April 9

Concert 6PM Pacific https://ccrma.stanford.edu/live/

Celebrating the new Sound as Ocean Memory Community! More to come!

Program

1. David de la Haye - From Sea to Skye: An Ocean of Sound (2021)

2. Andrew Atkinson and Dana Hermes - Harbor 6 (2021)

3. Timothy Weaver - The Whalefall (2019/2021)

4. Rebecca Rutstein – Soundings (2021)

5. Chris Chafe and Gregory Niemier – The Metered  Tide (2019)

6. Mike Cassidy –  Coral Reef Sonification (2021)

7. Jorge Boehringer – She Surfs (2021)

8. Pat McMaster – A Moderate Livelihood  (2021)

9. Heather Spence –  1) Reef Recall: Masked Minuet and 2) Reef Recall Remix: Duty Cycle Mysteries

10. Tim Weaver, Stephen Palumbi, Jonathan Berger -'choralCoral - 3 genomic études of climate (2021)

11. Robertina Sebjanic – Aquatocene (2020)


Program Notes:

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.

Andrew Atkinson and Dana Hemes – 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).

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. 

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.

Chris Chafe and 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.

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.

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.

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.

Heather Spence –  1) Reef Recall: Masked Minuet and 2) Reef Recall Remix: Duty Cycle Mysteries

Underwater 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

Tim Weaver, Steve Palmbi, Jonathan Berger -'choralCoral - 3 genomic études of climate (2021)

'choralCoral - 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. gemmiferaA. 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.

Aquatocene - Robertina Šebjanič  - Aquatocene, (turntables, field recordings) (2020)

Video 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/