Acoustic Blinding

"Symphony of Survival: The Blinding Marine Soundscape"
Description: This immersive soundscape, created from recordings provided by bioacoustic scientist Dr. Donatas Bagocius of Klaipeda University’s Marine Research Institute, recreates the underwater acoustic environment of Klaipeda’s industrial harbor. Experience the intense noise pollution that Baltic harbor porpoises, grey seals, Baltic ringed seals, harbor seals, and other echolocation-using marine life must navigate daily.

The sounds you hear include the following:

Baltic Harbor Porpoise Vocalizations

Grey Seal Vocalizations

Klaipeda Harbor Anchorage

Dredgers- (Underwater digging machines)

Pile Drivers- (Machines that hammer poles into the sea floor)

Large Cargo Ships

Fishing Boats

Recreational Boats

Explosions from Oil Rigs

Military Sonar

This series of paintings along with an immersive soundscape made from audio recordings collected by bioacoustic scientists in Klaipeda (Donatas Bagocius) and throughout the US (NOAA Website), exemplify the experience of sea creatures living in an increasingly overwhelming underwater environment and aim to raise awareness about the detrimental effects of human-generated noise pollution on marine life.

With recordings provided by local experts in marine bioacoustics, Madeleine has recreated the underwater acoustic environment that whales, harbor porpoises, seals, and other echolocation-using marine life are forced to navigate daily in order to survive. The installation includes a painting of a sonogram depicting a humpback whale’s call and subsequent response when exposed to low frequency military sonar pings. This harsh sonogram aims to translate the auditory sensory overload that marine life must survive in to the visually-focused human nervous system. By juxtaposing this striking image with tranquil landscapes of Palanga’s sunsets, Madeleine emphasizes the dissonance in human and marine animals’ experience of our oceans, highlighting humanity’s lack of awareness of the intensity of noise pollution under these seemingly peaceful waters. These visual components in combination with the soundscapes allow visitors to experience firsthand the challenges marine life face in a world dominated by human-generated noise.

This installation aims to raise public awareness of our impact on noise levels of local marine ecosystems in busy harbors like the Baltic Coastline of Lithuania, highlighting ways local communities and enterprises can reduce noise pollution and shipping traffic. This will be an ongoing series as I learn more about marine migration patterns and industrial shipping routes I will continue to make site-specific underwater soundscapes in more locations throughout the world. A larger-scale goal of this project is to eventually engage corporations that contribute large amounts of noise pollution in these locations in a conversation about reducing their sonic disruption on the marine environments they rely on for profit.

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