At USC in Los Angeles, she spoke at ‘Petrocultures 2024’, a biennial conference series exploring intersections between energy and environmental humanities. Lara chaired the panel: ‘Sites of Non-Spectacular Resistance to Ecological Exhaustion: Minor Cities, Extractive Landscapes, and the Expansive Footprint of Energy Consumption’, within which she presented her paper ‘Singing Sand Dunes, Seismic Surveys, and the Sonic Blockade’, examining the entanglements of sand, sound, and oil in the Empty Quarter desert (UAE). The panel included contributions by Geneva Foster Gluck (Independent Scholar), Penélope Plaza (University of Reading), David Pratten (University of Oxford), and Ernesto Semán (University of Bergen).

After driving north via Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks for a spot of field recording, Lara headed west to Stanford University in Palo Alto. At Stanford, Lara was an invited speaker at the CCRMA Colloquium series on the 22nd May. She gave a talk entitled, ‘The Desert Roars in A-Flat Major: An Exploration of Singing Sand Dunes in the Arabian Peninsula’, which shared new insights and recordings of singing sand dunes near the Liwa Oasis (UAE) alongside the voices of those who live there, in date palm oases and camel farms populating the fringes of the dune fields. Following her talk, Lara spent several days at CCRMA, demoing her recordings in the Listening Room space, experiencing the CAVIAR Cave of Augmented Virtual and Interactive Audio Realities, attending seminars and concerts, and enjoying wonderful exchanges with members of the department.