Sound as ocean memory
ecoacoustics, audification and sonification
The Core Project
Sound as ocean memory
ecoacoustics, audification and sonification
Sound plays a significant role in formulating and preserving memory through its ability to communicate non-verbally with meaning and affect. The inherent temporal nature of sound allows for the representation of processes on multiple time scales.
This workshop will focus on the potential of sound in capturing and expressing ocean memories. We invite musicians, data and sound artists, marine scientists, neuroscientists, and any related areas.
On March 13 we introduced tools and methods and invite all to experiment and meet in a second hands-on workshop (on March 26) culminating in a virtual concert on April 9th.
March 13th
Day 1
Presentations
Jody Deming – Introduction to Ocean Memory,12-12:15PM (PST)
Stefan Helmreich – Underwater Music, 12:15-12:35PM
Chris Chafe – Tidal Mix and Polar Tide, 12:35-12:55PM
Robertina Sebjanic -Sounds of Troubled Worlds = Songs of Serenity, 12:55-1:15PM
Heather Spence Echolocation, 1:15-1:35PM
Tristan Peng and Hongchan Choi, SIREN – A WebAudio framework for sonification, 1:35-1:55PM
Tim Weaver, Jonathan Berger, Stephen Palumbi – Choral Coral – Sonification tool in MaxMSP, 1:55-2:15PM
Discussion and idea sharing, 2:15-2:45PM
Closing, next session remarks – 2:45-3PM
Concert
Sound as Ocean Memory
April 9th
- David de la Haye – From Sea to Skye: An Ocean of Sound (2021)
- Andrew Atkinson and Dana Hermes – Harbor 6 (2021)
- Timothy Weaver – The Whalefall (2019/2021)
- Rebecca Rutstein – Soundings (2021)
- Chris Chafe and Gregory Niemier – The Metered Tide (2019)
- Mike Cassidy – Coral Reef Sonification (2021)
- Jorge Boehringer – She Surfs (2021)
- Pat McMaster – A Moderate Livelihood (2021)
- Heather Spence – 1) Reef Recall: Masked Minuetand2) Reef Recall Remix: Duty Cycle Mysteries
- Tim Weaver, Stephen Palumbi, Jonathan Berger -‘choralCoral – 3 genomic études of climate (2021)
- Robertina Sebjanic – Aquatocene (2020)
1
David de la Haye
From Sea to Skye: An Ocean of Sound (2021)
This composition, made entirely from Hebridean field-recordings and live-streamed materials from a data-buoy in the North Sea, conveys an upward journey from the ocean depths to cliffs far above. Passing layers of underwater activity, the calls and echolocation of dolphins act as our guide. Eventually we breach the water’s surface to hear a harem of seals howling from the shore, resident fulmars flying overhead.
3
Timothy Weaver
The Whalefall (2019/2021)
The Whalefall is the culmination of 7 years of field media acquisition, data collection and performance software experimentation aimed at exploring the concept of afterlife cinema through the composition of a multimedia/electroacoustic performance work from the complexity of ecosystem data and the sonification/sonic transcoding of biomolecular sequences from the succession of the evolving afterlife of the great whales. The bio-narrative of the work sonically and visually initiates cycles from extremophile microbial origins in the polar Arctic seas to the whale calving grounds of the Pacific and to the global whalefall ecological networks delineated by cetacean migratory routes.
This abridged version is a shortened edit from The Whalefall, live cinema performance, by Timothy Weaver, that premiered October 31, 2019, at the CCRMA Stage, Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
2
Andrew Atkinson
Dana Hermes
Harbor 6 (2021)
Harbor 6 explores where urban water systems (and their overflow) meet ocean water systems. It was made from NY Harbor Water Quality data (sourced from NYC OpenData). [This is only a short excerpt– the data is incredibly extensive, spanning decades.] This piece uses data from daily water samples from 2020– including weather conditions (wet or dry), sample depth, and fecal coliform bacteria levels. When NYC’s combined sewer system is overextended with wastewater and rain run-off, the untreated water overflows into waterways. The data shows a correlation between wet days and fecal coliform levels. The tempo shifts to adapt for days where multiple samples were taken (each day is consistent in time– some days have 1 note; some have multiple).
4
Rebecca Rutstein
Soundings (2021)
This soundscape is the accumulation, layering and decontextualization of field and hydrophone recordings across the Americas, ranging from barnacles squeaking along the shores of Alaska, shrimp and ship engine recordings from the Salish Sea, ice breaking in New Jersey, and Mayan Reef and dophin calls off the shores of Mexico.
5
Chris Chafe
Gregory Niemier
The Metered Tide (2019)
Greg Niemeyer suggests a location test for a sonification music video, The site is Crissy Field, Golden Gate National Recreation Area at the upper tip of San Francisco next door to the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. The data set is 100 years of tidal records acquired by the gauge on the shore adjacent to where we record. Greg brings video / audio crew, I bring celletto, mobile phone and earbuds. We make 7 takes and depart.
I then flew to British Columbia laptop in lap and worried “how will I ever do the post-production” of this completely fun but quick session while going onward with other projects. A”light bulb” idea happened on the plane (as sometimes does at altitude). I wrote a script while seat belted in place in which the audio mix is made automatically and follows the original tidal data. I sent the edit decision list to Greg and his video edits followed suit.
7
Jorge Boehringer
She Surfs (2021)
Created in response to the Sound as Ocean Memory workshop presentations, She Surfs is a new audio-visual composition utilizing publicly available data sets from a PMEL/NOAA Ocean Weather Station buoy moored in the Pacific Ocean at 50°N, 145°W. The information in the data sets obtained was used to modulate synthesis and spatialization processes designed in Pure Data (Pd). She Surfs plays on notions of stored data and memory in that while the piece depends upon a large amount of data for its internal structure, the presence of the piece (as the presence of the ocean) depends on the phenomenological experiences and memories of listeners. In other words, it turns out that while the data-memories collected by the Weather Station say a lot about the ocean, human memory and experiences are required to give this information oceanic presence. Further, the interactive approach to data taken in this work enacts a ‘re-coupling’ of elements originally related to one another in the ocean environment, but subsequently separated in the measurement and data collection process. Thus, the listener is placed in a central position in returning a sense of qualitative wholeness to an environment formed from quantitative data.
10
Tim Weaver, Steve Palmbi, Jonathan Berger
'choralCoral - 3 genomic études of climate (2021)
C
horalCoral – 3 genomic études of climate survival is an experimental art/science work exploring the sonification of genomic sequences critical to the ecological survival of south sea corals currently under duress from climate change. This is the initial art/science creative work from ‘Sonifying the Sea,’ a research collaboration supported by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. The collaborative team is composed of Jonathan Berger, American Composer & Professor, Stanford Music/Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics (CCRMA), Stephen Palumbi, Marine Biologist, Director/Professor, Stanford Hopkins Marine Station and Timothy Weaver, Biomedia Artist, Professor University of Denver, Emergent Digital Practices Program.
ChoralCoral’s three genomic études are composed of sonifications of Acropora coral species genomic sequences that are transcoded to sound and channeled through 3D scanned models of A. gemmifera, A. papillare and Acropora sp. (dead). The resulting works yield experimental sonic and visual pattern generation of gene expression from heat stressed coral reefs in the Palau/South Pacific island region.
6
Mike Cassidy
Coral Reef Sonification (2021)
Coral Reef data measuring gene expression in response to temperature fluctuations over a 17-day period was sonified by applying techniques of Parameter Mapping Sonification (PMSon). The synthesis engine select was a four-formant vocal synthesis instrument from the Synthesis Toolkit. Gene expression measurements were scaled within an optimally discernable frequency range (100-1000Hz). The first derivative was mapped to frequency cutoff of a resonant filter (200-2000Hz). The second derivative was mapped to vibrato gain, the third derivative mapped to vibrato frequency. The fourth derivative was mapped to stereo panning. With these parameters in place, the temperature spike on days 7 and 8 can clearly be perceived, as well as the resulting “memory” of the incident in the days afterward.
8
Pat McMaster
A Moderate Livelihood (2021)
This composition was conceived against the backdrop of escalating violence from non-indigenous commercial fishers towards Sipekne’katik First Nation fishers asserting their treaty rights protecting their right to hunt, fish and gather for the purposes of earning a moderate livelihood.
The image in this slide is that of a lobster pound in Middle West Pubnico which housed the catch of indigenous fishers. It was set ablaze on October 17th, 2020. Some non-indigenous commercial fishers have expressed the belief that self-regulated fishing outside the commercial season threatens the already precarious state of future fish stock for all citizens of Miꞌkmaꞌki / Nova Scotia.
9
Heather Spence
1) Reef Recall: Masked Minuet and 2) Reef Recall Remix: Duty Cycle Mysteries
U
nderwater Soundscape samples, Spoken word, Cello: Heather Spence; Flute: Agatha Wang; Recordings: Mark Ballora
The original Reef Recall invited a live audience on a cello-guided tour of human connections to the ocean World of Sound, from aquatic womb memories to coral reefs resounding with shrimp snaps, to dolphin echolocation. In Reef Recall Remix: Duty Cycle Mysteries, time evolves into a representation of scientific observation, through self sampling and extrapolation. Scaled exactly from field recording duty cycles, regularly spaced sound observations create the core, from which reverberant echoes fill the unknown, and quasi-familiar aerophonic musings shape interpretation. As inherent artifacts create new connections, the feasibility of complete and accurate observation is questioned, and new empathetic visions emerge
11
Robertina Šebjanič
Aquatocene, (turntables, field recordings) (2020)
V
ideo taken on 20th December 2020 at Osmo/za, Ljubljana. Live visualization and real-time video editing by Stella Ivšek (5237). Camera and real-time live stream by Adam Mulalić and Črt Trkman. Sound engineered and recorded by Črt Trkman. Post production by Tea Grahek. Event organized by KUD Mreža / FriForma.
Aquatocene / The subaquatic quest for serenity (since 2016 – ongoing) investigates the phenomenon of underwater noise pollution created by humankind in the seas and oceans. The sound compositions are a re-mix between the bioacoustics of marine life (shrimps, fish, sea urchins etc.), the aquatic acoustics and the presence of human generated noise in the world’s oceans and seas. https://robertina.net/aquatocene/
Presenters
Jonathan Berger
…is the Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University, where he teaches composition, music theory, and cognition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). A Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the Rome Prize, Berger’s music was described as “gripping” by the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, “poignant”, “richly evocative” (San Francisco Chronicle), “taut, and hauntingly beautiful” (NY Times), Jonathan’s recent works deal with both consciousness and conscience. The Kronos Quartet’s recording of his monodrama, My Lai will be released this year on the Smithsonian/Folkways label. Berger’s commissions include the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon, Gerbode, and Rockefeller Foundations, Chamber Music Society Lincoln Center, Chamber Music America, 92nd Y, the Spoleto Festival USA, and others.
His recent opera, and Leonardo, is scheduled for performances in Europe and Israel. Upcoming commissions include an opera entitled The Ritual of Breath, for soprano, dancer, community chorus, and chamber ensemble.
In addition to composition, Berger is an active researcher with over 80 publications in a wide range of fields relating to music, science and technology and has held research grants from DARPA, the Wallenberg Foundation, The National Academy of Sciences, the Keck Foundation, and others.
Chris Chafe
…is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of his music alongside computer-based research. He is Director of Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Recent work includes the Earth Symphony, the Brain Stethoscope project (Gnosisong), PolarTide for the 2013 Venice Biennale, Tomato Quintet for the transLife:media Festival at the National Art Museum of China and Sun Shot played by the horns of large ships in the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Hongchan Choi
…is a computer musician and software architect who writes, teaches, and speaks about web music technology. He is the Technical Lead of Chrome Web Audio team at Google and a W3C specification editor of Web Audio API. Before joining Google, he studied with Prof. Jonathan Berger and Prof. Chris Chafe for doctoral research on web-based collaborative music systems at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
Stephen Palumbi
…is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Steve has long been fascinated by how quickly the world around us changes. Work on the genomics of marine organisms tries to focus on basic evolutionary questions but also on practical solutions to questions about how to preserve and protect the diverse life in the sea. Steve has lectured extensively on human-induced evolutionary change, has used genetic detective work to identify whales, seahorses, rockfish and sharks for sale in retail markets, and is developing genomic methods to help find ocean species resistant to climate change. Work on corals in American Samoa and Palau has identified corals more resilient to heat stress. Work at the Hopkins Marine Station focuses on how kelp, sea urchins, abalone and mussels respond to short term environmental changes and to environmental shifts over small spatial scales.
His latest book for non-scientists is about the amazing species in the sea, written with Steve’s son and novelist Anthony. The Extreme Life of the Sea tells about the fastest species in the sea, and hottest, coldest, oldest etc. Steve’s previous book, The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival, written with Carolyn Sotka, brought to life the unusual environmental success story of the recovery of Monterey Bay. Steve’s first science book for non-scientists The Evolution Explosion explored how human accelerate evolutionary change in the species around us. Steve helped write, research and also appears in the BBC series The Future is Wild and the History Channel’s World Without People. Other recent films appearances include The End of the Line, and the Canadian Broadcasting series One Ocean. Major work continues on the microdocumentary project, the Short Attention Span Science Theater. Steve’s band Sustainable Soul has several songs out, including Crab Love and The Last Fish Left.
Stefan Helmreich
…is a freshman at Stanford University with interests in both computer science and music. In high school, he worked on sonifying climate data to raise awareness about climate change in a unique way. He hopes to continue his exploration into computer music and data sonification at a deeper level at Stanford.
Robertina Šebjanič
(Slovenia), art – research focus is since several years into cultural, (bio)political and ecological realities of aquatic environments, which serves as a starting point to investigate and tackle the philosophical questions on the intersection of art, technology and science.Her ideas and concepts are often realized in collaboration with others, through interdisciplinary and informal integration in her work. She was awarded with Honorary Mention @Prix Ars Electronica 2016, STARTS2020 and STARTS2016 nomination. Robertina was SHAPE platform 2017 artist. 2018 she was a resident artist at Ars Electronica (EMARE / EMAP). 2019 resident artist at RV Celtic Explorer in frame of Aerial/Sparks project, Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, 2019/2020. Her art work Aurelia 1+Hz / proto viva generator is since 2019 part of the BEEP Electronic Art Collection, Spain. She exhibited / performed at solo and group exhibitions as well as in galleries and festivals: Ars electronica Linz, Kosmica festival_ Laboratorio Arte Alameda_Mexico City, La Gaîté Lyrique_Paris, Le Cube_Paris, MONOM_ CTM Berlin, Art Laboratory Berlin, InSonic_ZKM_Karlsruhe, re:publica_Berlin, Mladi Levi_Ljubljana, Centro de Cultura Digita_ Mexico City,LABoral Centro de Arte and Amdas_Gijon, Piksel_Bergen, OSMO/ZA_Ljubljana, Kontejner_Device art 5.015 _Zagreb, Eastern Bloc_Montreal, Eyebeam_New York, PORTIZMIR#3_ Izmir, +MSUM (Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova)_Ljubljana, KIKK festival_ Namur and more
Heather Spence
…is a marine biologist and sound artist who combines science and art to harmonize human-environment interactions. Her expertise and problem solving include bringing renewable power options to ocean observing initiatives, reducing noise pollution in dolphin habitats, deciphering nocturnal behavior of marine animals, researching dolphin sleep and dreams, developing new methods of studying living decapod crustacea, innovating documentation of the MesoAmerican Reef, predicting aquatic invasive species dispersal, assisting shellfish aquaculture, and examining coselection of communicatory traits. She has designed and taught courses on animal behavior, behavioral neuroendocrinology, sensation and perception, personality, and motivation, and consulted on video games. Her Passive Acoustic Monitoring research program on the MesoAmerican Reef is featured in the award-winning microdocumentary World of Sound (https://vimeo.com/thestillsagency/worldofsound), National Geographic’s television program “When Sharks Attack”, and is explored in her composition for viola da gamba trio, Vale la Pena? (Is it worth it?) derived from a technical study commissioned by the Mexican government. She composes music inspired by, and inspiring, conservation and performs internationally as a cellist and gambist. (www.HeatherSpence.net). Heather was the 2017 NAKFI fellow at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and a 2017-2019 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the US Department of Energy in the Water Power Technologies Office. She currently advises on science and acoustics at the US Department of Energy and is co-leader of the transdisciplinary Ocean Memory Project (www.oceanmemoryproject.com).
Tim Weaver
…is a biomedia artist, microbiologist and bioenvironmental engineer whose concerted objective is to contribute to the restoration of ecological memory through the process of speculative inquiry along the art | science interface. He is Professor of Emergent Digital Practices at the University of Denver. His recent interactive installation, live cinema, video, sonic and visiting artist projects have been featured at 100+ venues across North America, South America, Europe and Asia, including: FILE/FILE Hipersonica (Brazil), Transmediale (Berlin), New Forms Festival (Vancouver), Subtle Technologies (Toronto), Korean Experimental Art Festival (Seoul), Museum of Modern Art (Cuenca, Ecuador) and nationally at the 92nd Street Y (NYC), Denver Art Museum, Boston CyberArts/MIT, SIGGRAPH, the New York Digital Salon and the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, Weaver’s visiting artist projects/lectures have been conducted at the United Nations’ COP 20 Culture Program/Fundación Telefónica (Lima, Peru), Santa Fe Institute, the Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), the University of Gavle, Creative Media Lab/Creative Programming (Gavle, Sweden), KTH/Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), University of New Mexico’s Art & Ecology Program, University of Pittsburgh and University of Colorado, Boulder.
Tools
Data sets
Coral data (courtesy Stephen Palumbi)
Sounds
Mayan Reef and dolphin sounds from Hearther Spence
Software
SIREN – https://kizjkre.github.io/siren/#/workstation
(an example data set is pre-loaded)
Max/MSP
Community
The International Community for Auditory Displays
Denver University program in Emergent Digital Practices
Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
Hydrophones (Robertina’s choice):
https://www.aquarianaudio.com/hydrophones/stock/
Build your own (from Sasha Leitman)
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~sleitman/Hydrophone/
Bioacoustics:
Presentations from the 2020 Africam Bioacoustics Community conference