SOUND OF THE NORTH SEA
​Music composition,  mixed-media installation. 2019

photo Rik van Santen

The experience of music is highly dependent on the environment in which it is heard. What will happen when we experience it in a non-human environment like underwater?

In Sound of the North Sea a piece of music, composed using data measured in the North Sea, can be heard in the waters of that same sea. The aquarium is filled with North Sea water and an underwater speaker is placed at the bottom, transforming the aquarium into a conductor of sound waves. The installation is experienced by submerging ones head, thus transforming the audience from a passive onlooker into an active performer. The act of kneeling before the basin, focussing on the breath, and diving into the water, has a ritualistic quality imbuing the installation with spirituality. The experience underwater is a tranquil one. Water, being an excellent conductor of sound, creates an auditive experience in which the music seems to be omnipresent. The sound does not have a clear source or direction. You are inside of it. At the same time the environment is inhospitable. It asks a sacrifice to be able to hear the music. And because water is not our domain, there will always be aspects of the installation that escape our perception.  

Sound of the North Sea is created in collaboration with the Embassy of the North Sea and Rijkswaterstaat to facilitate a conversation regarding the growing problem of underwater sound pollution. An invisible issue that unfolds hundreds of kilometers away from our shores, underwater sound pollution is the cause of many deaths in the oceans ecosystem. From whales beaching themselves to escape the constant stress of seismic surveys, to dolphins that, in an attempt to flee from u-boat sonar, dive so deep that their bodies are crushed by the water pressure. 
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The composition is created using data regarding the cod population and temperature of the North Sea. Both datasets are gauges used to asses the effects of climate change in the worlds oceans. The journey of the installation is a circular one. It started with water, became digital, was translated into acoustic sound, and now it returns to its origin. From nature to human, and back to nature again. 

Exhibitions:
​AQUARIA - MAAT, PT 2021
Zwemmen in het Antropoceen - Het HEM, NL 2019
Ambassade van de Noordzee Manifestatie, NL 2019