capability, and the concepts and technical standards in which that capability materialises and is structured.
