December Field Trip ~ Mammals and Seabirds!
December 2011, not so much a baptism of fire, more in the line of traditional cold water ~ as a means of ‘inducing’ myself in the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (UTAS) I attended a three week intensive course on Marine Mammals and Birds of the Southern Ocean which included a residential field trip.
Off counting Seabirds.
Owen talks to a Mutton Bird on Wedge Island.
Wildlife interaction studies at a TASAL fish farm.
Vox on the Rox
Vox on the Rox is the first of a series of experimental sonic works to come out of an Art + Science collaboration between Dr. Nigel Helyer of SonicObjects; SonicArchitecture and Dr Mary-Anne Lea of the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.
The seeds of the collaboration were planted during the Fourth International Conference on Bio-Logging (Hobart March 2011) when Nigel created an interactive sonic sound map from satellite bio-logging data collected by IMAS, Australian Antarctic Division and French scientists from tagged marine species around sub-Antarctic islands.
The collaborators realised that the extensive and extremely complex datasets collected by for example southern elephant seals diving under Antarctic Ice, or transiting across the Southern Ocean, represent a considerable interpretive challenge and provided the potential for a hybrid art and science exploration of new methods and forms for manifesting the data.
The project is currently working to develop graphical scores from data that will be played in concert by musicians from the Conservatorium of Music ~ translating digital information via visualisations into sonifications.
Vox on the Rox will make a debut at the Conservatorium Recital Hall with the first concert in a series which will explore the marine environments and creatures of the Southern Ocean. The work is in two short ‘movements’ and is accompanied by data projections of the graphical score and environmental imagery.
The concert will take place on the evening of Friday 27th April and will be preceded by a short introduction and will be followed by an informal discussion with refreshments provided.
Watch this space for details….
Photo Credit = Ben Arthur
