Further towards sonifications of elemental ecological systems/relationships: Salt marsh ecology experiments in temporal immersion and exchange

Palmer (nee Reiser), Michaela; Jones, Owain

Abstract

In this paper we seek to further develop the concept/methodology of data sonification (see Palmer and Jones 2014) as an experimental aesthetic, geo-poetic, and techno-scientific creative procedure for making explicit the generative processuality of elemental landscape/ ecosystems/ habits. In continuing our explorations of data sonification using the example of tidal landscapes (inc. salt marshes) we refer to other artist/scholars have also recently sonified tidal data (Floodtide, Eacott) and forest ecology data (Living Symphonies, Jones/Bulley). Such data sonifications possess markedly differing qualities as forms of research/analysis because they depend on translations from process to process rather than from process to (static) representational object. The experience of duration is key hereby. Duration, commonly used to express spatial and temporal dimensions, also communicates (elemental) intensities, which according to Bergson allow one to grasp the very essence of time (Time and Free Will). Focusing on immersion (sea covering marsh in cyclical rhythms), exchange between ‘bodies’ (salt from water to plant and beyond), and other micro and macro temporalities of process, we seek to develop sonification towards a more elemental, ecological and experiential, rather than a purely quantitative, articulation (individual data streams), thus allowing sonification to respond to, and express, the great complexity of ongoing ecological becoming.

Citation

Palmer (nee Reiser), M., & Jones, O. (2015, September). Further towards sonifications of elemental ecological systems/relationships: Salt marsh ecology experiments in temporal immersion and exchange. Paper presented at RGS-IBG Annual International Conference

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference
• Start Date: Sep 1, 2015
• End Date: Sep 4, 2015
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: data sonification, elemental ecological systems, salt marsh ecology
• Publisher URL: http://conference.rgs.org/AC2015/202
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Presented as part of the Elemental Experiments session. Session chairs Derek McCormack, Sasha Engelmann (University of Oxford), Bronislaw Szerszynski (Lancaster University); Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2015