Etherized: Modular Signals from a Planet in Crisis

video upload by Electrum Modular

"What do rising sea-levels sound like? How might we listen to the temperature of the oceans? What rhythms can we hear in the increased frequency of intense hurricanes/cylones? Can we imagine mounting CO2 emissions as a crescendo of dissonance?

This piece uses a data sonification module (Loud Numbers) to translate spreadsheets of climate-change data into MIDI cc values. An interface (CV.OCD) then converts the MIDI to voltages to control my modular system. ADDAC’s Swell Physics’ CV inputs for swell size, agitation, offset, etc. are ideal for modelling the complex, unpredictable effect of rising sea levels, sea temperatures, and storm intensity, on ocean waves. Meanwhile, Disting EX’s 'spectral freeze' algorithm is processing ocean-related songs.

Despite the fixed data on the spreadsheets, this patch generates different sonic results each time it is played – thanks to the chaotic behavior of Swell Physics. I am planning a longer, ~30 minutes version for a public performance, with video visualization/projection of the data.

Data sources

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: Our World in Data (University of Oxford/Global Change Data Lab), https://ourworldindata.org/co2-datase...

Annual sea-surface temperature anomaly – global: Australian Bureau of Metereology, http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate...

Category 3+ storms: Tropical Meteorology Project, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University (calculated from National Hurricane Center, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center), https://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/...

Global Average Absolute Sea Level Change, 1880-2023: United States Environmental Protection Agency (data soures: CSIRO, NOAA), https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicator...

Loud Numbers’ VCV Rack module: https://www.loudnumbers.net/tools"