Voces en el Mar Polar

Voces en el mar polar (Voices in the polar sea) is an acousmatic work created with recordings of vocalizations and movements of the crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga), made by the PALAOA Observatory at the Neumayer station in the German Antarctic. These sound samples have been used in their original format and also edited and manipulated using some synthesis tools and digital processes with the purpose of evoking new narratives and metaphorical soundscapes.

This work is part of the Polar Sounds project, a collaboration between Cities and Memories, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). This unique project invites the composers (and audience) to re-imagine some of the little-heard sounds of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, reflecting on climate change and the evolving sounds of polar seascapes, imagining alternative perspectives on scientific data.

This work proposes an exchange of perception and, in turn, fuel emancipatory impulses through listening, contemplation, connection and empathy, with the aim of re-integrating the listener with the environment in a balanced ecological relationship. The musical and sound art works convened at Polar Sounds are an urgent call to make visible, generate awareness, sensitization, send messages of environmental relevance and undertake social actions.