Dark Oceanography
Dark Oceanography
Dark Oceanography fuses climate science and experimental music to model ocean eddies through spatial audio and percussion. Set in a sunken realm off Australia's east coast, it sonifies ocean datasets from the Eastern Australian Current to explore what a climate model made of music sounds like. Following the pathways of eddies through the Southern Ocean, we use Lagrangian tracking data obtained from daily ocean model output from the ACCESS-OM2 model at eddy-resolving resolution (0.10ᵒ) and translated this to music. With each presentation location, the underlying ocean data shifts with place, projecting the impacts of climate change to the doorstep of the listener.
Blending research with performance, three percussionists perform acoustically while their sound is captured at its source and released into a digitally rendered oceanic field, immersing audiences in the movement and sensation of underwater eddies. The Dark Oceanography soundscape travels from the ocean surface to depths nearing 1km - a descent into deep time and unknown futures through music.
The work reflects on human attempts to document, predict, and narrate uncertain futures as we navigate the climate crisis. At once both climate model and performative ritual, Dark Oceanography offers an arts-science scaffold for imagining the unknown.
Artistic Team
Collaboratively developed by a team from The Sound Collectors Lab and ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather. Supported by Monash University Performing Arts Centres.
Collaboratively developed by a team from The Sound Collectors Lab and ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather.
Louise Devenish (project lead /performer /director)
Kate Milligan (composition)
Aaron Wyatt (music technologist)
Navid Constantinou (oceanographer)
Niki Johnson and Sofia Carbonara (performers /collaborators)
James Dobson (audio technician)
Bronwyn Pringle (lighting design)
Harriet Oxley (costume consultant)
Stuart James (spatial audio design)
Article in The Conversation: ‘What would a climate model made of music sound like?’
