Consisting of nine DC motors, nine perimeter trip alarms, wood logs, and custom electronics, S.O.S. is a sound artwork that is a commentary on the Athabasca tar sands sacrifice zone; S.O.S. sounds our reluctance to listen or act on the destructive extraction methods of the oil & gas industry. DC Motors churn out an S.O.S. morse code distress call; the movements of which never quite activate the attached perimeter trip alarms. The distress call goes unanswered, speeding up to an eventual fever pitch before dissolving into a metronomic rhythmic pattern. These rhythms connote glossy artifacts of our reliance on bitumen byproducts, all of which are distractions to the methods of the extractive industry that permanently alter the environment.
The 2024 work was installed in 510 Oak Street, Eugene, OR as part of a Center for Art Research exhibition series Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, organized by curators-in-residence Ashley Stull Meyers and Aurora Tang and made possible by the University of Oregon Department of Art’s Center for Art Research and the Ford Family Foundation. Photos by Adam DeSorbo.
Sonic Solutions (2024) consist of working sound cannons made from PVC, metal, and wood. The two works are 4″-diameter PVC version (dimensions: 53” L x 24” W x 42” H) and 3″-diameter PVC version (dimensions: 43” L x 18” W x 36” H)
The sound cannons are a response to extractive industry practices that deploy sound cannons to deter migratory birds from landing on tailings ponds instead of changing their practices for healthy ecosystems. Sound is used as a blunt instrument, a weaponized force for controlling behaviors and habitats. Exhibition of works is April 5-21, 2024.
The documentation video shows the 4″ PVC version being fired using a denatured alcohol fuel.
The following is an imagined advertisement for the sound cannon targeting the extractive industry market.
photo by Adam DeSorbo photo by Adam DeSorbo photo by Adam DeSorbo
The Athabasca oil/tar sands in Canada are just one example of human-made sacrifice zones — a geographic area that has been permanently altered by environmental damage or economic disinvestment (Klein 2015). Over the years, tailings ponds in Fort McMurray, Canada have been a point of controversy for the oil extraction industry with the deaths of thousands of migratory birds, the ongoing risks to groundwater seepage, and the long-term impacts on Indigenous communities (He et al. 2024). Instead of changing practices for healthy ecosystems, oil companies now deploy air cannons to deter migratory birds from landing on tailings ponds. Consulting firms sculpt language to alter popular opinion. Sound is used as a blunt instrument, a weaponized force for controlling behaviors and habitats. Through silence and sound, I created four works that probe our relationship with the tar sands sacrifice zone — our reliance on oil & gas extraction and our reluctance to listen or act.
photo by Adam DeSorbo
StreamCorporate Narratives with your streaming service of choice.
Sacrifice Zones: Corporate Narratives, is one of the four installation works that explore how sound is used as a problematic “solution” to our destructive behaviors. Other works in the exhibition include a DIY air cannon, a set of DC motors pulling pins of shotgun primer trip alarms, and air cannon blast sound effects that interrupt the space at timed intervals over loudspeakers.
By using damaging sounds to cut over our manufactured din, we other the environment from our human recklessness, and slowly destroy ourselves in the process, one sonic blast at a time. Beyond the employment of air cannon blasts to “protect” wildlife, we use destructive sound levels elsewhere in extractive industries. Sonar pings in the ocean for exploration can reach 235dB, which is loud enough to kill a human and drive whales to beach themselves within a few miles (Scientific American; Discovery of Sounds in the Sea). How did we get to weaponizing sound for our extractive industries? Rather than listen carefully to sounds and their impacts on our habitats and the ecosystems we share, we outfit our human-made sound to meet the demands of an amplified world — loud sounds are ever increasing for oil exploration, military testing, and other raw material industries. Through imagined corporate ads, news story, and leaked memos, Sacrifice Zones: Corporate Narratives reviews a slice of oil & gas extraction — its processes and its policies.
I use commercial audio services (AI text to audio; royalty-free music) to deliver corporate-like deliverables that investigate the sacrifice zone in the Athabasca boreal region in Canada, known commonly known as Alberta’s tar sands.
The following is a track-by-track breakdown of Sacrifice Zones: Corporate Narratives
Syncrude Incorporated Promo
Syncrude Incorporated Promo is a satirically imagined ad for the real Syncrude Canada Ltd. company that runs mining operations in the Athabasca boreal region in Canada.“The mining and extraction process releases sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and fine particulate matter into the atmosphere.” (NASA). The company mines bitumen (petroleum) and uses tailings ponds to hold by-products of the extraction process (CAPP).
2009 News Story, 1600 Birds Killed in Syncrude Tailings Pond
An AI voice reads text from the 2009 CTV Calgary news story, where 1606 birds were killed in a Syncrude Limited tailings pond in Canada. The story continues to highlight the companies deployment of air cannons to protect wildlife from the company-created tailings ponds and the risks of seepage. The several hundred thousand dollar fine mentioned in the story omits a comparison of impact to Syncrude Canada’s $432 million dollar 2009 net profit.
To put this in perspective, “an $800,000 fine would represent income from less than half a day of production for Canadian Oilsands Trust” (Dyer 2010).
Air Cannon Test Fire A-1001
The interjection of air cannon fire interrupts the narrative. These air cannon blasts are original sound design effects.
The Sonic Solution Air Cannon Ad
Using text from air cannon websites, like the Sonic Sentinel, I created a corporate ad for selling an air cannon targeted toward oil and gas companies.
Air Cannon Test Fire B-316
The interjection of air cannon fire interrupts the narrative. These air cannon blasts are original sound design effects.
2002 Luntz Research Companies Report to Republicans
Frank Luntz is a corporate and political consultant. His company conducts field research to find “words that move people to act on an emotional level” (PBS 2003). These words are used “to help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate” (ibid.).
In 2002, there was a leaked report of Luntz Research Companies to the U.S. Republican Party (his then clients) on how to talk about the climate in order to sway public opinion. The section of the report is called “The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier America.” An AI voice reads the eight points in the report. All spoken text comes directly from the report.
Air Cannon Test Fire C-456
The interjection of air cannon fire interrupts the narrative. These air cannon blasts are original sound design effects.
1998 American Petroleum Institute’s Memo for Climate Deception
The Kyoto Protocol, known commonly as the Kyoto Treaty was adopted in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol set “binding emission reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries and economies in transition and the European Union” (UNFCCC). The American Petroleum Institute delivered a memo the following year that laid out a plan to reach the media, the public, and policy makers with a message emphasizing “uncertainties” in climate science (NYTimes 1998). The underlying goal was to keep the status quo for fossil fuel companies to continue extractive industry practices and profits by sowing uncertainty in a variety of sectors (education, science, media, public).
Klein, Naomi. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.
Megan He et al. Total organic carbon measurements reveal major gaps in petrochemical emissions reporting. Science 383, 426-432 (2024). DOI:10.1126/science.adj6233
“Envelope Follower to MIDI CC” is a Max/MSP patch and stand-alone application for converting audio files into MIDI CC messages in real-time. Just load an audio file, play it, and you’ll be sending MIDI CC data based upon the amplitude envelope of the audio file. You have controls over MIDI data scaling, sampling rate, audio playback speed, and strict playback duration for mapping projects.
The impetus for the tool comes from not being satisfied with available options to convert audio amplitude into MIDI data for Digital Audio Workstation mapping projects. As a teacher, I wanted to create a resource to enable student mapping that leverages their own digital tools.
I made the software available as a repository on github. You don’t need to Max/MSP to run; I made a basic stand-alone application as well and the link is included on github.
If you dig the free software, please listen, share, and follow my music on Spotify.
Are streaming services ready for dynamic random-order concept albums?
Random Playback is a music album that explores using dynamically looped playback to generate a unique listening experience for your own device (and which never ends). The album leverages streaming technology to randomly playback material endlessly and aims to simultaneously test the boundaries of streaming services’ “gapless playback“ feature. Just hit shuffle, repeat, and play.*
*phone apps for Amazon Music and Apple services are the most seamless for shuffle playback.
UPDATE 9/21/21: While Spotify is seamless on chronological, non-shuffle playback, Spotify seems to falter if randomizing playback (confirmed by other users). Amazon Music Unlimited, however, seems to handle randomization playback well, nearly seamless (from the phone app). Apple Music also has seamless shuffle playback from the phone app. That said, any browser playback has terrible audio drops between songs on shuffle mode for all services.
The source material was generated and recorded with permission from playing an iOS clicker game, Rhythmcremental, created by Batta (Simon Hutchinson and Paul Turowski). Huge shout out to Simon and Paul. And do check out their game. It’s addictive.
The creation of five sound sculptures centered around fire-affected areas of the 2020 Holiday Farm fire near Blue River, OR. The work was part of the Soundscapes of Socioecological Succession (SSS) project that was funded through a Center for Environmental Futures, Andrew W. Mellon 2021 Summer Faculty Research Award from the University of Oregon.
Sunken Shoreline (edited, mixed, and released 2021) captures a 2014 performance of climate-related tweets from around the world in realtime (#climatechange, #tarsands, #environment,fracking, #sustainable, among others), the year before the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formed a “Charter for Sound” to emphasize sound as a critical signifier in environmental health. Mapping characteristics of these tweets to sonic parameters, users from around the world sound out a call for our climate. Here, an array of audio processing submerges these sonic voices under a technological deluge that suggests an Atlantian future should we choose to ignore the calls to action.
The competition awarded nine prizes in the areas of field recording, live performance, and sonification, and the competition “aims to discover and recognize new music and sound art focused on the theme of coastal futures.” Sunken Shoreline was one of two awarded in the Sonification category. Winners of the competition were from Norway/UK, Australia, Canada, Portugal, South Korea, and the US.
