Yu-An Kuo

This project examines how logistics emerges through multi-species acoustic relations rather than human planning alone. In Malaysia’s edible bird’s nest (EBN) industry, swiftlets do not simply respond to human infrastructures; their auditory decisions determine where production can occur, re-routing value away from limestone caves into towns filled with sound-equipped birdhouses. I ask how logistical movement takes shape when routes depend on the sonic ecologies of birds, farmers’ acoustic experimentation, and shifting regulation. Through multi-sited ethnography across birdhouses, cave-harvesting sites, and birdhouse towns, I trace how sound becomes a logistical tool for value circulation. I treat logistics not only as a theory but as a method: following the movements of swiftlets, nests, and people requires tracking logistical pathways in motion. I pair on-site fieldwork with sonic methods—soundwalks, decibel mapping, and long-term listening—to examine how swiftlet calls, noise disputes, and spatial investments shape circulation. This project reframes logistics as an ecological and sensorial process, extends multispecies ethnography to understand sound as a productive force, and shows noise not simply as human-generated pollution but as a generative condition of supply chains. The study shows that value moves not despite sensory complexity, but because logistical order emerges through human–swiftlet attunement across sites.