Digital Musics & Sound Art
Honorary Mention
What to do with the gigantic scientific data archives?
Play with them!
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020 addresses the problem of communicability of scientific facts in the context of climate change in the form of a generative sound object. It questions the nature of doubt in the sciences and addresses the lack of a cultural approach to the earth as a holistic entity.
The work is based on a seminal event in scientific research: late 2020, the research expedition MOSAiC returned from its Arctic voyage, having spent more than a year collecting data with a kilometer-long network of measuring stations. (…) Large data archives are by no means a solution as long as their contents are not given a socially accepted meaning. But should such efforts be left to science alone? Or does a transfer of those digital archives into collective memory need to take place via detours that do not rely exclusively on reason and predefined scientific rules?
Together with a group of MOSAiC scientists, the composer Thies Mynther and a technical team, the artist duo Adnan and Nina Softić developed a sound instrument that outputs the data from the Arctic as sound—creating a large scale sonified portrait of a disappearing landscape.
Jury Statement
Klimaton is a piece and an instrument which came into being as a result of a year-long scientific research expedition called MOSAiC, which returned from an Arctic voyage, having collected data from a kilometer-long network of measuring stations. The length of the network makes it the most comprehensive scientific data collection effort to date. The scale of the exploration is underlined by the fact that this rapidly disappearing landscape holds immense significance as a “key witness of climate change,” as recognized by scientists worldwide. The artists have also created an instrument that uniquely translated the data obtained from the Arctic into sound—a sonified landscape portrait. The instrument not only creates haunting sonic images, but also allows for interactive engagement with the data through the keyboard, enabling artists and researchers alike to experience the sonic representation of the Arctic’s ever-changing environment.
Excerpt from the jury statement
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020 / Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (INT), Photo: studio softić
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020 / Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (INT), Photo: studio softić
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020 / Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (INT), Photo: studio softić
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020 / Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (INT), Photo: studio softić
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020 / Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (INT), Photo: studio softić
Credits
Concept, artistic direction, production: Adnan Softić, Nina Softić
Sound design, musical interpretation: Thies Mynther
Data management: Dr. Sebastian Mieruch
Technical team: Juan Duarte, Martin Edelmann, Chris von Rautenkranz, Jan Münther
Scientific consulting: MOSAiC team of scientists
Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (INT)
Adnan Softić and Nina Softić are an artist-duo working in Berlin and Sarajevo. Their collaborative practice explores the relationship between aesthetics and politics / ecology, focusing on phenomena such as invisibility, communicability, exile, extraterritoriality, culture, and violence. Their work process is a hybrid of poetic and philosophico-scientific explorations, driven by an internal necessity to face a given subject matter with all available resources. They pursue research-based and interdisciplinary work that takes place at art, film, music and theater venues, as well as in academic contexts.