Climate symphony turns data into sound

Copyright: Georgios Makkas / Panos

By: Anita Makri

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Climate symphony turns data into sound</h1>
<h4>By: Anita Makri</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231691467&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<em>If you are not able to listen to this audio, please refresh your browser or <a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231691467/download?client_id=02gUJC0hH2ct1EGOcYXQIzRFU91c72Ea&oauth_token=1-138878-47894121-323d880b7ea234">click here to download [9.5MB]</a></em></p>
<p>Scientists and journalists constantly look for fresh ways to communicate the impacts of climate change. Visualisation of data is now well-known and widely practised. But a new project is doing something a little out of the ordinary: it’s turning climate data into sound.<br />
 <br />
The idea behind ‘Climate symphony’ is to translate hard data on climate change into a musical composition that engages the public — encouraging people to question their feelings and the stories behind the data, and create a conversation.<br />
 <br />
In this audio interview we speak to Katharine Round and Leah Borromeo of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DisobedientFilms/">Disobedient Film Company</a>, the co-creators of the work, alongside composer Jamie Perera. They explain that, by listening to the climate symphony, people will be able to tangibly experience climate data and immerse themselves in it. Research shows that sound touches us in inexplicable ways. By using music, the hope is to create an emotional response to something that for many might look meaningless on a page. “In a world where we’re saturated with hearing the same messages,” they say, “any way to engage people with a subject [as] important [as] climate change is worthwhile.”<br />
 <br />
The project also aims to go beyond performance: by using global data sets and open-source processes, the creators hope to create an educational tool to engage and encourage people around the world to make their own symphonies.<br />
 <br />
The ‘data sonification’ project was presented last week at the <a href="https://www.rsm.ac.uk/events/ghg01">Global Health Film Festival</a> in London, United Kingdom, where this interview was recorded. <div class="related_widget"><h3 class="widgettitle">You might also like</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/spotlight/joint-action-climate-change-spotlight/">Joint action on climate change</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/scidev-net-at-large/unsung-heroes-ebola-awareness-rap/">The unsung heroes raising Ebola awareness through rap</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/podcast-flying-donkey-drones-biobanks/">SciDev.Net Podcast: ‘Flying donkey’ drones, biobanks and more</a></li></ul></div>If you want to listen to the prototype on its own:<br />
<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231692437&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<em>If you are not able to listen to this audio, please refresh your browser or <a href="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231692437/download?client_id=02gUJC0hH2ct1EGOcYXQIzRFU91c72Ea&oauth_token=1-138878-47894121-323d880b7ea234">click here to download [12.4 MB]</a></em></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/climate-symphony-data-sound/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/climate-symphony-data-sound/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

If you are not able to listen to this audio, please refresh your browser or click here to download [9.5MB]

Scientists and journalists constantly look for fresh ways to communicate the impacts of climate change. Visualisation of data is now well-known and widely practised. But a new project is doing something a little out of the ordinary: it’s turning climate data into sound.

The idea behind ‘Climate symphony’ is to translate hard data on climate change into a musical composition that engages the public — encouraging people to question their feelings and the stories behind the data, and create a conversation.

In this audio interview we speak to Katharine Round and Leah Borromeo of Disobedient Film Company, the co-creators of the work, alongside composer Jamie Perera. They explain that, by listening to the climate symphony, people will be able to tangibly experience climate data and immerse themselves in it. Research shows that sound touches us in inexplicable ways. By using music, the hope is to create an emotional response to something that for many might look meaningless on a page. “In a world where we’re saturated with hearing the same messages,” they say, “any way to engage people with a subject [as] important [as] climate change is worthwhile.”

The project also aims to go beyond performance: by using global data sets and open-source processes, the creators hope to create an educational tool to engage and encourage people around the world to make their own symphonies.

The ‘data sonification’ project was presented last week at the Global Health Film Festival in London, United Kingdom, where this interview was recorded.

If you want to listen to the prototype on its own:

If you are not able to listen to this audio, please refresh your browser or click here to download [12.4 MB]