In this episode, we speak to Joycelyn Longdon, a PhD researcher on the AI for the study of Environmental Risk programme at the University of Cambridge, and founder of Climate in Colour, an educational platform focused on climate science and
social justice
. Joycelyn discusses her interdisciplinary work creating
machine learning
algorithms and data visualisations of forest sound with a community living by the Bosomtwe Range Forest Reserve in Ghana. She reflects on the importance – and the complexities – of participatory, justice-oriented research to co-create technologies that facilitate community agency and data
sovereignty
in knowing and managing forests.
This episode also includes audio recordings from the acoustic sensors Joycelyn and the community have installed in the forest.
Interviewers: Kate Lewis Hood and Michelle Westerlaken
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Listen on Apple and Spotify.
This radio episode was produced by the Smart Forests project funded by the European Research Council. Smart Forests is led by Professor Jennifer Gabrys and is based in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
Header image: Joycelyn Longdon at the Bosomtwe Range Forest Reserve in Ghana. Image source: Joycelyn Longdon. Reproduced with permission.
Episode icon image: Teye, a hunter from the community, installs an acoustic sensor in the forest. Image source: Joycelyn Longdon. Reproduced with permission.
Smart Forests Atlas materials are free to use for non-commercial purposes (with attribution) under a
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
To cite this radio episode:
Longdon, Joycelyn, Kate Lewis Hood, and Michelle Westerlaken, "Joycelyn Longdon: Forest Sound, Machine Learning, and Data Justice in Ghana", Smart Forests Atlas (2023), https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio/joycelyn-longdon. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10687012.