a 3D audio installation for 28 channels

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duration:

17'

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premiere:

June 2019

Audio Spatialization Lab

Qualcomm Institute

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program notes:

Pythmenas (from the Greek word for “bottom of the ocean”) is a collaborative 3D audio installation that explores the sonic intersection of natural underwater environments and human musical interpretation. The work was presented at the Audio Spatialization Lab of the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego in May 2019.

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At the core of Pythmenas is underwater acoustic data recorded by hydrophones deployed in the Arctic Ocean by the Whale Acoustic Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. These recordings capture the soundscapes of marine life—including sounds of bowhead whales, beluga whales, killer whales, bearded seals, and narwhals—as well as the dynamic textures of seasonal ice activity.

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This acoustic material served as a foundation for a group of instrumentalists and collaborators, who reacted to the oceanic sounds and to each other through improvisation. Their performances were recorded, processed, and integrated with the original underwater data, creating a layered, immersive sonic experience.

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The resulting audio composition was spatialized in a dome of 28 loudspeakers arranged in four vertical rings: 4 on the ground level, 12 at ear height (1.73m), 8 higher up (3.48m), and 4 mounted on the ceiling (3.9m). Spatial trajectories were designed and controlled using a custom Max/MSP patch, utilizing 5th-order ambisonics.

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