Sonification
The term sonification refers to a method of representing data in sound.
“Since the introduction of interfaces and program codes brought about by the digital era, sonification – the acoustic counterpart to “visualization” in the visual arts – has been rapidly integrated into music. As a form of artistic translation of scientific data, such as ocean currents or stock market trends, sonification can nowadays be used for musical purposes without being hindered by the technical difficulties of the translation processes. One of the most divisive questions that has emerged regards the point at which the outcomes of this scientific-artistic research become art. What is the next coherent step for the arts in providing listeners with new ways to physically engage with sets of data? How are the aesthetics of a sonification decided upon? How does one move from there to the creation of an original musical work? And, how does an artist approach the newly offered advances in the sciences?“
(Ravenna 2017, p. 8)
Here we list projects and compositions that use sonification to draw attention to the rapid and threatening changes in our climate, plus some interesting texts on the topic. We look forward to receiving your comments and additions.
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra: Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons“ revisited.
Icebergsongs – Scientists record iceberg’s “crying”, and artists made them into songs.
Climate Music: Combining climate science with the emotional power of music to drive meaningful action.
KQED: Hear Climate Data Turned into Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONuA9HmkF3M
Jacob Kirkegaard: Isfald
Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota: The sound of climate change from the Amazon to the Arctic
Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota: A Song of Our Warming Planet
Climate Symphony is a creative lab that turns hard data on climate change into a symphony to tell the story of what climate change means through sound:
DJ Spooky’s Arctic Rhythms: National Geographic Live
George, S. S., Crawford, D., Reubold, T., & Giorgi, E. (2017). Making Climate Data Sing: Using Music-like Sonifications to Convey a Key Climate Record, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98(1), 23-27. Retrieved Dec 19, 2022, from https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/98/1/bams-d-15-00223.1.xml