Hydrometric Sound Signatures is an multi-sensorial installation which sonifies hydrometric data in concert with visual scenes of hydrometric station 02OA016, where all visual and audio parameters are controlled by the data. This iteration demonstrates a two-fold data sonification, whereby both the timbral and compositional outcomes are specific & responsive to hydrometric station 02OA016.
Asking the questions:
How can the artistic transduction of open data reimagine the public's encounter with hydrometric research stations?
Can this transduction change our understanding of the things around us, and create more meaningful relationships to the uncelebrated work of the everyday?
The invisible infrastructure of freshwater surveillance in Canada is built upon an automated & anonymous workforce of 2100 hydrometric stations, who use sensor equipment to collect and transmit endless streams of water-flow data at five-minute intervals. The data, when assembled, creates a vibrant portrait of our waters, vital to institutions such as Quebec’s Ministère de l'Environnement, Climate Change Canada, and is available to the public, through tools like the Hydroclimatic Atlas, and the Canadian Water Office. Springtime flooding, Summer drought, abnormal climatic events; the fluctuations of these phenomena leave traces in our waters, and those traces become imprinted into the collective data. Amidst an ever-deepening encountering of the climate crisis, water levels become vital planes of demarcation; integral to our sites of outdoor water activities, as well as the functionality of dams, hydrometric stations are an invisible first line of communication, between our waters and our society.
Data, in endless flow, is evocative of the complex waterway of the St. Lawrence river. Like trying to hold its waters in our hands, citizen understanding of open data is an ephemeral and futile feat. The purported open-ness of the collected data often takes the form of overwhelming bodies of dense information, failing to interface with the public in a meaningful way. This might be best evidenced by the hydrometric stations themselves: ever-present in our surroundings, these objects work in an endless sequence of interpretation and transmission, yet they have been designed to be largely ignored. Even if we were to notice them— nestled alongside the waters’ edge— there would be no indication of the crucial task being performed, nor the importance of the network of which they are a part.
Hydrometric Sound Signatures is informed by my own positionality as a Montrealer; an island-dweller, musician, and artist. Bounded by the waters around me, they have been the setting, subject, and witness to my relationships & experiences. Hydrometric Sound Signatures is part of a larger research project (Hydromancie), which questions the ways in which we experience a simultaneous global freshwater scarcity, and localized freshwater abundance. Engaging critically and sensitively with site-specific freshwaters, Hydromancie explores matters of infrastructure, public space, and public engagement with science, within sustainability and urban ecological transition.
