Ocean Sound Pollution

This project seeks to create an immersive sound installation that exemplifies the experience of sea creatures living in an increasingly overwhelming underwater environment, aiming to raise awareness about the detrimental effects of human-generated noise pollution on marine life using audio recordings collected by bioacoustic scientists in Klaipeda, Lithuania and throughout the US.

With these recordings provided by local experts in marine bioacoustics, I will recreate the underwater sonic environment that whales, seals, and other echolocation-using marine life are forced to navigate daily in order to survive. The installation will include sound-responsive light components and paintings of sonograms to help communicate this sensory overload to the visually focused human nervous system. These visual components in combination with the soundscapes will allow visitors to experience firsthand the challenges marine life faces in a world dominated by human-generated noise.

This installation aims to raise public awareness of our impact on noise levels in local marine ecosystems throughout the Baltic Coastline of Lithuania, highlighting ways local communities and enterprises can reduce noise pollution and shipping traffic. A larger-scale goal of this project will be to engage corporations that contribute large amounts of noise pollution in these locations in a conversation about how they can begin to reduce the level of their sonic disruption on the environments they rely on for profit. The installation will include links to civic engagement efforts and conservation initiatives, encouraging an open dialogue with local officials and policymakers. This installation and the public engagement it encourages will provide the momentum that is necessary for the establishment of noise pollution regulations for local harbors along the East Coast of the Atlantic and the Lithuanian Baltic Coast beginning with Klaipeda Harbor.