Forest, Our Island (2024-2025)

Forest, Our Island (2024-2025) is a music and multimedia collaboration with scientists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, USA to translate long-term hourly and seasonal data and sounds from acoustic monitoring devices of the forest system into musical composition and public performances.

By accessing, studying, curating, composing, and reimagining scientific data and environmental research for a general audience as a composer, I aspire to to deconstruct professional and social barriers of accessing environmental science and data, and advocate for environmental education and awareness. It is also a process of breaking the boundaries between arts and science and aiming for emotional and sensory experiences that will lead to an audience’s deeper, personal connections with science and nature. 

Sonification that compares snow amount in the forest from January to March in 2016 and 2019. Synthesized strings (2019) and classical strings (2016).

The questions brought up in this project include: how can music express environmental changes, fluctuations, and crises over time?  How can our senses, ears, hearts tell us beyond what our eyes and mind can read and think about? How can music evoke advocacy and activism differently than science does? What will future collaborations between arts and science look like and what does it mean for composers, for scientists, for the audience? How could these projects shape people’s connection with nature in the future? 

The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is a 7,800-acre field site that has been used for ecological studies since 1955. They host a long-term research program that studies the forest's air, water, soils, plants, and animals. They offer public programs that include guided tours, classroom resources, and opportunities to meet scientists and educators.

Sample of data ©Hayley Qin ©Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

data access: link

Exploring tools for sonification using Max