Dark Oceanography

Performance collaboration

Music has an important role to play in climate crisis discourse, offering a sonic pathway to bridge the gap between data, understanding, reflection, and action. Dark Oceanography integrates climate science with experimental music, modelling generative oceanic systems of eddies in spatial audio and percussion. In this new work, the live performances of three percussionists converge with multi-channel spatialised electronic sound, creating a dynamic spatial instrument that looks to water to understand the passage of time and sonifies the future impact of global warming in the ocean by submerging the audience in sound. Following the pathways of eddies from the Eastern Australian Current through the Southern Ocean and across the globe, we used Lagrangian tracking data obtained from daily ocean model output from the ACCESS-OM2 model at eddy-resolving resolution (0.10ᵒ) and translated this to music. The scientific data informing this work is drawn from the location of each performance, foregrounding local knowledge and experiences of ocean climate change. Led by listening, it will provide an experiential pathway for audiences, revealing the impact of climate change on underwater sanctuaries through performance.

Artistic Team
Collaboratively developed by a team from The Sound Collectors Lab and ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather.

Louise Devenish (project lead /performer/director)
Kate Milligan (composition)
Aaron Wyatt (music technologist)
Navid Constantinou (oceanographer)
Niki Johnson and Sofia Carbonara (performers/collaborators)
James Dobson (audio technician)
Bronwyn Pringle (lighting design)
Harriet Oxley (costume consultant)
Stuart James (spatial audio design)


PERFORMANCES

27 July 2025: David Li Sound Gallery, Monash University (sound-only version, info and tickets here)


TALKS

21 July 2025: 21st Century Weather x The Sound Collectors Lab Salon facilitated by Iain Strachan (register here)
27 July 2025: Post-concert Q+A facilitated by Dr Aura Go
11 September 2025: Plenary talk ‘Musical performance that integrates ocean science with experimental music’, ACCESS National Research Infrastructure Workshop


ARTICLES / STORIES

The Conversation: ‘What would a climate model made of music sound like?’
Republished in Monash Lens

Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub

21st Century Weather

OTHER MEDIA

Program Note available here