PROJECT HARPY AUDIO: Sonifications
DEPOSITS translates geological data into sound to reveal the environmental histories embedded below us.

ABOUT THE PROCESSOF SONIFICATION
I use an open source data processing program that reads visual image data (or data sets) and translates the information into musical notation known as a MIDI file. I then import this file into a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) called Reaper (Rapid Environment for Audio Production, Engineering, and Recording). Within Reaper, I assign single wav file sound recordings to each track that will play back the track in the voice of my choosing. This is akin to creating a virtual instrument out of any sound, natural or manmade.

ABOUT THIS PIECE
Kyoto 1991 and 1998
I processed this composition in the key of F-sharp and followed the Gong tonal scale. The Gong scale is one of the five traditional Chinese pentatonic modes and is associated with the Five Elements philosophy and represents Earth.

The data used comes from the following geological maps and only includes small cross sections of the data. The Hanaore Fault and the Katata Fault are included in the 1998 sounds, which are played by the waterbowl. 1991 information contains strata layers that synch up with ’98 and are played by the mandolin. The piece concludes with a Darbuka bass drum hit that signals the beginning of Lake Biwa (Biwa-ko) which is Japan’s largest and oldest freshwater lake. Lapping water is layered in for effect.

The selected instruments are drawn from percussion recordings made in a church in Grebbestad, Sweden, known as the “G-Town Church Sampling Project, which appears in many of my pieces as the clean simple sounds do not carry an artificial/synthesized feel.” Lapping water was recorded from Big Cliff Pond on Cape Cod.