An Oceanographic Music Mix
Music has an important role to play in climate crisis discourse, offering a sonic pathway to bridge the gap between data, understanding, reflection and action, say researchers from Australia’s Monash University.
Their Dark Oceanography initiative integrates climate science with experimental music. Following the pathways of eddies from the Eastern Australian Current through the Southern Ocean and across the globe, they used Lagrangian tracking data at an eddy-resolving resolution (0.10ᵒ) and translated it into music.
The music was collaboratively developed by a team from The Sound Collectors Lab and ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather including artists Louise Devenish (performer/director) Kate Milligan (composition), Erin Coates (film), Aaron Wyatt (music technologist) and scientist Navid Constantinou (oceanographer).
A team of professors, musicians and students at University of South Florida have also been transforming complicated environmental data into powerful music compositions. After tackling issues such as harmful algae blooms and red tides, the group has now composed music that highlights the environmental stressors affecting oysters in Florida. Led by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Heather O’Leary, the project aims to make scientific data more accessible, understandable and engaging to the public.
And a composition “Six Seasons” by Lei Liang of UC San Diego invites musicians to interact with sounds recorded from the depths of the ocean. Liang is UC San Diego Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Music.
Another expression of oceanographic data takes a movement-based approach to connecting with the ocean. Die Mimik der Tethys (The Expressions of Tethys) is a high sea buoy that is suspended in space and moves synchronously to another buoy in the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes, France. Continuously transmitting motion data via satellite to its relocated double, the information guides eight electric motors and cable winches which precisely reproduce the buoy's movement in the ocean.