BEN DEXTER COOLEY
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Sonic Flows, award-winning data sonification on how water moves

screenshot of Sonic Flows

Happy to share that a recent data sonification of mine won an award! As part of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest Data Jam, I joined a team of other data folks to design a multisensory experience to transform real environmental data into art and sound.

Our submission, Sonic Flows, is an audiovisual experience capturing how water moves through Hubbard Brook. Using one year of data, the piece captures how precipitation can relate to streamflow and soil moisture of the course of one year. The experience was created with two modes in mind: it can be listened to passively in its entirety, as a gentle ambient sonic journey with events throughout. Or it can be experienced "on demand" by clicking on the yellow dots in the interface to jump to large stream flow events (i.e. where streamflow speed increases significantly). I also had the pleasure of visiting Hubbard Brook in person and taking field recordings of the water to incorporate into the final piece. Our entry won 3rd place and special marks for "best technical implementation of a multisensory experience".

You can experience the piece for yourself here.

You can also read more about how it was made here.

And finally, you can browse all entries in the Data Jam Showcase website.