Destination Earth is a multi-sensory installation revealing the connection that ties atmosphere and ocean, humans and inhabitants of the sea, into a flow of interconnected motions.
With the warming of our atmosphere, the ocean has been soaking up much of the extra heat, acting as a heat sink and temperature regulator. Warming waters and changes in the overall water circulation are impacting sound propagation in the ocean, sea mammal migratory patterns and survival, influencing in return our climate and the air we breathe everyday. Sound pollution from our shipping activity has devastating consequences on marine species which migrate through the same paths of our economic trade routes and rely on sounds for their survival.
Forged at the intersection of art, science and technology, Destination Earth explores the potential of Leonardo’s supercomputer technology in the development of an Earth model combining ocean flows, sea mammals communication and human activity through real-time ocean modelisation, generative sonification and audience participatory interaction.
The artwork involves participants at the embodied level to understand the correlation between our rhythm of motions as humans, ocean’s overall warming and sound pollution all across the globe. Generative sound layers connected to audience movement come in dissonance or harmony with the base earth soundscape and sea mammals communications. Performers invite audiences during their visit to support the ‘regeneration’ of oceans through their slowed down walking pattern and breath.
A central screen monolith allows visitors to visualize flows and motions of the Grand Banks, a part of the global ocean critical for marine and large mammals life as well as human global trade, which has warmed twice as fast as the rest
Destination Earth supports an urgent international societal challenge by providing an embodied understanding of possible respectful living with ocean species. Leveraging the power of music and real-time generative composition to simulate the interdependence of cycles, flow dynamics and sound, the project's goal is to enable a sensory understanding of the changes in human motions required for our planet’s survival.
AUDIENCE JOURNEY
As a general narrative the piece invites for a state of contemplation and stillness, with
the speed and rate of human actions directly influencing the currents in the depth of the
ocean and creating a live and evolving soundscape.
In Destination Earth, winter is a moment of regeneration, and in this piece is
symbolically represented as an ‘inhale’. As spring and warmer months come, a sense of
bloom, progress,and speeding up occurs. Whales come back for foraging and eat their
food supply for the upcoming months. Human activity speeds up as shipping traffic during
that time of the year doubles in density. As things speed up, the rhythm and
excitement transforms into unease, tension, stress, sensing the disbalance of our warming
ecosystem. This phase is symbolically represented as an exhale/ a heartbeat.
As Autumn comes, soundscape transitions to ambient and cyclical sounds. Participants
understand a sense of slowing down, of things getting back into harmony. With the
help of performers it becomes easier for the group to come in harmony with the ocean
soundscape. This phase should feel like a deep inhale and invitation for stillness, for
participants to symbolically give the ocean enough time to recover its natural balance.
When audience members exit, a moment and opportunity for reflection and feedback
is enabled by volunteers, as well as questions to the artists and scientists.
CREDITS
Destination Earth is a collaboration between artist Salome Bazin, generative composer Rob M Thomas, creative technologist Sebastiano Barbieri, Pr. Stefano Salon from OGS Trieste, Pr. Emmanuela Clementi from CMCC, powered by CINECA supercomputer, Bologna.
Salome Bazin: Artist
Rob M Thomas: Composer and generative music
Sebastiano Barbieri: Creative technologist
Silvano Imboden: Dataset technician
Kilowatt: Curator and producer
Stefano Salon: Scientific Adviser OGS biochemistry
Alice Affatati, Chiara Scaini: Scientific Adviser OGS sound
Emanuela Clementi: Scientific Adviser CMCC wave/current
Maria Chiara Liguori: Computing partner CINECA
