As a composer I am biased. I think music effectively crystallizes a unified goal among large groups, often more effectively than anything else. In an effort to use music to implement political and social change I have been interested in using parameters of a specific scientific study to inspire a piece of music. I think global climate change is perfect for this project.
I will collect the past 100 years of climate data from seven to nine regions around the world. My vision is to create a fixed-media track for each region. Climate change has been indexed in many ways, from temperature shifts, to sea-level elevation, to increasingly erratic weather patterns. This tremendous array of data will provide ample opportunity to produce sounds.
For example, each year can be represented by thirty seconds of music, and the average temperature of a given year can translate to a specific drone frequency. In this example, each month will be distilled to 2.5 seconds of music, the decibel level for which will be determined by the month’s average temperature in relation to the average temperature of that year. This is only one example. There are a multitude of ways I can use music to represent how our world climate is changing.
The fixed-media tracks that I create for each region will provide a harmonious soundscape of the global climate from 1915 to the present. The most effective means of displaying this music is to showcase it publicly as an art installation. Each region will be represented by speaker systems. These speakers will be spread throughout a large space where audience members can “walk through the world” and hear the global climate changing over the last 100 years!
Similar work has been done recently, and it is important to highlight these individuals:
Please comment and let me know if there are any other artists and musicians doing similar work! I would love to connect with them!
I will collect the past 100 years of climate data from seven to nine regions around the world. My vision is to create a fixed-media track for each region. Climate change has been indexed in many ways, from temperature shifts, to sea-level elevation, to increasingly erratic weather patterns. This tremendous array of data will provide ample opportunity to produce sounds.
For example, each year can be represented by thirty seconds of music, and the average temperature of a given year can translate to a specific drone frequency. In this example, each month will be distilled to 2.5 seconds of music, the decibel level for which will be determined by the month’s average temperature in relation to the average temperature of that year. This is only one example. There are a multitude of ways I can use music to represent how our world climate is changing.
The fixed-media tracks that I create for each region will provide a harmonious soundscape of the global climate from 1915 to the present. The most effective means of displaying this music is to showcase it publicly as an art installation. Each region will be represented by speaker systems. These speakers will be spread throughout a large space where audience members can “walk through the world” and hear the global climate changing over the last 100 years!
Similar work has been done recently, and it is important to highlight these individuals:
- Composer Daniel Crawford from the University of Minnesota composed Planetary Bands, Warming World, earlier this year. It is a beautiful acoustic string quartet in which, "each note’s pitch 'is tuned to the average annual temperature in [four] region[s], so low notes represent cold years and high notes represent warm years.'"
- Composer Matthew Burtner and media artist Scott Deal created Auksalaq in 2011, an “opera [that] integrates music, sonic and visual art, science, and social commentary to provide a stirring statement on global climate change.” It was the 2011 IDEA Award Winner form Internet2.
Please comment and let me know if there are any other artists and musicians doing similar work! I would love to connect with them!
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