Listening to the Anthropocene: A Queda do Céu

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the algorithmic design and implementation of A Queda do Céu, a sound installation and kinetic sculpture related to the Soundlapse project. In it we provide an overview of the project and go on to describe the main computational challenges related to the installation, which included a variety of real-time processing, interpolation, and mapping algorithms. We contextualize the work in relation to regional ecological and political debates, as well as the global climate crisis. In doing so, we echo other sound and field-recording artists in proposing that artworks have an important function as experimental arenas in which new technological applications can be probed and where new modes of listening can be investigated, reconfigured, and exercised. In closing, we lay out an overview of the current challenges being tackled by the Soundlapse project, specifically the development of a refined version of the sonic time-lapse method that incorporates machine learning routines and user-defined spatialization capabilities.