Why do museums engage you?
Tell us by participating in the 2025 Annual Survey of Museum Goers, sponsored by theÌý.
Urban Biophony
Treespace Gallery
Designed as an auditory map of the city of Â鶹ӰԺ, this artistic rendition of a natural forest built within the walls of the exhibition directly correlates to the noises happening within the city. Walking through the exhibition - much like a hike in nature - the visitor experiences the sensations and sounds of transient wildlife, streams and rustling leaves, which directly connect to the decibel levels and actions occurring throughout the city. Each speaker is connected to a microphone which was placed throughout the city, and each noise played in the gallery is dictated by the sounds of the surrounding urban landscape.
The space is modeled after an aspen grove. The aspen is a tree which claims an identity of the Rocky Mountains, and with its vast web of connected roots, some claim these groves create the largest living organism. Urban Biophony generates a web of auditory connections, completely and utterly manmade. Humans have an unprecedented rule over the natural soundscape. Our cities, cars, planes and man made facilities have begun to alter and over-power the wilderness. As cities expand, natural land disappears. Wildlife has begun to biologically mutate to assimilate and adapt to the exponential growth of the urban landscape.Ìý
Â鶹ӰԺ the Artist
Shelby McAuliffe is an interdisciplinary artist in photography and installation work. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in May 2015 with a BA in Art, emphasis in photography and a BA in French Studies.Ìý
She has spent the last ten years photographing the environment and urban landscapes throughout various countries. Her area of focus encourages study of the relationship humans have to their surroundings and how wildlife has adapted to metropolitan areas. She isÌý interested in investigating the coexistence of urban and natural environments. She works specifically with environmental/ecological and anthropological research. Combining the arts and the humanities through a visually engaging multi-media experience that extends beyond the gallery walls to the immediate surroundings.Ìý
Recent work includes her installation project Urban Biophony exhibited at Sierra Arts Gallery in Reno, NV funded, in part, by the Candace Garlock Curatorial Grant through the Sierra Arts Foundation. In 2018 McAuliffe has had work up at PhotoNOLA, and Araguato in Colombia, South America.Ìý She is currently attending the University of Colorado, Â鶹ӰԺ as a candidate for her Masters of Fine Art in Photography.Ìý