Sensing the Forest

We Have a Logo!

2023-09-01T10:00:00Z

It is our pleasure to announce that Sensing the Forest has a logo.

The logo reflects the values of eco-friendliness (green, open science, green renewable energies), community (dialogue, DIY), and technology (innovation).

The font used is Junction, a humanist sans-serif open-source font designed by Caroline Hadilaksono & Tyler Finck , which is listed on the womxn Libre Fonts by Womxn directory.

[PNG] [SVG]

Kickoff Meeting

2023-09-21T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right top-down, Luigi Marino, Anna Xambó, Matt Wilkinson, Peter Batchelor, Danielle Grimsey, Hazel Stone, Nick Wardlaw, Georgios Xenakis, and Max Gravestock.

After quietly working on setting up the project during the summer, today, Thursday 21st of September 2023, we have officially started the project with an online kickoff meeting.

We started the meeting by making introductions. We welcomed the new team members Luigi Marino, who has been appointed postdoctoral fellow of the project, as well as Nick Wardlaw and Danielle Grimsey from Forestry England, who have recently joined the project, and Hazel Stone, who has been appointed the National Curator of Contemporary Art at Forestry England. All welcome!

Then, we discussed the overall project and expected outcomes and made some decisions on how to operate as a team. We will soon be announcing a series of six talks by experts working at the intersection of the arts, science and technology, whose work is inspirational and relevant to Sensing the Forest.

Presentation at CHIME - October 25, 2023

2023-11-01T10:00:00Z

The CHIME network stands for Computer-Human Interaction and Music nEtwork and is a UK Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council-funded research network devoted to topics on Music and Human-Computer Interaction.

The CHIME network has been organising a monthly series of talks. The format of the session consists of two speakers who present their work followed by a more general discussion.

I was invited to present our recently started Sensing the Forest (StF) project in the 10th CHIME Seminar, together with Chris Nash, who talked about the first 10 years of the project Manhattan.

Given the early days of the project, I focused the presentation on the contextualisation of the project, as well as the importance of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary team in the search for epistemological cross-pollination, to finally share the ongoing and future actions of the project.

We had interesting questions on ways of contributing to the project, who will be the listeners of our techno-artistic interventions, how are we planning the sonification mappings, and whether the project is planning to have links to educational video games, interactive educational installations, and interaction for education. We were also challenged to perhaps consider establishing a conversation with climate change deniers by locating the interactive artworks in visible venues. We also commented on how the work at the Open University by Prof Yvonne Rogers a decade ago was pioneering on the topic of climate change and raising awareness through strategic collaborative games using tablets. It was also prominent that Chris was presenting a long-term project vs our recently started project, and hence the topic of sustainability and “beyond NIME” emerged.

The slides of my presentation are available here.

I will next talk about the project at the Audio Developer Conference 2023 in London, stayed tuned!

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Tom Mudd and Simon Holland for the invitation, the CHIME network community for their curiosity about the project, and the StF project team members for supporting this presentation with their incredible work. Special thanks to Luigi Marino for setting up a proof-of-concept of the audio streamer and successfully live streaming from Bristol.

An Introduction to Alice Holt Forest

2023-11-22T10:00:00Z

Alice Holt forest, located in the South of England, about 60 kilometres southwest of London and close to the town of Farnham, is a 900-hectare block of commercially managed woodland. For many people this forest is a special place, attracting huge numbers of visitors every year who come to experience its beauty and fresh air. However, tucked away at the southern end of the forest, away from the visitor centre, café and Gruffalo trail is a natural forest lab of international importance.

The Straits Inclosure is a 90-hectare block of oak woodland which has been the focus of scientific and silvicultural research for over 100 years. That research continues to the present day, where scientist from Forest Research and other institutes, carry out a range of detailed environmental studies, including research into the carbon and greenhouse gas balance of the forest, and intensively monitoring the biodiversity, chemical and nutrient fluxes through the ecosystem. It is not surprising therefore, that the Straits Inclosure is considered by many to be a living forest lab.

My name is Dr Matt Wilkinson, and I have managed the long-term carbon dioxide flux experiment here for over 20 years. Through this experiment, we are gaining a better insight into the processes that control the uptake and release of carbon dioxide by an oak forest, and why there are such large variations between years.

My work uses a range of different techniques and measurements; from monitoring very fast changes (around twenty times per second) in the carbon dioxide concentration and vertical wind speeds above the forest canopy, to measuring the growth of the trees every five years. Many of our measurement systems use sensors connected to data loggers, which we can therefore leave running autonomously.

For example, a weather station at the top of our 26-meter tower measures the incoming light levels, air temperature, air humidity and rainfall every five seconds. Other parameters such as changes in soil moisture and temperature are measured at different depths. Collectively, these data enable us to build up the statistical and process models that we use to understand how changes to the environment and climate are likely to affect forests in the future.

This work is also helping us to better understand the role that trees and forests play in mitigating the harmful impacts of climate change by locking up carbon. In our new project, ‘Sensing the Forest’, those scientific data are being used in a very different way; by reinterpreting them through artistic and sound sculptures we hope to engage, enlighten and inform the public and other interested parties about key environmental issues, including global climate change in a way they may not have experienced before.

1st Advisory Board Meeting

2023-11-30T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right top-down, Matt Wilkinson, Anna Xambó, Georgios Xenakis, Peter Batchelor, Luigi Marino, Hazel Stone, Leigh Landy, and Louise Fedotov-Clements.

On 22nd November 2023, we had our 1st Advisory Board (AB) Meeting. We were very happy to present the project to the AB members Leigh and Louise (with apologies from Mark who could not attend this time) and seek initial feedback from them. We discussed the three work packages (WPs) and where we are at the moment.

After short introductions, we gave an overview of the project in terms of concept, research questions, WPs/objectives, team and timeline. Then, we introduced each work package and its status.

The WP3 Public Conversations and Debate was presented by Pete and me. We talked about the website (Anna), the seminar series (Pete), and community engagement activities (Anna). The WP1 Artistic Audio Ecology Intervention Concerning Forests and Climate Data was presented by Matt, Luigi, Pete, Hazel and me. We talked about understanding Alice Holt’s data and place (Matt, Hazel), the audio streamers and mediation of data (Luigi), the multichannel sound installation (Pete), the summer school (Matt, Hazel, Anna), and the series of concerts (Luigi).

The WP2 Community Science Intervention with Forests and Climate Data was presented by George. We talked about understanding Northern Station’s data and place, as well as the main concept of this WP, which won’t start until summer 2024. We also had a conversation about the project control & monitoring (Anna) including the monitoring tools and workflows, as well as unexpected changes.

The session concluded with general feedback and discussion from the Advisory Board. We received great kudos from the AB, which is very encouraging. Leigh commented that it was a fabulous start with the potential to create a community hub for talks/exchange of ideas, and Louise expressed being so inspired by this great programme and a pleasure to be involved. We are very much looking forward to continuing with the forthcoming actions. Keep an eye on our project website and remember to follow us on social media!

An Interview with Saloni Shah

2023-12-05T10:00:00Z

About Saloni Shah: With a background encompassing data visualization, product design, and urban design, Saloni Shah excels at crafting innovative solutions that transcend traditional boundaries. Her specialization lies in creating impactful products that unveil intricate patterns within complex data, providing audiences with an immersive and engaging experience. Saloni’s academic achievements culminated in her award-winning thesis delving into how carbon markets impact forests, ecosystems, and indigenous communities. Throughout her career journey, Saloni continues to garner recognition through awards, talks, and workshops, solidifying her position as a thought leader in the intersection of design, data, and climate action. On 1st November 2023, Saloni Shah gave a seminar as part of the Sensing the Forest Seminar Series.

«The transformative power of data visualization extends well beyond its role in policy changes. It becomes a catalyst for empowerment, providing communities with informed perspectives.»

What are you working on at the moment?

Currently, I lead the product design team at nZero Inc., where our focus is on developing a platform empowering state and city governments to monitor emissions and create decarbonization roadmaps for their building portfolios. In parallel, I collaborate with local researchers and artists, exploring the potential of both traditional and emerging technologies for climate visualization.

What is your background?

I began my academic journey with a focus on architecture, initiating my career by designing building systems and landscapes through the use of vernacular and alternative building techniques. Concurrently, I actively participated in conservation initiatives at one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites in Ahmedabad, India. My involvement in urban conservation research and climate movements with nonprofits ignited a profound interest in climate change and data visualization. This passion drove me to pursue advanced education in the United States, where my master’s thesis delved into the impact of carbon markets and policies on forests. Since then, I’ve actively collaborated with various organizations, contributing my skills to design apps, XR experiences, and research visualizations dedicated to climate education.

How did you start/become interested in producing visualizations informed by science and technology?

In 2019, I seized an opportunity to collaborate with Ms. Alka Palrecha on her research, which centered around the utilization of wastewater in agriculture. Despite lacking prior experience in working with data or scientific research, Ms. Palrecha believed in my potential and facilitated the creation of my very first scientific visualization. This initial experience marked the inception of my journey into designing visualizations for research. Building on this foundation, my work at the nonprofit Paryavan Mitra further propelled me on a trajectory exploring the realm of data visualization for ecological and social research.

How is your artistic/scientific work generally perceived? Have you encountered any unexpected impact or reaction from your work?

I’ve been incredibly fortunate that my work has received overwhelmingly positive feedback. It not only establishes a unique space but also stands as an exemplar of leveraging design to showcase complex research. Frequently circulated within local environmental communities for policy education, it plays a crucial role in raising awareness. One of the most fulfilling impacts of my work is its role as a reference for students, inspiring them to explore their own mediums and niches in research.

«My journey has been marked by the privilege of collaborating with diverse groups, spanning from dedicated researchers to frontline activists, fostering and nurturing a dynamic and interdisciplinary community.»

What is the meaning of community in your work?

The concept of community holds profound significance in my work, representing an intersectional movement where every individual contributing to positive change becomes an integral part of the collective. My journey has been marked by the privilege of collaborating with diverse groups, spanning from dedicated researchers to frontline activists, fostering and nurturing a dynamic and interdisciplinary community. This collaborative spirit has not only enriched the diversity of perspectives but has also cultivated an environment where collective efforts lead to meaningful and impactful contributions within the broader context of positive change.

What are the artistic, technological, or scientific research methods that inform your work? To what extent (and how) is audio/sound/music relevant to your work?

The foundation of my creative process encompasses diverse elements, including artistic, technological, and scientific research methods. Commencing with data collection, I predominantly utilize secondary data sources, occasionally incorporating firsthand collection for specific projects. Subsequent stages involve meticulous data cleaning and in-depth analysis, coupled with the integration of qualitative information to construct a coherent narrative that resonates with the audience.

In the realm of immersive experiences, audio holds a pivotal role, especially in my XR and VR collaborations. Sound serves as a dynamic component, contributing to the overall richness and depth of the experience. Whether it’s the subtle nuances of nature in a virtual environment or the incorporation of music to evoke emotional responses, audio enhances the immersive quality of the visual narratives, creating a multisensory engagement for the audience. This deliberate integration of sound underscores the holistic approach I employ to captivate and resonate with audiences on a profound level.

To what extent do you see your work, and more extensively, the use of artistic methods, contributing to raising awareness of global crises such as climate change?

The significance of my work, and more broadly, the utilization of artistic methods, lies in its impactful contribution to raising awareness of global crises, particularly climate change. As the intersection of design and science takes center stage, with data becoming pivotal in environmental efforts, a symbiotic relationship emerges. Science, through meticulous data analysis, shapes global policies and directs developmental trajectories. Concurrently, design assumes a pivotal role in the education of diverse populations and decision-makers.

The transformative power of data visualization extends well beyond its role in policy changes. It becomes a catalyst for empowerment, providing communities with informed perspectives. By translating complex scientific data into visually compelling narratives, my work aims to bridge the gap between technical intricacies and public understanding. In doing so, it fosters a broader and more inclusive conversation, fostering a collective understanding of the urgent need for action in the face of global environmental challenges.

How is technology impacting your work? Do you see technology shaping your creative process or the other way around?

The influence of technology on my work is transformative, serving as a dynamic medium for crafting impactful designs. Rather than technology dictating my creative process, I’ve embraced it as a tool to enhance and expand my design thinking. This evolution involves a proactive exploration of new mediums as they emerge, adapting my approach to leverage their unique capabilities.

My collaborations span a spectrum of projects, encompassing static visualizations, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR). Each medium is strategically chosen based on its ability to convey a specific narrative, amplifying the educational impact. By seamlessly integrating technology into my creative process, I ensure that the chosen medium aligns with the intended message, creating immersive and engaging experiences that transcend traditional boundaries.

«As the integration of AI into creative processes evolves, ethical considerations and the responsible use of this technology remain at the forefront of my awareness.»

How do you see creative AI impacting your practice/work? Is this a topic that interests you or worries you?

While my experience with creative AI remains limited, I approach its potential impact on my practice with a sense of cautious optimism. The application of AI holds the promise of enhancing and expediting critical aspects of my work, particularly in the realms of data cleaning and bias validation. Leveraging AI in these processes has the potential to significantly improve the overall effectiveness of climate research visualizations, ensuring a more accurate, unbiased, and streamlined approach to conveying complex environmental narratives.

However, I maintain a level of concern regarding the potential for unforeseen implications, particularly in the generation of enhanced bias and information. As the integration of AI into creative processes evolves, ethical considerations and the responsible use of this technology remain at the forefront of my awareness. Balancing the benefits with potential challenges, I remain open to exploring the possibilities while maintaining a vigilant and thoughtful approach to ethical considerations in the ever-evolving landscape of creative AI.

«I believe that the fusion of design and science will play a pivotal role in addressing global challenges, particularly those related to climate change.»

Any final thoughts or comments?

In conclusion, my journey as a designer deeply immersed in the intersection of data, technology, and environmental advocacy has been both rewarding and enlightening. As I continue to explore innovative mediums and collaborate with diverse communities, my commitment to leveraging creativity for positive change remains unwavering. I believe that the fusion of design and science will play a pivotal role in addressing global challenges, particularly those related to climate change. My passion for creating impactful visual narratives and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations propels me forward, and I look forward to contributing to a more informed and engaged global community through my work.

Sensing the Forest Seminar: Saloni Shah

Presentation at ADC23 - November 14, 2023

2023-12-18T10:00:00Z

Photo by the ADC Team

The Audio Developer Conference (ADC) is an annual event celebrating all audio development technologies, from music applications and game audio to audio processing and embedded systems. ADC’s mission is to help attendees acquire and develop new skills, and build a network that will support their career development. It is also aimed at showcasing academic research and facilitating collaborations between research and industry.

The ADC Team invited me to give a keynote at this year’s ADC in London (November 13-15th) at the Mermaid. The ADC has grown into a full hybrid in-person and online conference with over 600 in-person attendees (London) and over 800 online participants. The ADC Team program over 60 talks each year at the conference over a wide range of audio topics.

On November 14, I presented the talk From NIME to NISE: Rethinking the design and evaluation of musical interfaces. In this keynote talk, I presented my insights into designing and evaluating networked algorithmic spaces that support collaboration, participation, non-hierarchical structures and Do-it-yourself (DIY) practices for Sound and Music Computing (SMC) from a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) perspective. In this context, we looked into the Sensing the Forest project related to creating natural NIMEs as interventions to the environment through sonic arts and sonification. The project contributes to the vision of democratising SMC through the creation of technologies that can empower the community to solve real-world problems.

The slides of my presentation are available here.

The keynote’s topic and especially the Sensing the Forest project intended to spark some ideas on other ways of thinking about musical interfaces. The presentation raised questions about how to connect better academia with industry, the importance of bringing natural time units and environmental awareness into creative processes, the need for bringing more feminist and humanist perspectives into technical development, and the expansion from music to sound to attract more diversity into the community of music builders.

It was a positive surprise to find out more about the successful efforts of the ADC Team to bring more diversity to the audio development community. The talk Diversity in music technology: Initiatives and insights from Music Information Retrieval by Blair Kaneshiro and the Diversity in Audio Reception were relevant events that showcase the important work done by women and allies towards bringing more diversity and inclusion into the field of audio development. This is also exemplified by previous ADC keynote speakers such as Rebecca Fiebrink (UAL), Astrid Bin (Ableton/Bela.io), Imogen Heap (Mimu gloves), Ruth John, Elaine Chew (King’s College London) and Anna Wszeborowska, among others.

Sadly, I missed the talks on November 15 due to teaching duties, including Josh Reiss’ keynote on Commercialisation of Audio Technology. The good news is that the videos will be soon publicly available on YouTube.

The full programme of ADC23 is available here:
https://adc23.sched.com

To find out more about ADC23, visit:
https://audio.dev/adc23/

See you at ADC24!

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Sophie Carus, Bobby Lombardi and the ADC Team for the invitation and excellent organisation, the ADC community for their curiosity about my work and the StF project, and the StF project team members for their help. Special thanks to Luigi Marino for setting up a proof-of-concept of the audio streamer and successfully live streaming from Bristol.

An Interview with Peter Sinclair

2024-01-14T10:00:00Z

About Peter Sinclair: Peter Sinclair (PhD, HDR) is a sound artist and professor of sound art practice at Aix-en Provence Art academy (ESAAIX). He is internationally renowned for his sound installations as well as for his work on collaborative and participative environments. His artistic experimentations use networked games, mobile media, data sonification and live audio streaming. He is codirector of Locus Sonus Vitae a research group supported by the French Ministry for Culture and ESAAIX. On 18th October 2023, Peter Sinclair gave a seminar as part of the Sensing the Forest Seminar Series.

«Art and research remain a tricky subject in the French university system (even more so than in the UK), and it has sometimes been difficult, working with hard science groups, to establish an equal dialogue and attribute value to the artistic research.»

What are you working on at the moment?

Various things related to sound capture and transmission. In relation to the Sensing the Forest seminar, the main project of interest is Locus Sonus Vitae, open microphone project, that has been streaming live soundscapes from around the globe for the past 18 years or so, and its extension through the European project Acoustic Commons.

What is your background?

I grew up on the Suffolk coast of England (Walberswick). After leaving high school I studied for five years at the l’Ecole des Beaux Arts (Art Academy) of Nîmes in the south of France. I then followed a mixed career exhibiting sound installations and performing experimental sound works. I became a member of the teaching faculty of ESAAIX (Ecole Superieur d’Art d’Aix-En-Provence) in 1995 where I founded a sound department. In 2005 I subsequently co-founded Locus Sonus with the artist and composer Jerome Joy (ENSAN La villa Arson in Nice) with support from the French ministry for culture. I went on to obtain my PhD from CRISAP, LCC, UAL (University of the Arts London). Since then, I have been developing our research with Locus Sonus in interdisciplinary collaborations between ESAAIX, different Laboratories attached to Aix Marseille University, and other artistic and research organizations. Locus Sonus has now been extended to include multiple research themes and has been renamed Locus Sonus Vitae.

How did you start/become interested in sound art and producing sound installations?

At a very early age, as soon as I discovered how to hack loudspeakers at the age of 10 or 11. Growing up in the 70’s the musicians I was interested in had been through art school (e.g. Brian Eno, David Bowie, … ). Coming from an artistic background it seemed a natural choice to enroll, where I immediately engaged in sound-based performance and developed a practice of building musical machines from found objects – After college, I continued to experiment with more sophisticated machinery and when computers became affordable enough to mess with started to spend a lot of time programming (with the early versions of Max).

How is your artistic/scientific work generally perceived? Have you encountered any unexpected impact or reaction from your work?

Artistically speaking I have always navigated between different milieux, including contemporary art, performance, experimental music, and net art, which tends to make me a bit of a maverick in all these fields.

Art and research remain a tricky subject in the French university system (even more so than in the UK), and it has sometimes been difficult, working with hard science groups, to establish an equal dialogue and attribute value to the artistic research.

«The evolution of listening practices is the main “result” of our research, this implemented by experimentation conducted by artists and musicians, but we also have close ties with an anthropological research group with whom we are investigating ways of perceiving the terrain through listening methods.»

What is the meaning of community in your work?

Open Microphone Project, Locus Stream, is entirely founded on the existence of a community who set up, maintain, and exploit the audio streams in different ways. Acoustic Commons, as its name suggests takes this shared aspect of the project as its main objective. I am very interested in the Deleuzien Idea of dispositif (following Foucault) which implies that all systems have multiple threads and objectives and that these are continuously evolving and interacting. Concretely, this means that people participate in Locustream in different ways and for different reasons but the common whole, benefits them all in some way.

What are the artistic, technological, or scientific research methods that inform your work? To what extent (and how) is audio/sound/music relevant to your work?

All the work I am involved in is sound based, and for us technology and development play a large part in our activity since we provide the technical solutions for would be participants, increasingly extended by the expertise and experience of several of the more permanent members of the community. The evolution of listening practices is the main “result” of our research, this implemented by experimentation conducted by artists and musicians, but we also have close ties with an anthropological research group with whom we are investigating ways of perceiving the terrain through listening methods, see La recherche par l’écoute (research through listening). We are also becoming increasingly involved with bio-acousticians.

«I think that carefully listening to an environment is a way of increasing awareness (probably more so than looking at it) – whether that is remote listening or some other form such as deep listening.»

To what extent do you see your work, and more extensively, the use of artistic methods, contributing to raising awareness of global crises such as climate change?

Generally speaking, and without being evangelical, I think that carefully listening to an environment is a way of increasing awareness (probably more so than looking at it) – whether that is remote listening or some other form such as deep listening. Most contemporary streaming services, on the contrary, have a tendency to immerse you in your own personal world of carefully selected media. Another ecological aspect of Locustream and Acoustic Commons, is that we are increasingly collaborating with nature reserves and other protected areas where our microphones can allow researchers and the public to access otherwise unapproachable sites.

«Part of the artist’s role is, in my opinion, to mistreat, test or *detourner* technologies that are developed for purely commercial ends.»

How is technology impacting your work? Do you see technology shaping your creative process or the other way around?

I see it as a reiterative process. I also believe that it is important to keep some critical distance and think through what technological evolutions imply. Part of the artist’s role is, in my opinion, to mistreat, test or detourner technologies that are developed for purely commercial ends.

How do you see creative AI impacting your practice/work? Is this a topic that interests you or worries you?

We, (Dr Hugo Scurto) have recently been experimenting with the using the open microphones to develop deep learning models that can generate a “fictitious” stream. This evokes several aesthetic questions that we feel are worthy of reflection. I don’t think that creative AI represents a threat to art, since artists will always find a way to mess with it. I do however worry about the more general societal changes that AI is bringing with it.

Any final thoughts or comments?

More information about Locus Sonus Vitae here:
https://locusonus.org

More information about Acoustic Commons here:
https://acousticommons.net

Sensing the Forest Seminar: Peter Sinclair

Phase 1 - Setting up the streamers

2024-01-17T10:00:00Z

We want to create audio streamers to broadcast the sounds of the forest remotely on the Internet of Things (IoT). In this way, we can share the audio feed with a community of creatives and scientists for music, installations, collecting data about the state of the forest, and hopefully other applications that will come up along the way.

Ideally, our streamers should be:

Small and portable.
Stable and weather resistant, so they can be left in the environment and work for many days without maintenance.
As ecofriendly as possible.
The audio quality should be good enough to satisfy musicians’ ears.

Luckily, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel from scratch. The amazing Locus Sonus project runs from 2006 and has solved many of the technical steps needed for our objectives. I’m having a look at their streambox and their hugely helpful step by step tutorial - thanks for that!

The streambox tutorial gives you two options: download their Linux OS, or build it from scratch following the step by step tutorial.

The OS release for Raspberry Pi (RPi) Zero 2 says “unstable” but we really want to work with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: the community is very excited about the processor improvement over the previous version, and we plan to use solar panels to power the RPi so the lower power requirements, in comparison to the 4B or the 5, sound like the way to go. The best option seems to be following the step by step tutorial and trying to build our stable version for the Zero 2 W. Moreover we’d like to contribute to the Locus Sonus project and developing all the steps seems also the best way to propose improvements.

The chosen OS in the Locus Sonus project is Arch Linux, which is said to be cutting edge because of its rolling release. Arch Linux is more complex, has a far smaller community than the other most common Linux releases, you’ll need to choose and install a library basically for any task, and the Raspberry Pi Imager app doesn’t come with the option to flash Arch Linux on the SD card.

In choosing between Arch Linux and the most common and stable Debian-based systems, good old Herbert Simon’s teachings come to mind: when you deal with technologies, think about the machines but think twice about the capabilities of their human users! These projects are mostly used and developed by creatives and DIYers who don’t benefit from the continuous updates a structured team of software developers can provide. Moreover, we suppose that the user might want to turn the RPi into a streamer but also keep using it for other tasks: the vast majority of Linux users are used to Debian-like OSs, so we choose to make our streamer in the current standard RPi OS, Bullseye, a stable Debian-like OS for RPi.

If you, like me, flashed an OS on a RPi before but you don’t do it exactly every month, you might remember the usual steps to establish an Secure Shell (SSH) connection to access the RPi remotely (headless) from your laptop. You had to create the ssh empty file and the wpa_supplicant with a few lines about your LAN. Well, hello, first problem! Since April 2022, the default user and password method no longer works for security reasons. The post also explains the new methods: we used the Advanced Options on the Raspberry Pi Imager App and easily installed Bullseye ready for the SSH session.

We’ll deal later with the network settings to relay the stream to the Locus Sonus website. For now we want to test the stream’s stability, the battery with the solar panel, and the audio hardware. So we’ll split the tasks in three steps that will also work as standalone tutorials:

Set up the streamer with a common USB mic and use it on my window, inside the house, on the LAN.
Bring the streamer outdoors and create a bird feeder streamer with stereo mics, so we can see how the equipment fares under various weather conditions;
Deal with the battery and the solar panel in a setting as close as possible to the actual location we’ll place the streamers, and 3d print an enclosure to finalise the object.

The Locus Sonus tutorial uses a library called DarkIce for the streaming part. Currently, the community maintaining DarkIce is small and for updates after the ver 1.3, which are recommended in combination with the most common audio webservers, you have to compile the source codes and very likely download and complile also a few libraries before, etc. But BullsEye comes with ffmpeg already installed: ffmpeg is a very common command line app that can handle the streaming and is widely used for many tasks dealing with AV on Linux. We’ll check before if we can get by with the default software.

In that tutorial there is a step about enabling FastCGI. First we’ll try to skip this one because probably the recent RPi models can handle audio streaming in the blink of an eye, without additional precautions. We’ll have also to do some testing with the audio equipment because the documentation and part of the code written in the Locus Sonus OS is about using and setting up the Cirrus Logic/Wolfson audio devices: unfortunately those are discontinued at the time of writing.

Tutorial 1 - Window audio streamer on a LAN

Hardware:

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
USB microphone
Adapter from usb-a to micro usb
Router with port forwarding

Software:

Raspberry Pi OS 64 bit (Linux 11 - Bullseye)
Icecast2
Screen

We used the Samson Go Mic usb microphone and the TP-Link AX5400 router but almost everything should work.

Setting up the mic

USB microphones are the easiest option to capture audio on the RPi. We plug the microphone and run the following command to check if the microphone is detected and which device number is assigned:

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: GoMic [Samson GoMic], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Now let’s test the input recording with ffmpeg:

$ ffmpeg -channel_layout stereo -f alsa -i hw:1 -t 30 test.wav

-channel_layout stereo isn’t necessary but ffmpeg doesn’t seem to like the mono mic and, without the layout, sends out warnings and uses stereo either way duplicating the input.

-f alsa calls the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture.

-i hw:1 select the input device we just discovered. 1 is the soundcard number. If you need to specify also the device write hw:1,n where n is your device number.

-t 30 records for 30 seconds.

-test.wav is the output file.

In case something doesn’t look right, we can check the OS and ALSA versions installed with the following lines:

$ cat /etc/os-release
$ cat /proc/asound/version

Now we want to listen to the recording on our laptop’s headphones with our audio editing software so we exit the SSH session and copy the file from the RPi to our laptop with the secure copy protocol (SCP):

$ exit
$ scp lu@192.168.0.102:test.wav .

Remember to change my pi username (lu) and local address (192.168.0.102). The last dot specifies the home folder on the laptop where the file will be copied.

Turning the RPi into a web server for audio streaming

We need to turn our RPi into a web server so, for instance, we can write the RPi’s address on our smartphone from everywhere and access an HTML index page saved on the RPi that is streaming the audio capture of the USB mic.

There are many ways to do so. Some of the most common servers you can install on the Pi are NGINX, Apache, and Lighttpd. But Icecast2 helps us here because it is a server already oriented to audio streaming and it is ready to host our stream with a few clicks and settings.

We install Icecast2 with:

$ sudo apt install icecast2

We click yes when asked to configure Icecast and we follow the instructions to set up hostname the passwords. The defaults you’ll see for the hostname and passwords are localhost and hackme: if you want, change the password but keep localhost.

Now we use ffmpeg to take the audio from the USB mic via alsa and send it to icecast:

$ ffmpeg -ar 44100 -channel_layout stereo -f alsa -i hw:1 -codec:a "flac" -b:a 256k -f ogg -content_type 'application/ogg' icecast://source:hackme@192.168.0.102:8000/STF_stream0

-codec:a "flac" specifies the audio codec, if you want MP3 write -codec:a libmp3lame.

-b:a 256k is the bitrate of the streaming.

In the Icecast address, remember to change 192.106.0.102 with your RPi’s local address. 8000 is the port and unless you changed it, it should be the same. If we are using a standard server like NGINX together with Icecast, you’ll need to change the default port either for Icecast or NGINX: they won’t work both on the 8000 port. Hackme is the default Icecast password: if you changed it during Icecast configuration use your password instead.

If everything is working we should be able to write something like http://192.106.0.102:8000 in our browser address box and we should access the Icecast homepage with the stream ready to be played.

Two little details that could spare you the did-I-spend-one-hour-on-this-for-real moment: it is http and not https and the adress box and the search box in a browser are two different things!

To adjust the volume we can either use the alsa mixer interface or do it from command line.

To use the interface:

$ alsamixer

The mixer initially shows only the master volume slider. To see the microphone volume we click on f5: all on the alsamixer interface. Then we use the arrow keys to set the values.

To adjust the volume from command line:

$ amixer scontrols
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0

Capture is the microphone, so we adjust the volume with:

$ amixer set Capture 50%

Or we can change the relative volume with increments using + or - after the value:

$ amixer set Capture 5%+

So far so good, but we ran into a tricky problem here. When our laptop, or smartphone, or whatever device we use to program the RPi goes to sleep and drop the SSH session, after a while the SSH session on the RPi also shuts down. And that session was running ffmpeg, which was taking care of our stream, so we try to access again the stream and we discover that we have to turn off and on the RPi and restart the stream.

The first info I found online was about sending “keep alive messages” to server and/or client editing the ssh_config on the Pi and/or the sshd_config file on my laptop. There are some lines one can tinker with (ServerAliveInterval, ServerAliveCountMax, TCPKeepAlive, ClientAliveInterval etc.), but I tried tons of values and nothing changed much.

The welcome solution came with screen. Screen is a terminal multiplexer and allows us to open a session detached from the terminal SSH session, so no matter what happens to the SSH session on the client side (laptop), the new session on the RPi stays open and keeps running ffmpeg. Some quick info can be found here.

So we install screen:

$ sudo apt install screen

We open a screen session called stream:

$ screen -S stream

And in the new stream session we run ffmpeg with the same line shown above.

With this solution we kept the RPi on for weeks without any SSH session open and we could keep accessing the stream from whatever device: the Pi was happy and stable!

When we reconnect with SSH, to see the ffmpeg lines that tell you the Pi is streaming correctly, we have to restore the session with:

$ screen -r stream

Screen sessions work silently in the background so a couple of commends are useful:

$ screen -ls
$ killall screen

The first line shows all the open sessions, the second closes them all.

Accessing the stream from everywhere with port forwarding

Everything works and we can access Icecast homepage writing the Pi local address and the default port in the address box from any device connected to the same wi-fi the RPi is connected to.

Now we’d like to have our friends listening to our cool stream from their houses. This can be done using the port forwarding option in our home router. In short, we open a port in our home network and we access it from outside our LAN. This time we have to write the public address of our network instead of the local one. Keep in mind that this is a safety hazard because an eventual hacker could use the port to access the devices in our LAN. But, unless you have the nuclear codes in a file on your desktop, if the password is strong I’d keep at bay the idea that, as soon as we open the port, there is a hacker ready to infiltrate our computer…

To open a port, we go to our home router configuration page. We find the advanced options and the NAT (Network Address Translation) or port forwarding page. We need to know our public IP address, which can be found either on our router page or googling "find my public address" and using one of the many websites for this purpose. We enter our public address and decide which port we want to open. I chose here 2111.

With these settings we tell the router to forward all the messages received at the public address on port 2111 to our local Pi address on port 8000.

Now we should be able to take the smartphone from outside our LAN, write the public IP address followed by a colon and the port number (eg. http://172.111.11.11:2111) and we should be on the Icecast page ready to listen to our RPi microphone.

Keep in mind that Internet service providers change regularly the public IP address for safety reasons, so when you’ll see operation timed out or connection refused check if the public address has changed!

Finalising the project with a bash script

When we turn off our RPi, we’ll have always to rewrite some of the lines shown above unless we write the lines on a text file and call it from command line. This is a bash script.

Our case is slightly more complicated because we need to open the screen session and then run some commands. If we just write the commands on the script as we did on the terminal, ffmpeg will start on the SSH session, with all the problems mentioned, and the new screen session will be empty.

So we create a folder, we write two small scripts, stream.sh and streamdef.sh, and give execute permission:

$ mkdir Stream
$ cd Stream
$ sudo touch stream.sh
$ sudo touch streamdef.sh
$ sudo chmod 755 stream.sh && sudo chmod 755 streamdef.sh

Bash scripts need execute permission to be used, so we need to run the chmod command. Chmod 755 gives execute permission to everyone but only the owner can alter the script. If you want all permissions for everyone use 777 instead. The AND operator && it’s only a way to run two command lines together.

We open the first file:

$ sudo nano stream.sh

And write:

#!/bin/bash
cd ~
screen -S stream ./Stream/streamdef.sh

Stream.sh opens the screen session and passes all the commands in the second script to the new screen session. cd ~ only makes sure that we are in the home folder so the path is always correct.

We open streamdef.sh:

$ sudo nano streamdef.sh

And write:

#!/bin/bash
ffmpeg -ar 44100 -channel_layout stereo -f alsa -i hw:1 \
-codec:a "flac" -b:a 256k \  
-f ogg -content_type 'application/ogg' \
icecast://source:hackme@192.168.0.102:8000/STF_stream0

Streamdef.sh contains the definition of the stream. For now it is only the ffmpeg line, so it could be passed directly from the stream.sh file, but certainly more details will be added in the future, so another script looks like a clean solution. Always remember to change the Icecast address and password if necessary.

The \ splits the single command line into more lines, so we can read everything more easily.

Now if we want to start streaming after turning on the RPi we only need to call the first script:

$ Stream/stream.sh

If we run the script from the Stream folder we need to prepend dot and slash to tell linux it’s an executable, so use ./stream.sh.

The stream starts in the new session and we can close the laptop terminal without worrying about closing also the stream on the RPi, even if the laptop is complaining that closing the terminal window will stop all the programs.

Next steps

In the next tutorial we’ll install the streamer inside a bird feeder (slightly hacked, of course!), and we’ll move outdoors, to see if our object can stand various weather conditions. Also, we’ll look into mems microphones as a cheap, accessible, and extremely power efficient way to add stereo filed to our streamer.

An Interview with Alice Eldridge

2024-02-05T10:00:00Z

About Alice Eldridge: Prof. Alice Eldridge is a musician and researcher with an interest in how sound organises systems. Her research integrates ideas and methods from music, computing, complex systems and ecology to advance theory and methods in ecoacoustics, as well as to create systemic music. Alice holds a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems, and a PhD in Computer Science and AI. She is currently a Professor of Sonic Systems at the University of Sussex where she is co-director of the Sussex Humanities Lab, co-director of the Experimental Music Technology Lab and a fellow of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme. On 15th November 2023, Alice Eldridge gave a seminar as part of the Sensing the Forest Seminar Series.

«I subscribe to the view that at the heart of our current ecological crises is our false impression that we are separate from each other and the rest of nature.»

What are you working on at the moment?

Creative music projects are ever present, but the collaborative work around what I dub ‘ecolistening’ is central for me at the moment. This has three strands which fall roughly into protection, connection and justice.

Firstly, developing tools for ecological monitoring through computational analysis of soundscape recordings. This is all collaborative work. It includes the speculative dynamical, complexity approaches that we discussed in the talk, alongside deep learning methods. This work aims to serve nature recovery, regenerative agriculture and wider conservation projects. For example, a small local study looks at the impact on the soundscape and bird activity of selective felling in a small woodland.

Secondly, this work led to the realisation that natural soundscapes are a powerful public engagement tool to support nature (re)connection. Current projects include Wilding Radio – a long term live stream from rewilding pioneers at Knepp that invites anyone, anywhere, to tune into positive ecological change; and Bird Bath (Brighton Festival, May 2024) – a simple soundscape composition project which invites people to stop, rest and soak in the magic of their local bird song.

Finally, I feel a growing urgency to develop ethical frameworks that align emerging conservation technologies with the cosmovisions of communities at the front line of climate change. There is rich potential in combining traditional ecological knowledge of soundscapes with emerging science. If this can be done equitably there is much potential for biocultural conservation. An example of this participatory action research is the Sacha Taki project, carried out during lock down.

What is your background?

I have always played music and grew up in the countryside, which I think gave me a deep basic connection to wider nature. So although I never studied either music or ecology, my research for the last two decades has integrated music, ecology and technology in various ways - always with a complex and/or dynamical systems flavour. I studied Psychology at Leeds (switching from English Literature), then Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems at Sussex. I stayed in the inspiring COGS group at Sussex to do a PhD in Computer Science, where I explored cybernetically-inspired adaptive, dynamical systems for generative and interactive music.

I remained in this world for a post-doc at Monash University, Melbourne exploring the ecosystem as a metaphor in generative art. I made a lot of evolutionary agent based models during this project, taking inspiration from theoretical ecology to understand speciation, recycling and forms of symbiosis, with the aim of creating diversity in generative art systems. I think it was during this time that I realised that I wanted to get deeper into applied ecology.

I quit academia for a few years after this, working as a producer for Sound and Music, but was enticed back by a chance conversation with my old capoeira teacher, who was also a brilliant conservation biologist. We ended up writing a grant to validate acoustic indices as a proxy for biodiversity. That brought me back to Sussex, where I led a Music Informatics degree for a few years, before moving to the Sussex Digital Humanities Lab when it was established, via a post-doc in Life Sciences.

I now co-direct the Sussex Digital Humanities Lab and Experimental Music Technologies Lab, and am part of the Sustainability Programme and AI group, so I have a nice niche at the intersections of music, computing and sustainability, working with ecologists, anthropologists, computer scientists, musicians and local and global communities. Quite a varied journey, but I think I’ve found a home now.

How did you start/become interested in ecoacoustics and studying soundscapes?

I read Krause’s 1987 niche hypothesis paper whilst studying evolutionary systems in 2002 and was enchanted by the idea that sound could be a dimension in evolutionary ecospace - alongside habitats and other resources. Much later in 2012 I had a part-time fellowship at CRISAP and was planning an evolutionary agent based installation to explore this idea: could artificial evolutionary singing agents evolve to fill the ‘gaps’ in a soundscape to reveal the inherent structure – like the sonic equivalent of a photographic negative or sculptural mould.

I was discussing the idea with a friend Dan Jones (who has since made a brilliant and much cleverer installation than I ever could – Living Symphonies) when I bumped into the conservation biologist friend mentioned above, Mika Peck. He was interested in developing tools for rapid biodiversity assessment, and we quickly recognised the applied potential of the acoustic niche hypothesis in ecological assessment. Once we started working on the monitoring side, we realised just how many questions and possibilities there are for ecological protection, as well as connection and justice. I will be forever grateful to Mika, and for that conversation.

How is your artistic/scientific work generally perceived? Have you encountered any unexpected impact or reaction from your work?

Most surprising in recent years has been the public response to Wilding Radio. This started as an idle I-wonder-if project: could we hear the changes to the local ecosystem made by the reintroduction of a pair of beavers, if we listened for 2, 5, 10 years? Working with the brilliant Soundcamp, we designed an off-grid, hi-fi quadraphonic streaming device (endlessly in development). What started as a scientific curiosity turned out to have apparently deep appeal and value for others. Since the launch in May 2023, over 15,000 people worldwide have tuned in and we’ve received hundreds of unsolicited emails expressing deep appreciation for the experience. Listening in live to the sound of so many other beings going about the business of staying alive seems to have great value to many people - for managing anxiety, insomnia and the simple joy of it. Perhaps it provides a vibrational, visceral reminder of our place in the wider web of life.

«The simple act of listening, especially when amplified, expanded when done at scale, and deepened when we stop and slow down, is a great way back into reintegrating with the wider communities of life.»

What is the meaning of community in your work?

I think most of what I do is about community in one way or another. Most musical and many scientific collaborations I orchestrate or accept for social, as much as intellectual, creative or applied reasons. Ecologists, musicians and others who care about the environment tend to be very nice humans, in my experience, and good fun too.

Widening out, I have been lucky to land in a range of wonderful academic and creative communities. The Alife community is exquisitely curious, intelligent and open-minded and cares little for disciplinary boundaries, which I find refreshing; the Generative Art and NIME communities are fabulous warm, supportive, creative and similarly disciplinarily agnostic families; and more recently I’ve joined the emerging ecoacoustic community, who are a really generous, curious and caring bunch from whom I have much to learn about methods and concepts in ecology.

Ultimately, I am coming to realise that the simple act of listening, especially when amplified, expanded when done at scale, and deepened when we stop and slow down, is a great way back into reintegrating with the wider communities of life.

«I coined this term *Sonic Systems* to bring into focus systems that are cohered through sound – whether musical, cultural, social, ecological or hybrid - and I think we need multiple methods to study these.»

What are the artistic, technological, or scientific research methods that inform your work? To what extent (and how) is audio/sound/music relevant to your work?

Although I have apparently moved around disciplines, sound and music and either creating or studying systems are the constants. I suppose composing and decomposing sonic systems is what I’m interested in. I coined this term Sonic Systems to bring into focus systems that are cohered through sound – whether musical, cultural, social, ecological or hybrid - and I think we need multiple methods to study these.

In both creating new musical instruments (systems) and understanding soundscape (ecological sonic systems), I’ve been drawn to a kind of methodological triangulation.

In practice research in music technology we tend to follow hunches, iterating designs systematically and playing with them. But it’s also valuable to measure things, scientifically. I think of this as three modes of experimentation: experimental music a la Cage - where the outcome may be unknown; experimentation as an engineer, tinkering until something works; and experimentation as a scientist, forming hypotheses and measuring things, to get a better feel for how it is working and stress test metaphors.

In ecoacoustics, I think we similarly need to combine ecological theory and data analysis but also tacit and lived experience. Integrating machine learning and indigenous knowledge - through ethnography, action research and/or participatory design is my dream here.

I recently trained in Microphenomenology and am keen to apply this to better understand the experience of feedback musicianship, as well as the felt experience of listening to natural soundscapes: understanding lived experience feels important in an increasingly data driven world.

To what extent do you see your work, and more extensively, the use of artistic methods, contributing to raising awareness of global crises such as climate change?

I mused on this in lock down with respect to computer musicking and one (long!) answer is given in an AIMC keynote. Here I focused on the potential of developing complexity literacy, and overcoming individualism - recognising that our interactions with environments are more fundamental than ourselves as separate entities - which brings a concomitant shift from competitive to collaborative and caring models of interaction.

Put more simply, I subscribe to the view that at the heart of our current ecological crises is our false impression that we are separate from each other and the rest of nature. So as well as raising awareness “Oh look over there, this is happening”, I wonder if the visceral experiences that artistic methods in general, and sonic practice in particular can elicit, can help us feel that we are part of a wider web of life. As hinted at above, I’ve a hunch that simply listening to the sounds of other life is comforting, on a very fundamental level. I have yet to explore this, but the research of others, such as Claire Petitmengen (pioneer of microphenomenology), points to similar ideas: that listening to natural sounds provides a privileged means to dissolve the boundaries that separate us from our environment. This is a basic and profound ontological shift!

I’m not sure how much evidence there is of actual behaviour change from artistic intervention and experience - this is an area ripe for research - but raising awareness, and encouraging shifts in mindsets through felt experience are a critical first step.

«It is perhaps ironic that we need technology as a gateway back to nature – or perhaps it is the perfect poetic irony that rationalism, which separated humans from the rest of nature, created the foundations for the technology that can reconnect us!»

How is technology impacting your work? Do you see technology shaping your creative process or the other way around?

When I first learned to programme it felt like the ultimate Making Things - I loved it, and certainly I developed a whole new creative practice. As I’ve got older, I’ve been drawn back to physical, vibrating things (like cellos) and hybrid systems - epitomised by the feedback feedforward systems that Chris Kiefer and I made as part of the FluComa project that couples acoustic, analogue electronic and simple machine learning systems - these are very much shaped through creative process.

In Ecoacoustics research, the availability of low cost, robust and increasingly high fidelity recording equipment was central to the emergence of this new science, and importantly, cheap robust open hardware makes it very accessible, including to local community conservation projects globally. Advances in deep learning are revolutionizing species data collection here, as in other fields.

Similarly, recording, transmission and analysis technologies also create more opportunities for others to reconnect with nature, whether simply listening to nature sounds, or spotting species outside using apps like Merlin that enable bird ID on a smartphone. It is perhaps ironic that we need technology as a gateway back to nature – or perhaps it is the perfect poetic irony that rationalism, which separated humans from the rest of nature, created the foundations for the technology that can reconnect us!

So a little bit of both. Technologies inspire new possibilities, but are shaped through these and other insights.

Zooming right out, we need to be cognisant of potential negative social and environmental impacts of technology and rise to the challenge of ensuring future technologies support and not suppress human creativity and living systems.

How do you see creative AI impacting your practice/work? Is this a topic that interests you or worries you?

AI isn’t creative, but humans can use AI creatively. We can most certainly see examples of the misuse of AI to the detriment of some facets of creative industries. I’m an optimist tho, and think that in the long term, this will just sharpen our appreciation for raw human creativity, including the things we create using tools built using AI methods.

In musical contexts there are some really exciting advances in the area of embedded AI in musical instruments, some of which could also cross-over into being great tools for exploration and interpretation in increasingly data-driven science. For example for perceptualising vast repositories of soundscape recordings that are being amassed globally to support conservation and restoration initiatives.

Any final thoughts or comments?

I’d just like to express appreciation and gratitude for your work and your project. It really is all hands on deck for the coming years, and projects like yours that create new connections between academic disciplines, partners and key environmental actors are valuable and inspiring.

Sensing the Forest Seminar: Alice Eldridge

Summer School Online Session 1

2024-02-18T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right top-down, Mike Bell, Anna Xambó, Ed Chivers, Miles Scharff, Peter Batchelor, Bardia Hafizi, Florian Goeschke, Gabrielle Cerberville, Austin Blanton, Jordan Juras, Luigi Marino, Nick Wardlaw, Kate Anderson, Danielle Grimsey, and Hazel Stone.

With apologies from Amira and Anne Marie, on Thursday 15th February 2024, we kicked off the awaited summer school online sessions, where we made short introductions and shared initial project ideas and interests.

First, we started the session by introducing ourselves in a quick round where we were invited to give our name, our favourite sound, our role and our expertise, to then pick the next person. We found out that a ‘favourite sound’ can vary over time and some of the preferred sounds were linked to childhood. The selected favourite sounds ranged from the clicking of a pantry door, the sound of metals, laser edging over metals, the crackling sound of lighting cedar branches on fire, the droning of tyres, cat’s purring, walking with a bottle of water and a coffee, cicadas, the sound of a Japanese design object/instrument for gardens, pigeons landing on the roof’s tiles, sailing boat masts and the stays tapping against them, children laughing having fun playing vs peaceful silence, and raindrops under an umbrella, among others. The songs “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles and “Heavy Metal Drummer” by Wilco were also mentioned as favourite songs.

Second, we presented the Sensing the Forest project and the summer school expectations. We outlined the connection of the summer school with the first artistic intervention of the project: an artistic audio ecology intervention concerning forests and climate data in Alice Holt (Hampshire, UK) in collaboration with Forest Research and Forestry England. Luigi gave updates on the audio streamboxes, which will be essential for this intervention (see Luigi’s blog post Phase 1 - Setting up the streamers). Pete gave an overview of the multichannel installation, which will be an entirely acoustic intervention using suspended speakers that will be distributed in some way and will be sonifying climate data. Within the project, we placed the summer school as an invitation to artists and makers to explore how can artistic interventions raise awareness about the place, the data, and climate change.

Finally, we heard from the summer school attendees about their initial artistic ideas and propositions. This spanned from dance and the concept of body as territory; augmented reality/embodied experiences and sound sculptures; inter-species communication and playfulness; portable music inspired by the surroundings and biosignals; forest found objects and mechanical woodpeckers; electromagnetic radiations and invisible ecologies; observational drawing on how humans connect to nature; interactive immersiveness beyond the human species; and healing sonic rituals as a way to sense ecological landscapes.

Thanks all for your participation! It was a blast! The next session will be on February 29, 2024. Nick Wardlaw (Forestry England) and Michael Bell (Forest Research) will introduce the site of Alice Holt forest.

The slides of the session are available here.

Final note

We had an excellent response to the open call, receiving 28 applications overall. The review committee was impressed with the high quality of all the submissions and had difficulty in making final decisions. We thank all the applicants for their proposals and we have offered them an alternative route so that everybody can still be part of the summer school considering our limited funding and resource capacity: we have offerered access to the video recordings of the lectures and the opportunity to develop an independent project using the Alice Holt environmental data that can be showcased as part of the 1-year online exhibition.

Fieldtrip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-02-20T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right, Goose, Max Gravestock, Danielle Grimsey, Johana Knowles, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino, Peter Batchelor, and Mike Bell. Photo by Emma Ward.

Other photos by Anna Xambó.

On Friday 16th February, we went for our first field trip to the Alice Holt Forest related to the first project’s artistic intervention in the forest that we are planning for June. The main objective was to get to know the place for the audio streamers and sound installations, get to know the team in person, and discuss further how to communicate with Forest Research’s live data.

Path to/from Bentley (Hampshire) train station.

After a nice train trip from London and a walk from the Bentley (Hampshire) train station, I met Mike at the Forest Research Station of Alice Holt. We discussed about historical instrumentation for measuring environmental data used in Alice Holt since the mid-1900s and the role of data loggers. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) brings an international framework that ensures standardisation and interoperability.

Historical measurement instruments at the Forest Research Station in Alice Holt.

Afterwards, we met with Pete and Luigi at the Alice Holt Visitors Centre café. Then, we joined the Forestry England team: Max, Max’s dog Goose, Danielle and Jo. We walked around the area by the Visitor Centre, seeing current installations and scoping out suitable sites. It was an enjoyable walk on a busy day surrounded by children and parents (it was a school holiday week). We discovered the concept of play areas, and how itineraries spin around these. Also, we realised about the history of the site, such as the kiln sites dating back from the Roman period.

Play zone with a wooden woodpecker.

We also explored a meadow favourite of Max, which likely is one of the areas with the most sunlight, suitable for the solar-powered audio streamer. Luigi explored an early prototype and its potential connectivity to the world. We also went to see the remote classic site where Semiconductor exhibited their Cosmos piece.

Peaceful meadow.

We were having a good time and the walk took longer than expected! In the afternoon, and after a quick lunch, Luigi, Pete and I made our way to the Straits Inclosure led by Mike. Mike gave us a tour of the Straits Inclosure flux tower and surrounding experiments. We started a discussion on what data might be relevant for the project, looking at different temporal rhythms (hourly, daily, seasonlly) that can tell us variations related to climate change, such as light or wind. We agreed to continue the conversation in the upcoming days.

Straits Inclosure flux tower.

Time flew. It was a wonderful day, productive and interesting. It was great to meet the team on-site and get to know more about the place. We will continue exploring points of convergence among disciplines and perspectives, which is one of the most rewarding parts of the project. Thank you for a great Friday!

An Interview with Liz O'Brien

2024-02-21T07:00:00Z

About Liz O’Brien: Dr Liz O’Brien is a Principal Social Scientist in the Society and Environment Research Group at Forest Research, which is a government research institute. Her research explores human-forest relationships with a particular focus on the cultural ecosystem benefits of trees and woodlands including a strong focus on the health and wellbeing benefits of engagement with trees and woodlands – physical, mental and social.

«My strong focus on wellbeing is linked to health and increasingly we need to focus on the impacts of climate change on people’s health and how that links to social and environmental justice issues.»

What are you working on at the moment?

Much of my research falls under the broad heading of wellbeing and focuses on human nature relationships and how connection and engagement with treescapes i.e. trees in any location – in the street, park, along footpaths, in woods etc. can impact people’s wellbeing. My research has focused on the health benefits of treescapes, learning in nature, impacts of practical conservation volunteering, cultural ecosystem services and the social and cultural values people associate with treescapes.

I am working with colleagues and collaborators to develop, write and produce additional guidance to the Tree and Woodland Strategy Toolkit at present. This additional guidance focuses on how those developing tree strategies particularly local authorities can take account of the social and cultural values people hold for treescapes. We have undertaken four years of work that underpins the approach we outline in the guidance, and it is great to think that our research will have practical application.

I am also working with colleagues and collaborators on a project focused on public access to woodlands. The working is looking at the spatial distribution of access, what access means to different members of the public, what barriers they may face in accessing woodlands and what might support access. We are also discussing with land managers attitudes towards public access and whether some land managers might provide or extend public access.

What is your background?

I am an environmental sociologist by background but originally after I left school I attended art college and focused on jewellery making and design. However, when I eventually decided to go to University, I drew on my lifelong interest in being in the natural environment and my passion for hill walking to move to a focus on the environment and combined that with an interest in people and the systems, structures, norms that influence behaviours and decisions.

I joined Forest Research in 2000 as its sole social scientist and was originally part of a Silviculture and Seed Research Branch within the organisation. However, after a few short years others joined me and a social science team was born. I was fortunate to develop the opportunity to spend 3 months in Vermont with the US Forest Service in 2002 and work with colleagues there to explore how people in Vermont values their treescape. Later on, in 2012 I spent 14 months in Defra (Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs) in its behavioural change unit.

It has been great to be part of the development of a dynamic and vibrant Society and Environment Research Group within Forest Research. I was Head of the Group for 8 years and helped it to grow and enhance its reputation, I stepped back from the role in 2023 to move to part time working.

«My interest in sound and soundscapes has developed slowly often through my qualitative research in which a range of publics have talked about their experiences in woodlands and the importance of different sounds.»

How did you start/become interested in environmental sociology and studying soundscapes?

Alan Irwin’s book Sociology and the Environment highlighted the problems of much thinking on the dualism between humans and nature seeing them as separate. He also outlined the need to look beyond how real problems are to explore the processes whereby certain problems come to acquire real status at particular moments in time and in particular contexts.

My interest in sound and soundscapes has developed slowly often through my qualitative research in which a range of publics have talked about their experiences in woodlands and the importance of different sounds such as wind in the trees, the rustling and crunching of leaves, water, birds, as well as human sounds such as laughter. The lack of sound has also come up as people have described trees and woods screening out traffic and urban noises.

Then, having the opportunity to be part of the Ecotones: Soundscapes of Trees network project led by Professor Amanda Bayley at Bath Spa University was a fantastic opportunity to work with musicians, artists, ecologists and social scientists and collaborate with South Korea. In the project we explored ways to communicate awareness of environmental issues through the soundscapes of trees.

How is your artistic/scientific work generally perceived? Have you encountered any unexpected impact or reaction from your work?

Forest Research is an applied research institute, one of the great things about working for the organisation is to have practical and applied impacts that can influence and sometimes change policy and practice. I got involved early on with Forest Research in exploring the health benefits of engaging with treescapes whether that was being out in a woodland or seeing trees as people go about their everyday lives. We published a ‘Trees and Woodlands: Nature Health Service’ report in 2005 and Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England at the time, wrote a forward to highlight the importance of contact with treescapes. Since then, a focus on health and wellbeing has been a strong area of development for Forestry England as it manages the nations forests.

During the Covid Pandemic we surveyed and interviewed people to explore their relationship with nature during the lockdowns and the stresses of that time. We published a paper on the contribution of trees and forest to wellbeing during Covid and how people started to adapt to the change. This research gained interest and traction and I worked with other government agencies such as Natural England, the Environment Agency, NatureScot, and Natural Resources Wales to bring together our data and explore why society needs nature and what lessons could be learnt from the pandemic.

What is the meaning of community in your work?

My work involves a lot of collaboration with researchers both nationally and internationally. Our Ecotones project was a collaborative network between the UK and South Korea and included people from many different disciplinary backgrounds which provides so much opportunity for learning and exchange and for thinking about things differently. My research also involves a lot of work with stakeholders in public bodies, non-governmental organisations, and private land managers, and also engaging with a range of publics to explore the meaning of treescapes to them is very important.

I enjoy being part of a range of networks that are sometimes academic focused or policy or practice focused. These can be national, international and it’s a great way to exchange ideas, information and learn from each other.

What are the artistic, technological, or scientific research methods that inform your work? To what extent (and how) is audio/sound/music relevant to your work?

My background in environmental sociology includes a range of methods as I explore human nature relationships. I have been involved in interviews, focus groups, workshops, citizen panels, participatory approaches, photo elicitation, participant observation and ‘being and doing’ activities with people, as well as surveys. Increasingly mixed methods and interdisciplinary research have become a focus for me. I wrote a paper with colleagues on participatory interdisciplinarity highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary research and the involvement of stakeholders and how time, field visits, and open exchange, are really important and can break down barriers between stakeholders and academics: ‘Participatory interdisciplinarity’: Towards the integration of disciplinary diversity with stakeholder engagement for new models of knowledge production | Science and Public Policy | Oxford Academic (oup.com). Sounds and the idea of soundscapes is increasingly important in terms of my research interests, and I keen to develop this area of my work and build on work I have been involved in to date.

«My research has a strong focus on human nature relationships and how people experience nature across the urban rural continuum and explore social and environmental justice issues in terms of who can access nature, who faces barriers and who benefits from nature.»

To what extent do you see your work, and more extensively, the use of artistic methods, contributing to raising awareness of global crises such as climate change?

Working with artists Tim and Reko Collins as part of the Ecotones network really highlighted the intersection between the environment, art, and social engagement. It allows people to conceptualise environmental and social issues in different ways and can engage and reach people that wouldn’t otherwise be reached. My research has a strong focus on human nature relationships and how people experience nature across the urban rural continuum and explore social and environmental justice issues in terms of who can access nature, who faces barriers and who benefits from nature. My strong focus on wellbeing is linked to health and increasingly we need to focus on the impacts of climate change on people’s health and how that links to social and environmental justice issues.

How is technology impacting your work? Do you see technology shaping your creative process or the other way around?

In our work with Forestry England evaluating the Active Forests Programme, which aims to encourage people to be physically active in forests and includes a social prescribing element, we have seen how Apps can reach particularly families with young children. Forestry England worked with Aardman Animations to develop a Shaun the Sheep App with the release of the Farmaggedon film a few years ago. An App has also been developed for the Gruffalo trails that Forestry England have created at some of their sites. Both Apps had an element of augmented reality allowing children to see and be photographed with and discover their favourite characters. Increasingly we are considering the role of fitness devices as a way of understanding the places that people are accessing and where they are going.

«Fundamentally you need to know your data and be immersed in it to know whether coding by AI is accurately interpreting your data.»

How do you see creative AI impacting your practice/work? Is this a topic that interests you or worries you?

I recently attended two webinars focused on the use of AI in qualitative analysis. Part one focused on development and methodological implications and part 2 on research applications, opportunities and challenges. There were very interesting discussions about ethics, how your data, if you take this approach, might be used for machine learning training, where data is held, robustness of outputs generated etc. Fundamentally you need to know your data and be immersed in it to know whether coding by AI is accurately interpreting your data. It was being used to support analysis and not be the sole approach to analysis. This area interests me as it is developing fast, new possibilities arise but there also needs to be some caution and an understanding of what AI can and can’t do.

Any final thoughts or comments?

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to present at your seminar and hear from others and to outline a bit about my work and where I am coming from. I look forward to seeing how the Sensing the forest project develops over the next few years.

Sensing the Forest Seminar: Liz O’Brien

Presentation slides

Summer School Online Session 2

2024-03-08T10:00:00Z

Photo: Meadow in the Alice Holt Forest.

On February 29, 2024, we had our second summer school session. We had the privilege of having two presentations about the Alice Holt Forest:

An Introduction to Alice Holt Forest Centre by Nick Wardlaw (Forestry England)
Alice Holt Long-Term Carbon Dioxide Flux Monitoring Site by Mike Bell (Forest Research)

The format consisted of a 20-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute Q&A for each of the presentations. Find below the two video recordings of the session. Thanks to both Nick and Mike for sharing their knowledge with us and feel free to leave any comment below. Enjoy!

An Introduction to Alice Holt Forest Centre by Nick Wardlaw (Forestry England)

The Q&A was hosted by Peter Batchelor. The questions that emerged after this talk concerned realising that there is no mains power in general and only some mobile network operators have good coverage in the area (e.g. O2, Vodafone); the importance of finding a good location for the exhibitions; the practicalities of deciding what is a good range so that there is diversity but also proximity among the different exhibits (except for Pete’s 1-year multichannel sound installation, the installations will be open to the audience for 4 hours on June 20, 2024!); the need for declaring method statements and risk assessments way before the exhibition; the relevance of having an overview of the visitor data; and a general engagement with the site beyond trees, also covering funghae and local species.

Alice Holt Long-Term Carbon Dioxide Flux Monitoring Site by Mike Bell (Forest Research)

The Q&A was hosted by Peter Batchelor as well. The follow-up discussions related to the discovery of many cool sensors used in the Straits Inclosure and whether we can get access to the archival data or real-time data for the summer school exhibits. As part of the project, it might be possible to stream some data from maybe a CO2 sensor measuring the concentration of CO2, a dendrometer measuring the growth of trees, air temperature, humidity… It was also discussed the measurement of shortwave/longwave radiation and what is the transformation that happens when radiation hits the ground and comes back up apart from photosynthesis, which connects with the Earth’s radiation budget.

All in all, we had a great time discovering the Alice Holt site and we can’t wait for the next session! Stay tuned!

An Interview with Jones/Bulley

2024-03-27T10:00:00Z

About Jones/Bulley: James Bulley (b. 1984) and Daniel Jones (b. 1983) are an artist duo whose collaborative practice explores the boundaries of sound art, music, and process-based composition. Their work draws on systems and patterns from the world around us as ways of organising sound, creating a reciprocal relationship between the two: using sound as a way to illuminate our understanding of the world, and using natural processes as a way to deepen our approaches to composition. Jones/Bulley’s critically acclaimed work has been shown at venues including the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican, the Museum of Science and Industry, Aldeburgh Music, the Old Royal Naval College, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Design Museum.

«Our work is fundamentally a social practice: at some level, all of our pieces are founded upon communities and ecologies.»

What are you working on at the moment?

We’re currently in the early stages of developing a new landscape work exploring cloud formations, which naturally emerged from some of the thinking about atmospheres that underpinned our first piece, Variable 4. We are also researching new methods for sensing spatially-distributed data in forest ecosystems, which will allow us to paint a more nuanced portrait of ecological activity in future editions of Living Symphonies.

What is your background?

We both have interdisciplinary backgrounds spanning music composition, fine art, technology and spatial interaction, and met as postgraduate students at Goldsmiths, University of London.

How did you start/become interested in sound art and producing sound installations informed by science and technology?

We share an interest in exploring different ways in which the ecological forces and systems that surround us can be expressed in spatial artworks, and giving representation to the agencies of the more-than-human world. Our first installation, Variable 4, was an outdoor sound work, conducted by real-time weather conditions, that expresses the changing dynamics of atmospheric conditions in wild, remote places.

How is your artistic/scientific work generally perceived? Have you encountered any unexpected impact or reaction from your work?

We are always grateful for the generosity of our audiences, especially when they have travelled to remote places, in all sorts of weather, to experience our work. What we found particularly unexpected was that people engage for longer periods of time than you might otherwise expect. We often find that visitors stay for many hours, and return on different days to experience changes in conditions over time.

«We are privileged to frequently work with communities of citizen scientists, local experts and professional researchers, whose passion and knowledge allows us to expand our understanding and travel beyond our boundaries as artists.»

What is the meaning of community in your work?

Our work is fundamentally a social practice: at some level, all of our pieces are founded upon communities and ecologies. In Living Symphonies, for example, the ecosystem itself is the orchestrating force behind the composition; in Maelstrom, an unseen network of global contributors form the fabric of the work. We are privileged to frequently work with communities of citizen scientists, local experts and professional researchers, whose passion and knowledge allows us to expand our understanding and travel beyond our boundaries as artists.

What are the artistic, technological, or scientific research methods that inform your work? To what extent (and how) is audio/sound/music relevant to your work?

Our work is underpinned by practice research, where applied practice is at the core, alongside an ever-expanding set of related areas that change depending on the work we are doing. We are informed by fields including systems theory, complex science, mycology, behavioural ecology, biosemiotics, linguistics, sculpture, and generative music – all areas in which structure and meaning unfold dynamically over time. We both come from a sound and music background, and so that is at the core of our practice. Composing sound is a way of engaging with space and time, and creates a prism through which we can re-articulate the world.

«Our hope is that, by creating a space for deeper interaction with the environment, works like *Living Symphonies* can foster a duty of care towards the natural world in an open and apolitical way.»

To what extent do you see your work, and more extensively, the use of artistic methods, contributing to raising awareness of global crises such as climate change?

Living Symphonies draws the listener’s attention to the changing dynamics of the more-than-human world that surrounds us, so issues such as the climate crisis are, as you might imagine, at the forefront of our thinking. Our hope is that, by creating a space for deeper interaction with the environment, works like Living Symphonies can foster a duty of care towards the natural world in an open and apolitical way. With artistry, and particularly with the medium of spatial sound, we have a unique opportunity to work in a manner that is as unruly and immediate as our experience in the world.

«For our work, technologies may inform and shape, but are never definitive.»

How is technology impacting your work? Do you see technology shaping your creative process or the other way around?

Artists have always used technologies as ways of expressing ideas and creating environments for their audiences, whether it be paintbrushes, violins or stone sculptures. It feels natural to explore novel technologies and how they can inform artistic practice, but we aim to not stray too far from the key ideas that motivate the practice. For our work, technologies may inform and shape, but are never definitive.

How do you see creative AI impacting your practice/work? Is this a topic that interests you or worries you?

Since the earliest days of our studio practice, generative tools have been a key part of our work. Technologies based on machine learning and AI are not fundamentally different to any other digital system, but have a more complex and inscrutable statistical basis. The flexibility of AI can be helpful in certain contexts – particularly when creating systems and instruments that are intended to produce organic outcomes, or when forming responses to sensor data from natural systems.

Whilst we track new research emerging from the field of AI, we see it as a provocation to think carefully about how these tools can aid us in the work we are making, to provide more nuanced insights and greater depth of expression.

Second Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-04-09T08:00:00Z

Photo: Alice Holt Forest: stream and conifers on Willows Green Trail.

Photos and map by Peter Batchelor.

On Friday 8 March I took a second field trip to Alice Holt in order to spend more time familiarising myself with the forest. I had also arranged a meeting with the ever-helpful Max Gravestock so that we could start discussing logistics surrounding the forest interventions in June and beyond.

I arrived just after 9.00am and began by going for a walk, mainly retracing steps from our last visit. I concentrated on listening, and identifying prominent sounds. Spring birdsong was cheerfully ever-present, at least in areas of deciduous woodland; dense coniferous areas were quieter. The paths beneath the trees were quite sheltered and still, with wind primarily audible through movement of the upper canopy, but in more exposed areas (e.g. Genbervie Meadow) it was noticeably breezier than on our last visit. Max tells me that it does get quite windy sometimes, with the wind being funnelled down the valleys (the forest undulates more than I recalled), so this is something we will need to be mindful of when positioning the audio streamers.

Alice Holt Forest: path from overspill carpark through deciduous woodland.

The air traffic from Heathrow, 30 miles away, is a further keynote—unsurprising, given the many flights taking off or landing every day. It wasn’t as relentless as I might have expected, and while a little annoying when trying to focus on forest sounds, it wasn’t too bad; indeed, the sometimes triadic portamenti, in composer mode, I found quite attractive.

Alice Holt Forest: path through denser coniferous woodland.

There were far fewer people about than on our last visit, when I couldn’t find a space in the main carpark (even as capacious as it is) and had to use the overspill. On that occasion, visitor activity extended past the Go Ape enclosure and around the Habitat and Willows Green Trails. This time, the area around the visitor centre, while still the busiest (in particular around the café and playground) was a lot quieter. Elsewhere I saw the occasional jogger and dog-walker; but beyond distant conversations and the jingle of dog leads (I’m sure I also heard a cowbell at one point), a bit of JCB action near the visitor centre from work to upgrade the Gruffalo path, and of course aircraft, there was relatively little audible human presence. I expected more traffic noise from nearby roads, but the canopy rustle seems to do a good job of masking this.

Alice Holt Forest: meandering stream.

Max and I met and spent a productive few hours talking about plans and likely requirements for the installations. The latter mainly concerned placement, power and security, with which he is confident he and his colleagues can help us. We went for a walk to an area of the forest we hadn’t visited on our previous visit, namely to the south of the visitor centre. Max identified some possible spots in this region, which tends to be a little less frequented than to the north and west of the forest. A few of these in particular look very promising for our interventions, being quite open with relatively sparse undergrowth, and comfortably accessible from the visitor centre while nevertheless feeling relatively secluded.

Wide panorama of possible site for installations.

I thought that pictures would be useful for members of the summer school who wouldn’t be able to experience the forest until June, so I sought to capture some. Unfortunately, the camera I had brought for the occasion yielded disappointing results, so I made a brief repeat visit on 2 April just to take photos. Having enabled geotagging, I’ve uploaded these to Google Maps. The panoramas obviously skew perspective, but should give an impression of the character of the forest.

I also grabbed some audio, as I happened to have a Zoom H6 with me.

All in all another very pleasant and productive day. Enormous thanks again to Max for his time and enthusiasm!

2nd Advisory Board Meeting

2024-04-16T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right top-down, Mike Bell, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino, Peter Batchelor, Mark Plumbley, Louise Fedotov-Clements, and Leigh Landy.

We had our 2nd Advisory Board (AB) Meeting on 10th April 2024. This meeting aimed to present the updates of the project to the AB and seek their feedback. We discussed where we are at the moment focusing on two of the three work packages: WP1 Artistic Audio Ecology Intervention Concerning Forests and Climate Data and WP3 Public Conversations and Debate.

After short introductions, we started giving a quick overview of the project and updates. In particular, we welcomed the new collaborators Freesound, Locus Sonus and the University of Surrey as well as we introduced the new Co-Investigator Mike Bell (Forest Research) to the Advisory Board, who joined us in January 2024.

We then moved to present the status of WP1, which we are working on intensely these days. The WP was presented by Luigi, Mike, Pete, and me. Luigi presented the development of the audio streamers. Mike talked about the customised data logger and the data that is relevant to their scientific models as well as that will be available for both the artworks of the summer school participants and Pete’s sound installation. Pete gave an update on the multichannel sound installation including the latest field trip visit reported in this blog post. Pete described the potential area where the artistic intervention will take place. I gave an overview of the past, present and forthcoming activities of the summer school. Finally, Luigi described our intention to organise a series of concerts using the soundscape data later this year.

One important aspect that we discussed related to this work package is how can we bring AI to the Raspberry Pi’s that is relevant to the Alice Holt site and sonic phenomena. An important aspect that was raised by Louise was what are we expecting to record as well as by Mark on whether we should consider switching off the audio streamer when non-nature sounds come in, otherwise there can be ethical issues. Another relevant aspect raised by Louise and Leigh was about the series of concerts and how to make them accessible.

Concerning WP2 Community Science Intervention with Forests and Climate Data, we simply mentioned that the start of the WP will be delayed for one month, starting around July 2024.

The WP3 Public Conversations and Debate was presented by me. In summary, we covered the impact of the website/videos in numbers (we have received more than 1.4K visits so far since the start of the website on 29th October 2023), the community/public engagement so far through our different online outputs, and the forthcoming web plans of including an interactive map and online exhibition. Here we discussed with the AB that perhaps it is the right time to start a mailing list so that we can announce more clearly and target our forthcoming activities.

The AB received very positively how the project is progressing, which is motivating for us the team to continue doing what we are doing in the same exciting and intense spirit! Mark mentioned that it sounds fantastic and really interesting to see so much interest in the summer school and that working with Freesound is a fantastic idea. Louise said that the project is very inspiring and that the team is doing a great job. Leigh praised the good work.

We are now clearly in the development phase with some anxiety on board about our forthcoming deliveries. The AB meeting has been very helpful to take a pulse of the project and obtaining fantastic feedback from the AB. Thank you to Louise, Leigh and Mark for your time, help and valuable feedback!

Summer School Online Session 3

2024-04-26T10:00:00Z

Photo: Beyond is multichannel installation produced by Peter Batchelor in collaboration with visual artist Ian Bilson. Image source: https://peterb.dmu.ac.uk/beyond_willow.html

On April 26, 2024, we had our third summer school session. We had the honour of listening to Peter Batchelor talk about key ideas on sound installations, with a focus on public art from an acousmatic music perspective:

Public Sound Installation Art by Peter Batchelor (De Montfort University)

The format consisted of a 40-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute Q&A. You can find below the video recording of the presentation. Thanks to Pete for sharing his know-how and in-depth experience on sound installation art.

Public Sound Installation Art by Peter Batchelor (De Montfort University)

In this thought-provoking presentation, Peter Batchelor introduces key concepts related to public sound installation. Through the use of a theoretical framework borrowed from Line Marie Bruun Jespersen with the three pillars of Time, Space and the Social, which relates to promoting new aesthetic experiences in public space, Peter Batchelor presents a selection of relevant projects. This includes works by Bernie Krause, Francisco López, Jana Winderen, Marcus Maeder & Roman Zweifel, Jim Finer, Nikola Bašić, Alan Lamb, Garth Paine, Graeme Miller, Akio Suzuki, David Prior & Frances Crowe, Max Neuhaus, David Prior, John Pugh, Jon Aveyard, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, and Peter Batchelor as well! Using this framework when designing a public sound installation, as well as ideas from the projects presented, can inform the Sensing the Forest Summer School and the related artistic intervention on the site.

The Q&A was hosted by Luigi Marino. The questions that emerged related to particular pieces and how they are technically made, such as Alan Lamb’s Wogarno Wire Installation (2001) that transduces sound to the rock based on the wind energy (aeorophonic); Peter Batchelor and Ian Bilson’s Beyond (2014-2024) that is designed for outdoors using multichannel speakers driven by electricity; and Marcus Maeder & Roman Zweifel’s treelab that sonifies a range of measurement data from the Swiss Alps rendering ecophysiological processes audible.

We also briefly discussed on any updates or questions regarding developing plans for the installations of the summer school participants. An important question posed was what scale we are envisioning for the installations, how extensive, and how sophisticated these ideas will need to be. Pete recognised that the budget of £50 limits what is possible, and that the interventions are for an afternoon, which can also limit to an extent. As part of the feedback when pitching the ideas of the project, we will discuss the feasibility of the scale. Luigi also announced that another important point related to the extension of the installation is considering the aesthetic value of developing these relationships between the soundscape and the mediums used in the artworks.

It was fantastic to see such a variety of works on public sound installation art! Thank you Pete for the careful selection! This was food for thought on the importance of the decisions taken when designing a sound installation for the public space, including designing for the long term, authorship of the listening experience, the selection criteria of the sound sources used, and the unavoidable open interpretation of the sonic material and artistic experience delivered.

We Have a Mailing List!

2024-04-27T10:00:00Z

It is our pleasure to announce that Sensing the Forest has an announcement list!

This mailing list intends to provide general project announcements about activities, events, news, releases, and other relevant information related to the Sensing the Forest project.

To subscribe to our announce mailing list, click on the link below and Ask to join the group.

🔥 Subscribe to our announce mailing list 🔥

Summer School Online Session 4

2024-05-01T11:00:00Z

Photo: Earth Photo 2023

On April 11, 2024, we had our fourth summer school session. We were honoured to have scheduled two presentations about design recommendations:

Approaches to Creative Responses in the Landscape by Hazel Stone (Forestry England)
Placemaking and Audience by Johana Knowles (Forestry England)

The format consisted of a 25-minute presentation by Hazel Stone followed by a 5-minute Q&A. Then there was a 30-minute group discussion led by Hazel Stone and Peter Batchelor about examples of multi-artist exhibitions as well as the potential location of the installations for the forthcoming artistic intervention at the Alice Holt forest on June 20, 2024. The second presentation by Johana Knowles was delivered asynchronously after this session. You can find below the two video recordings of the presentations and a summary of the group discussion. Thanks to both Hazel and Johana for sharing their knowledge with us and to Hazel and Pete for leading the group discussion.

Approaches to Creative Responses in the Landscape by Hazel Stone (Forestry England)

In this presentation, Hazel Stone gives an overview of approaches to creative responses in the landscape. The presentation introduces the beginning of the arts programme in 1968 for Forestry England, then provides a range of approaches that can be considered, and then leads to a discussion on how to engage with different audiences on contemporary art in the landscape. Hazel selects relevant work from the artists Richard Harris, David Nash, Alannah Robins, Greyworld, Birgit Oigus. Marshmallow Laser Feast, Steve Messam, Sally Matthews, Shona Branigan, Lorna Singleton, Rachel Whiteread, and Luke Jerram, among others. Concepts discussed include working with interdisciplinary teams, understanding the landscape as well as using materials from the landscape. Digging into relevant design considerations and a potential range of creative approaches can inform the Sensing the Forest Summer School and the related artistic intervention on the site where site, time and sound will play an important role.

The Q&A was hosted by Peter Batchelor. The questions touched on different topics. One was on what it means to intervene in a ‘working forest’. Hazel recognises that all forests are different, but after the war, a consequence in the UK was the lack of timber, and that is why the Forestry Commission was set up in 1919 to provide sustainable timber as a product for use. This means that recreation needs to be coordinated with planting and felling and that forests have different parts for timber, biodiversity, and so on.

Another question related to the long-term of some of the installations shown such as Richard Harris’ pieces. Hazel distinguishes early pieces from more current ones in terms of different processes in terms of risk assessment, methods of instalment and so on. Knowing the material and how it performs in the environment relates more to earlier pieces, whereas now there is a decommissioning process. At present, it is expected to consider the lifespan of the piece, how the piece will be decommissioned, and if there are creative ways for that, such as ‘returning to the forest’ or remembering the form at a certain stage. Hazel’s role is to work with the artist to meet the artist’s expectations as well as to look after safety.

A follow-up question was on the observation that most of the pieces are based on timber and whether this is a reductionist perspective of the forest. Hazel describes the beginning of the programme as a brief of the use of the materials of the forest. The organisation is rooted from a materials angle, so it is somehow a predominant aspect of making but it is moving to a broader way of engaging now.

Placemaking and Audience by Johana Knowles (Forestry England)

In this presentation, Johana Knowles presents core concepts related to audience and exhibition. In particular, Johana introduces user-led design strategies to design interactive experiences that can suit well in the Alice Holt Forest and other similar outdoor spaces. The presentation starts with several questions to consider related to user-led design such as who is your audience, how is the audience intended to interact with your work, where is your exhibition/performance space, what is the future potential for the work and what do you aim to communicate/evoke. It then follows the introduction of relevant work from six selected artists that align with illustration research: Leah Fusco, Kate Morrell, Laura Copsey, Luise Vormittag, David Lemm, and Alexandria Daisy Ginsberg’s Pollinator Pathmaker. These design considerations and inspirational visual artistic work can inform the Sensing the Forest Summer School and the related artistic intervention on the site.

Group discussion on multi-artist exhibition

The group discussion was hosted by Hazel Stone and Peter Batchelor. The brief was:

Share ideas on multi-artist exhibitions that could maybe inform the curating of the summer school exhibition as an outdoor experience to arts and non-arts audiences.

What are the different strategies for curating? The summer school participants brought different ideas to the table. For example, 5 women composers in Istanbul were invited to create 5 different compositions about the same location, to then make a final composition embedding the 5 perspectives, which is seen as a transformative experience for the composers.

Other examples are indoors, such as “Future Shock” at 180 Strand in London with a series of AV installations, including a Japanese artist working with digital scans of forests. However, more questions than answers emerge when trying to move this to the forest. Permanency is a term that permeates as part of the question and design considerations. Shall it be performative and only happen once? How remote and co-located will work? Hazel stresses that managing the audience experience and curating it is also relevant. Offering a live experience where the artists can talk about their work is really valuable. Prompting the audience, expecting a reaction from the audience, should be also considered: has something changed? What have they learned? Hazel reinforces that thinking about what curatorial structure we want to give is a key decision.

Another challenge raised by a summer school participant is how to make sure that everybody gets their sonic space. In the forest, is there going to be sonic separation? Hazel follows up mentioning that the term ‘sonic space’ and ‘sonic separation’ raises an expectation already. Another participant agrees saying that we should make sure that each installation has enough separation so they are not encroaching on one another. How will this work? Hazel connects these questions with forest planning and the potential synergies that can be explored.

In the last part of the session, Peter Batchelor shared a potential space for the installations, which connects with his blog post Second Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest. The region is relatively large, and in terms of isolation, we should consider that it will be the summer season with more foliage in the trees and dampening of sound. How much can we tolerate that bleed? Will the installations be compatible? Will this be an incentive to move from one installation to the next? The area is quite open with no restrictions on where to put things. There is a water stream as well. Many possibilities! Hazel confirms that the trees will be in leaf, which will change visually and acoustically from the photos taken in March-April.

A participant asks if there are any volume limitations. Hazel answers that for every event, they need to put a proposal that is checked across the different disciplines. Are there plants protected? Are there birds nesting? Forestry perspective, wildlife, and ecology need to be assessed for each new event to check for any impact and advice. Another participant wonders how far is the potential location from the customised data logger sensors. Peter replied that it is quite a distance (about 2 miles away). This discussion will be continued within the following sessions! Thanks all for your contributions!

Meet the Artists - Bardia Hafizi

2024-05-06T10:00:00Z

About: Bardia Hafizi finished his bachelors in Solid State Physics from Shahid Beheshti University in 2015. He briefly joined the masters program at Shiraz University in 2016, focusing on Complex Systems, before changing tracks to focus on his musical activities.
Since 2002, Bardia has been playing the Persian goblet drum tombak in the traditional genres of music in Iran. He also started learning the string instrument setar in 2010, focusing on Classical Iranian repertoires as well as older Persian traditions. In 2019, he left Iran to enrol in the music program at the Center for Advanced Research in Music, Istanbul Technical University, focusing on the ethnomusicology of rhythm in Iran. In his master’s thesis, Bardia traced a line of tradition of tombak and rhythmic performance in Iran -supervised by Dr. Robert O. Beahrs- from the oldest masters documented in the 19th century through the modernization period and the formation of Iran as a nation-state. Currently, he is doing his PhD in music at the same institute, focusing on sonic ecologies and critical histories.

How do you describe your practice?

I am a multidisciplinary sound artist focusing on the phenomena of rhythm and time as expressions of multi-species interaction; repetition is an echo of kinship formed through years of cohabitation, sounding co-evolution and mapping aesthetic formation in this cycle we call life, from the first breath we take til the last of our kind. My practice is the poetic performance of soundscapes through ‘ears’ situated in different bodies, different locations, and different times.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I am inspired by deconstructing the concepts of ‘listening’, ‘sounding’ and ‘nature’ in multiple readings that exaggerate their political implications and simultaneously neutralize the effect of modernity on multi-species empathy. My narratives, though stemming from universal crisis and end-of-world scenarios, are based on the idea of hope for the future and justice for all beings.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I originally hail from Tehran, Iran, where I learned traditional music and instruments. Currently, I am based in Istanbul; I am in my first year of - education-based - PhD program at the Center for Advanced Research in Music, Istanbul Technical University.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Recently I have been contemplating the concepts of ‘colonialism’ and ‘imperialism’ and how they apply not only to the histories of people-versus-people, but of human-versus-nonhuman. Engaging with nature (however one defines it) for me is a humbling experience, constantly reminding me of how much destruction our species has brought to the world, a world in which we cohabit.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

For a while now I have been contemplating the nature of musicking and what my own practice is trying to express; I have been conducting research into the social, psychological, as well as ecological aspects of sound in our world, and how it can be a site of individual and collective transformations. This summer school will be my first chance, since turning away from traditional music-making, to perform my art practice in a formal setting. I also appreciate being able to witness other artists as they go through the process of constructing their own performances.

On another level, the idea of “sensing the forest” as opposed to sensing a single tree, or any other non-human life form, carries with it a sense of community and habitat which are very close to my own reflections about the nature of art in a post-humanistic world. My only wish is that I can figure out enough funds to make the travel from Istanbul to Alice Holt!

What are your website and social media handles?

Meet the Artists - Ed Chivers

2024-05-08T10:00:00Z

About: Ed Chivers is a composer, performer and sound artist based in Brighton, UK. His recent work explores the interplay between the natural and technological worlds, such as using lightning strikes and seismic activity to generate musical patterns. He is a member of the bands Fujiya & Miyagi, and AK/DK, with whom he tours internationally. He has composed music for contemporary dance, theatre, and short films.

How do you describe your practice?

My tools of choice are technical and I love to experiment with emerging technologies, however the aesthetic output I look for is always heavily organic. Whether in the recording studio or gallery; I strive to embrace nature’s chaos and the raw physicality of sound.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I am currently inspired by the electromagnetic spectrum, both from the natural world and that generated by humans.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am based in Brighton, South East England. I completed the Masters in Sonic Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London. I am a guest lecturer at University of Brighton and External Examiner at Confetti, Nottingham Trent University.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

It gives us the opportunity to pause, listen, and become more aware of the world of sound around us.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

It’s an amazing opportunity to connect with other artists from all over the world, share ideas, learn new things and create art that has a meaning. I grew up in the New Forest, but have lived in cities since - this is an opportunity to re-connect with the trees and wildlife.

What are your website and social media handles?

Meet the Artists - Qianyi Rose Sun

2024-05-10T10:00:00Z

About: Qianyi Rose Sun is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Music Technology at Georgia Tech, where she is an active member of the Computational and Cognitive Musicology Lab. Her current research centers on developing interpretable evaluation metrics for AI-generated music, drawing from principles in music theory and perception. As a traditional Chinese Guqin player, she loves to explore how technology can facilitate the composition and consumption of understudied music traditions. Her broad interest in music and engineering has led her to various projects in robotics, computational ethnomusicology, digital signal processing, and interactive systems. She serves as the President of Women in Music Tech, where she fosters a supportive community for women to exchange knowledge, build connections, and thrive in this dynamic field.

How do you describe your practice?

I work at the intersection of musicology, artificial intelligence, and data science, with a mission to make creative practices more inclusive. My current research centers on developing interpretable evaluation metrics for AI-generated music, drawing from principles in music theory and perception. I am also a traditional Chinese Guqin player, and a flautist with a repertoire in classical, rock and pop, and experimental music.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

Broadly speaking, my passion for music, culture, and community constantly inspires me to strive to be a better researcher and human-being. Music is not just a backdrop for my life but also the very core of my research, guiding me to explore and represent my own cultural heritage alongside other understudied music traditions. This journey of exploration is supported by the vibrant community around me, which serves as a constant reminder of the impact of my work.

Specifically, it’s the female music scholars before me, my mentors in the music technology field, and perhaps Lin-Manuel Miranda. I am continually inspired by the myriad female music scholars who have illuminated the path and showcased the endless possibilities within the field. Their legacy fuels my commitment to contribute meaningfully. My mentors in the music technology field guided me and helped me grow, both in research and creative pursuits. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s theatre work and his dedication to representing his community remind me of the significant role that art can play in community, identity, and change.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am currently based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where I have spent 6 wonderful years in pursuit of a B.S. and an M.S. in Music Technology from Georgia Institute of Technology. I will (finally) be moving on to pursue a PhD in a music related field later this year.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

To me, it signifies venturing into an uncharted realm where mother nature becomes both a muse and a collaborator, offering boundless sources of wonder and insight.

It is definitely a new avenue in my creative research, but it surely will enrich my artistic vocabulary, and allow me to find novel and meaningful ways to contribute to the conversation of environmental consciousness. It is an invitation to see the world through a lens of awe and responsibility, and a chance to bridge music, technology, and the environment.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

It is such an honor and truly means the world to me. I have never before participated in a project of this nature, particularly in environmental research and installation design. The lack of direct experience in these areas makes the selection even more meaningful. I am eager to learn from the esteemed scholars and talented peers. I am wholeheartedly committed to making the most of this opportunity.

What are your website and social media handles?

Third Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-05-11T08:00:00Z

Group Photo: From left-right, Max Gravestock, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino, Peter Batchelor, Goose, Danielle Grimsey, Jack Diprose, and Gimli.

On Wednesday 1 May we went for a third field trip to Alice Holt to prepare for the summer school and test early prototypes of Luigi’s streamer and Pete’s multichannel sound installation. I also wanted to see if it is doable to walk from Bentley train station to Alice Holt Forest so that I can convince Londoners to come by train from Waterloo train station for the opening of the exhibition on the 20th of June!

From Bentley Rail Station to Alice Holt Forest

Photos of the route of Bentley Station to Alice Holt walk as the first section (2 miles) of the 50-mile Shipwrights Way.

The Shipwrights Way, which goes from Alice Holt Forest to Portsmouth, has been reported by the Hampshire County Council as a “long-distance route linking villages and towns in east Hampshire through some beautiful countryside on their doorstep”. As part of the Shipwrights Way, there is a leg of the way (section 1) that goes from the Bentley Rail Station to the Alice Holt Forest. Promising! The tarmac path found at the beginning of the route seems to belong to a Roman Road connecting Winchester to London.

As shown in the below map, it is a 2-mile-long path. The weather was clear and sunny, so I found the walk not only inspiring but doable. The path seems well-known in the area: there were also cyclists, runners and other walkers on the way. My impression is that once you know the path, it should take down to 30-35-minute walk! It is also important to wear layers because it is still a long walk.

You can download the route of Bentley Station to Alice Holt walk (PDF) from the Hampshire County Council website, which can be complemented with an interactive map from the Council website or Google Maps (see below).

Interactive Google map of the route of Bentley Station to Alice Holt Forest.

Kick-off meeting at the Alice Holt Café

Meeting in the Café around 10.00-10.30 was our first landmark. We had a clear plan of splitting into smaller groups with meeting points throughout the day. Pete started in the early morning to have enough time to set up and test his initial multichannel sound installation prototype. Nick, Danielle and I had an outdoor meeting over coffee and under the sun!

Testing Luigi’s Streamer I in the meadow

When Luigi arrived, we left Nick and Danielle and went to meet Max to test Luigi’s streamer prototype, in particular, Internet connectivity with an O2 SIM card. Jack, Goose and Gimli also joined us. We went to a meadow that has potential due to its sun exposure and biodiversity.

Even though we inspected the area as methodically as possible, the dongle was unsuccessful in getting any signal. However, we experienced the portability of the streamer, and how the beautiful Swiss-inspired design meticulously crafted by Luigi fits perfectly with the Alice Holt forest environment.

Luigi Marino testing the Streamer I prototype in the Alice Holt Forest.

During the walk, Jack and Max pointed us to the seasonal changes in the flora and fauna, with special attention to the lively community of lizards. We also learned about recognising new vs old dead brackens and how to protect us from ticks with our socks!

Max Gravestock carefully catches a lizard in the company of Goose.

Testing Pete’s multichannel sound installation in the Willows Green Trail

Around 12.30pm, we said bye to Jack and Gimli and headed to the Willows Green Trail, where Pete was testing his multichannel sound installation. Here, Nick and Danielle joined us. Pete scattered eight speakers with long cables, offering an immersive audio experience in the wild. The amps (D-class) did a great job!

Peter Batchelor testing a multichannel sound installation in the Willows Green Trail, Alice Holt forest.

Pete brought several questions to the Alice Holt team, such as a potential workflow for powering the off-grid system, housing the electronics with natural but solid materials, and other practicalities such as support and advice on hanging speakers from the trees.

A panoramic view of an early prototype of Peter Batchelor's multichannel sound installation.

Pete delighted our ears with different texture-based, granular sonic materials. It felt immersive and unique already! Luigi kept exploring the Internet connectivity of the area with Streamer I, to find that it was again weak or null in this spot with this set-up.

Meeting lunch at the Visitors Centre

We helped Pete pack his set and we all went for a meeting lunch at the Visitors Centre, where we discussed the practicalities of the summer school, such as the location of the events, catering service, and so on.

Exploration of the Willows Green Trail for the summer school art exhibition

After lunch, we split again into smaller groups. Luigi and Danielle went to a second meadow in search of a stronger internet connection. Pete and I went back to the Willows Green Trail to film a time-lapse video of the potential itinerary of the summer school art exhibition and look more closely into what will entail for Pete to hang the speakers in trees.

Time-lapse video of the Alice Holt Forest Willows Green Trail from Sensing the Forest.

Streaming from the second meadow

Pete and I went back to the Visitors Centre. At that moment, Luigi got a strong signal from O2 from the second meadow and started to successfully stream natural soundscapes! This was epic! We enjoyed the streaming for a few minutes and this was the ultimate test that it works if there is a good internet signal. The streamer was left alone for some time. However, the streaming stopped working after a few minutes. Luigi went back to collect it and prepare it for the next expedition.

Closing and final discussions

We are in the development phase, where typically there are more questions than answers and several challenges to solve. Still, we felt that this field trip was successful with several achievements and has shed light on our next steps.

Streamer - We reflected with the team that we should investigate different SIM cards (02, Vodafone, Three and EE) systematically, as well as try a different dongle with a longer and stronger antenna. Besides, we need to place a sign near the streamer so that we inform visitors about the scientific purpose of the device. Also, we should coordinate with the site management team on how to take it away once it dies out - at least for this first version that is not self-sustained.

Sound installation - After talking with the Alice Holt team, we had to discard the original idea of replacing the battery every week because it is unsustainable. We need to assess and find more sustainable solutions. We were happy that the Alice Holt team could support us by providing a big wooden box to hide and centralise all the electronics and a presumably a bulky battery, which should also have an informative sign for the passers-by. Apart from powering the off-grid system, it will be a challenge to hang the speakers in different canopy trees that are far away from each other. More formal measurements of the distance among the trees should be considered, perhaps using a laser or something alike. Reassuring the area of the Willows Green Trail for Pete’s multichannel sound installation and the summer school art exhibition was an important milestone.

We concluded the session while we were caught in the rain. With all the excitement of the day combined with listening to the rain drops under the umbrella (which is one of my favourite sounds!), while walking back to the Bentley train station and after crossing A325, I took the wrong path. This alternative path still brought me to the station, so it felt like ‘all roads lead to Bentley’!

Many thanks to Max, Danielle, Nick and Jack for their time, enthusiasm and help during this incredible day!

Summer School Online Session 5

2024-05-12T08:00:00Z

Photos: Willows Green Trail

On May 2, 2024, we had our fifth summer school session. The session was divided into two parts:

Aesthetic Considerations by Luigi Marino (Queen Mary University of London) in conversation with the summer school participants.
Pitch your idea + general feedback coordinated by Peter Batchelor (De Montfort University) and Anna Xambó (Queen Mary University of London).

The format consisted of a 25-minute conversational presentation led by Luigi Marino followed by elevator pitches and a final discussion. Thanks to Luigi for a thought-provoking conversation, which was a teaser of the opening keynote that he will offer in the on-site summer school. Also thanks to Pete for coordinating the group discussion.

Aesthetic Considerations

The brief of this conversational presentation was:

When we turn the speed of the wind into a parameter of a synthesizer, the levels of carbon dioxide into the shape of a drawing, or the quantity of light passing through the canopy into a sculpture, we are mediating information. What kind of aesthetic content do these mediations channel? Are direct and intuitive relationships more effective for a fulfilling aesthetic experience? Are less intuitive and tangential ones worth exploring? Does it make sense at all to discuss relationships that are utterly unintelligible to our senses? I have no definitive answers, and you deal with a broad spectrum of mediation in your practices, so this session will be more of a discussion rather than a lecture.

Luigi raised some questions about the topic of turning real-world data into music. Concepts such as meditation, beauty and intuition were discussed. The role of the context and the audience interpretation were questioned. Alvin Lucier’s Music On A Long Thin Wire was provided as an example to think about the translation of this contextual information into something intuitive and accessible to the audience.

The summer school participants raised their points of view about the importance of context. Many of them agreed that providing some context is important, but without being overcontextualised. The distinction between mediation and amplification of phenomena was made. The perception of the work was questioned if it is possible without context. The role of the artist in letting the audience build their own stories was suggested as well as the transformative role of the artist.

Luigi concluded this part by acknowledging that we are still in a humanistic culture but there exists a change, especially related to the division between objective and subjective worlds. He also made a point that there can be many different ways of mediation and layers, one of which is ‘climate change’ as part of the headline of this project.

Pitch your idea + general feedback

This second part consisted of pitching your idea for one minute. The brief was:

Imagine that you take an elevator from the ground floor (or 1st floor) to a higher floor of a building. This is the only time that you have to describe your project. You are invited to present your project as an elevator pitch and we will have an audiovisual sign after your minute is over! What is the essence of your project? How can you describe it in a short period in a convincing way?

We used random.org to create the lineup, and a tuning fork played with an allen key as a time watch. All the projects sounded fantastic, ranging from using a variety of media, sensors, sounds, and technologies, with the purpose of creating interactive experiences.

As final comments, it was agreed that many of the participants lack experience showcasing their work outdoors. Some tips were shared about waterproofing, naturally fading out the artwork, internet connectivity, and using environmentally friendly materials. It was also agreed that there is a sense of crunch time at the moment.

The next and last online session will be scheduled on the 23rd of May, which will be crucial to start seeing how the projects are turning from concepts to realisations.

Meet the Artists - Gabrielle Cerberville

2024-05-13T10:00:00Z

About: Gabrielle Cerberville (they/she) is an American composer and interdisciplinary artist turned creative alchemist. She writes with an experimental flair that is at once familiar and alien, and her work regularly blends the lines between disciplines and discrete art forms. Her work is an exploration of communication, primarily between humans and our natural neighbors (plants, fungi, animals, and finding our place within ecosystems). She holds a Masters of Music in composition from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Music from Butler University in composition, and is pursuing her Ph.D in Music Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia. Gabrielle has studied traditional and electronic composition with Drs. Lisa Coons, Christopher Biggs, Frank Felice and Michael Schelle.

How do you describe your practice?

I am a curious American composer turned creative alchemist. Creative alchemy is a state of being as well as an action taken. It is a predetermined decision to follow the impulse of any new work as it unfolds and to collect any new skills that may become necessary to see it through honorably. Creative alchemy leaves nothing on the table, be it visual, culinary, auditory, kinesthetic, biological, mechanical, or organic. The goal is always to serve the needs of the work at hand. It is beyond interdisciplinary, as each added layer of a work begins to lose its discrete identity to the collective whole. Alchemy is the fantastical process of transforming base materials into gold; therefore creative alchemy is the transformation of available creative matter into a new and deeply integrative art. As such, I choose to identify myself as a creative alchemist rather than a composer.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I am influenced primarily by nature itself, as well as the interactions that can be observed between humanity and what we call nature. As a community scientist, mycologist, and wild food advocate, I tend to integrate botanical and fungal wisdom into my work. Much of this work is designed to place the listener in an immersive or unusual setting, or to rebuild real places and moments in an imaginary, sometimes fantastical space.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am based in Virginia in the United States, where I am currently pursuing my PhD in music composition and computer technologies at the University of Virginia. I received my undergraduate music composition degree from Butler University in Indiana (BMus) and my masters from Western Michigan University.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Humanity is an integral part of nature, we are the consciousness of the known universe. Engaging with nature means engaging with the deepest parts of ourselves, including the things that frighten us or make us uncomfortable. True engagement with nature requires us to see the other, as ourselves, to recognize the inherent value in all that surrounds us. It is a perspective shift to not only see yourself in others humans, but to see the humanity in something so apparently insignificant as a mushroom.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

It is a great honor to be selected for the summer school. The aim of this program align deeply with my held beliefs and interests, and I am greatly looking forward to spending time with others who are passionate about the artistic revelation of the natural world as I am.

What are your website and social media handles?

Meet the Artists - Austin Blanton

2024-05-15T10:00:00Z

About: Austin Blanton is a human who has spent an unreasonable amount of time making noises. He likes to venture out into nature to make electronic music, to spontaneously compose from a briefcase collection of solar-powered miniature gadgets, to inhabit the voice of his mycological alter-ego Art Fungus. He is also one half of the glitch-folk duo Pocket Moon with his partner, who plays cello and intertwines her voice with his in organic intricate harmonies. He came of age in the underground DIY scene of Washington, DC, where he played bass and sang harmonies in the sonically curious but melodically inclined indie band Near Northeast. In true DIY fashion, he produced and mixed their four records in his bedroom at the top of a creaky hundred-year-old row house. He has grown to love the sound of creaks. After building some steam in the house venues, art spaces, and dive bars of their hometown DC, Near Northeast toured exotic locales like the Balkans and the Pacific Northwest. Around this time he also joined the experimental art pop collective The North Country, who just released their new record “The Future’s All We Need.” He now lives in Philadelphia and plays bass and drums for friends’ gigs around town.

How do you describe your practice?

I’m a musical artist and machine learning practitioner. My latest endeavors are inspired by the natural world - plants, fungi, lichen, symbionts, and the entangled web of creating worlds together. I lean into the paradox of integrating electronic music into natural surroundings. This conflict between technology and nature invites ruminations on the massive changes of the Anthropocene, the precarity and dissociations of global capitalism, and our search for balance and new stories of more-than-human progress.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I’m inspired by images of slow invisible growth, like tree roots and mycelium underground; by natural examples of radical personal change - metamorphosis, chrysalises, tadpoles; and by visions of mutualism and interdependence as an expression of reality’s fundamental substance - love.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am based in Philadelphia, PA, USA. I have a bachelors in computer science from University of Virginia.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Engaging with nature means reconnecting with ourselves. We are entangled with every living thing in this fragile bubble. We have constructed a false dichotomy of humans/nature, us/them, that is rooted in tribalism and fear. I want to imagine futures where we are integrated into the fabric of nature as shepherds of all life.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

I’ve lately been experimenting with using an Arduino to collect plant biosignals for sonification. The Sensing the Forest Summer School will encourage me to explore this thread deeper, as I look to expand into multi-plant collaborative interactive installations to encourage cross-species connections and deeper awareness.

What are your website and social media handles?

art.fungus @ Instagram

Meet the Artists - Miles Scharff

2024-05-17T10:00:00Z

Photo: “the taking apart, the sawing in half”, 2024

About: Miles Scharff is a sound artist and musician who’s work lies in improvisation, spatial audio, and sound sculpture. His work seeks to create viscerality from ephemerality through presenting and exaggerating interactions between sound and material, treating sound as a physical object. This is ultimately an investigation of the properties of sound signals, both audible, non-audible, and of the inner ear, and how those properties can define listening, presence, and the invasion of privacy. Miles has used self-constructed wave field synthesis arrays for installations and experiences for The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and the Rube Goldberg Foundation. He has exhibited sound sculptures at the Fridman Gallery and the Wallach Gallery in New York City. Miles received his bachelors in Physics and Music Technology from Carnegie Mellon University, and is currently an MFA candidate for Columbia’s Sound Art program.

How do you describe your practice?

My practice begins with the discovery of a physical or technological phenomena, and then experimentation and iteration on how to translate my experience of this phenomena through sound and sculpture. Recently, most of the phenomena have had to do with the electromagnetic spectrum and telecommunications, like how radio waves interact with each other inside of metal bridges and how this interaction can be perceived through sound. I’m interested in what happens when this electromagnetic ecology is witnessed, and what being aware of electromagnetic phenomena does to a population’s sense of privacy.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I’m deeply influenced by improvisational music, and very much try to instill its qualities of presence and intuitiveness in my own practice. I’m also influenced by personal encounters with electromagnetic phenomena. Right now I’m very influenced by the story of Lucille Ball hearing the radio inside of her head through her dental implant.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am based in NYC in the sound art MFA program at Columbia University. I did my undergrad in physics and music technology at Carnegie Mellon University.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Engaging in nature is a stretching of the temporal and the physical scale. In the same way I am interested in how we are unconsciously affected by electromagnetic interactions, I’m curious how man-made electromagnetic activity could be unknowingly be interfering with nature. Whether or not this is true, the mode of thinking in both cases is how to get people to become aware of something that isn’t immediately perceivable, which is very relevant when dealing with climate change.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

This program has put me in an incredibly unique position of being connected with forest researchers and artists from around the world to think about what kind of artistic intervention could be placed in a forest, and how that intervention can function. I’m not exactly sure what that means yet, but I know I’m going to learn so much and I’m excited to see what happens.

What are your website and social media handles?

Fourth Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-05-19T08:00:00Z

Photo: Luigi Marino celebrating the double victory of finding internet and streaming successfully with Streamer I in the small meadow.

On Wednesday 15 May we returned to the Alice Holt Forest on our fourth field trip to test internet connectivity in three focal points and launch Streamer I for 1-2 days.

From Bentley Rail Station to Alice Holt Forest

In the Third Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest, I reported how doable the walk from Bentley train station to Alice Holt Forest is. This time, I noticed the same but a different path. The light, weather and atmosphere were totally different. On my way, I snooped through the forest to discover that there is an Arboretum that will be worth visiting another time. Moreover, a new discovery while walking was the following quote engraved on a wooden bench, which I thought reflects very well the Sensing the Forest project!

“Trees are your best antiques” Alexander Smith

A quote by Alexander Smith engraved on a bench: Trees are your best antiques.

Kick-off meeting at the Alice Holt Café

We agreed to meet with Luigi and Mike at 11.00 at the Alice Holt Café. I previously met with Danielle, and we discussed how to coordinate the signposting of the streamer that we were planning to leave on the day, as well as the collection of the item after a couple of days based on our calculations of the life expectancy of the streamer’s battery.

Investigations about 4G

With the team, we discussed the common characteristics of 4G to optimise our search for the internet, the most prominent being that obstacles are not wanted for a good 4G signal: “Obstacles, such as tall buildings, mountains, thick walls, or even trees, can interfere with your cellular signal. These physical barriers can weaken the signal strength and make the overall network performance less efficient.” (source: 6 Ways to Improve a 4G Signal Indoors and Solve the Most Common Issues).

Other tips on how to boost mobile signal in rural areas include:

Stand still.
Change the way you are holding the phone (dongle).
Charge your battery: Every time your phone attempts to connect to a mobile tower, it uses its battery. When your phone battery runs low, the quality will go down. Make sure you keep your phone at least 25% charged and have your charger on you. Ensuring that your device has a full battery will give you higher chances of boosting a mobile phone signal in rural areas. Once in production, this means we should change the battery before it reaches 25% of its load.
Go higher.
Find the closest mobile tower.
Consider acquiring a signal booster.

In the search for Internet connectivity: our method

Group photo: from left to right, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino and Mike Bell.

From the third field trip, we only tested Streamer I with an O2 SIM Card using a Huawei dongle that has, arguably, a weak antenna. It only worked in the small meadow, but it was unsuccessful in the large meadow and the Willows Green Trail.

In this field trip, Luigi was bringing Streamer I with the same dongle but with two additional antennas that can be plugged plus Streamer II with a more solid dongle (brand Waveshare).

Mike suggested that we try different SIM cards based on the network coverage of the area reported by the mobile data providers. According to these reports, for the major networks, using postcode GU10 4LS, O2, Three and Vodafone should work.

On this visit, we wanted to try systematically 4 different SIM cards (EE, O2, Three, Vodafone) in three focal points: the large meadow, Willows Green Trail, and the small meadow. The goal is that Streamer I goes to either the large meadow or small meadow to stream natural soundscapes, whereas Streamer II goes to the Willows Green Trail, where Pete’s multichannel sound installation will be.

As per the method:

Check the internet coverage with our mobile phones and the 4 different SIM cards. If the signal (represented with bars) is half or above, then move to step 2. Else, skip this network.
Try the successful networks installing the SIM cards on the streamer (Streamer I). Streamer II had a fixed Vodafone SIM card due to the new dongle requirements.
Start streaming and listen to the streaming with the mobile phone (assuming the internet is available).
Upon completion of inspecting the area, draw the results on the map (see below). We assigned a colour for each network and 3 possible status: strong coverage (filled circle), weak coverage (empty circle, and zero coverage (cross).

Internet coverage on three focal points.

You can download our map.

I installed what3words app following Max’s recommendation and ’saved’ the locations of the two meadows and the Willows Green Trail. Thanks, Max for this important tip! On this trip, I learned that the world is divided into 3 metre squares with distinctive names using 3 words and that this can be shared to identify a particular location as well as to connect with the absolute coordinates (longitude and latitude).

Testing Streamer I in the large meadow

We arrived around 11.30 and tested the area for about 45-50 minutes. Luigi, Mike and I used 4 mobile phones with 4 different SIM cards already set in the mobile phones (‘a miracle’ in the words of Luigi), to sadly realise that the large meadow is a dark hole in terms of internet connectivity. Hence, this location was definitely discarded.

Meeting at the Visitors Centre and Lunch

Mike left us and we agreed that if time allows, we would meet later on the day to work on the data logger that we are also developing as part of the summer school.

At about 12.30, Luigi and I went to the Visitors Centre to attend an online meeting with Melanie, Susan, Hazel and Pete about the marketing of the summer school, which is approaching! After that, Luigi and I had lunch in the Alice Holt Café under the sun.

Testing Streamer I in the Willows Green Trail

Luigi Marino testing Streamer I in the Willows Green Trail.

First, we had some difficulties in finding the spot, which we finally found thanks to our careful analysis of the map plus asking Pete to share with us a map with a clear marker of the location of his sound installation.

Then, we followed the same method as in the large meadow. Here, though, we were successful. Out of the four trails, EE was the only one that seemed to work with a strong signal. Three had a weak signal and EE and Vodafone did not work. We situated the streamer on top of a bench so that it could stand still and high. Moving forward, using a lectern or podium would be a potential solution to keep the same conditions more securely.

Testing & setting up Streamer I in the small meadow

Finally, we moved to the small meadow arriving at around 14.30-15.00 as our latest chance to get a suitable spot for the streamer. As shown in the map, we had good coverage for the four SIM cards, but the most stable and stronger was O2, which aligns with our early finding in the third field trip!

The first place we decided to position the streamer for the next two days was on a branch of a prominent chestnut.

Testing Streamer I in a chestnut tree.

We tested the streaming for 10 minutes with our phones. However, the internet coverage was affected by potentially the obstacles of the branches and leaves.

Luigi Marino listening to Streamer I in the small meadow.

The second place was creating an ad-hoc structure with wooden sticks to elevate the streamer and optimise a better 4G reception. We tested the streaming for 10 minutes with our phones. This setup was successful.

Streamer I streaming from a human-made structure using sticks.

We added a sign gently attached to a nearby fern explaining what this device is about, which was designed inspired by the posters created by Forest Research and Forestry England. We finished after 17.00, so we called it a day.

Closeup of Streamer I in the small meadow.

Results

In conclusion, as shown in the above map, we found that EE worked well in the Willows Green trail (elevated on a bench) and Vodafone, Three, EE and O2 worked equally well (some with more disruptions than others) in the small meadow, but especially O2, which is the one we decided to finally use, was working stable.

The streamer was able to stream for 13 hours. Then, the battery died out.

Closing and final discussions

We felt that this field trip was very productive. We achieved the goals from our previous visit: we investigated different SIM cards (02, Vodafone, Three and EE) systematically, as well as tried two different dongles. Besides, we placed a temporary sign near the streamer so that we inform visitors about the scientific purpose of the device. Also, we coordinated with the site management team (Danielle, Max and Jack) on how to collect it once it dies out.

The team was able to enjoy the streaming from the small meadow for a few hours. Hazel said: “Have just had a listen, sounds lovely at the moment”.

I could enjoy the immersive and stereophonic birds’ song from the train back to London for the entire trip back (which had unexpected severe delays). At night there were no sounds (which poses the question of whether a venue with a water stream would be more interesting) or more attention should be paid to the microscopic world.

Still, there is a lot of work to do. In our next field trip related to the streamers, we should explore a third dongle (that should be plug-and-play), increase the lifespan of the battery, swap the SIM card to a 1-year SIM card plan, add remote monitoring features, and try self-amalgamating tape recommended by Mike. Apart from that, we also will return to work on the data logger with Mike.

Overall, big kudos to Luigi for a great achievement and the team for their constant help and support so this has become a reality!

Special thanks to Mike, Danielle, Max, and Jack for their time, enthusiasm and help to make this field trip a success!

Meet the Artists - Kate Anderson

2024-05-20T10:00:00Z

About: Kate Anderson is an animator and illustrator telling stories through digital / analogue drawing, film and installation projection.
Her work process brings together observational documentary with subject research, peeling through layers of time she draws inspiration; seeing what familiarities, overlaps and juxtapositions are revealed. Kate aims to capture the experience of the individual, and how it may be forged by the environment they occupy. Within the domineering context of urban growth and modernity, she is keenly drawn to the rural landscape; it’s cultivation, subtle shifts of cultural heritage, the tussle between human and nature. Kate continues to develop her practice into the realm of non-linear, creative collaborations with sound artists and musicians; for audiences to experience beyond single screen cinema, be that in the gallery, expanded realities, or performance space. Clients include Kings College, The Migration Museum, Ensemble Molière and UCL. Kate studied animation at Edinburgh College of Art, and the Royal College of Art.

How do you describe your practice?

I am an animator and illustrator telling stories through digital and analogue drawing, comic strips, film and installation projection. My work process brings together observational documentary with subject research, peeling through layers of time I draw inspiration; seeing what familiarities, overlaps and juxtapositions are revealed.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I have an ongoing project called ‘Meeting Trees’, in which I travel around Britain meeting heritage trees to draw their portraits, and discover the history and legends behind their renown. So, trees inspire me for one! As do folklore and traditional customs, heritage engineering, rural crafts, sustainable agriculture. I’ve just recently begun to appreciate the paintings and prints of John Piper, especially the scrubby ones through which you can almost feel the wind blasting and smell the peaty earth. Radio programmes Late Junction and Unclassified inspire by always offering up new sounds and ways of listening.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I’m based in the Kent Downs, not far from Folkestone.
I studied animation at Edinburgh College of Art, and the Royal College of Art.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Our modern, convenience centered, urban lives have evolved to be far removed from the natural world. By creating work that engages with nature, I hope in a small way to spotlight the disconnect. It’s also greatly therapeutic; observational drawing is often my starting point, in which the simple act of sitting down and paying attention with all my senses creates a dialogue with the subject, tuning out distractions and engaging with heightened focus. With nature I find that drawing becomes a kind listening filter, as I try to keenly hear and interpret what it is saying.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

The summer school is a unique opportunity to engage, develop and collaborate within a diverse cohort amongst a remarkable research setting. I was fascinated to learn about the 100 year old ‘natural laboratory’ at Alice Holt; the evolution of the project through time interests me, including the individuals involved historically, and their motivations. Would they have known it would still exist now, what would they make of contemporary forest research, and of climate change today?

I’m intrigued about the technology behind the data collection, which is quite new to me. I look forward to exploring this network of devices and sensors, its interactive and generative possibilities, to see how they might influence and adapt to a visual approach. The possibility of installing work in the forest itself is particularly appealing.

What are your website and social media handles?

Meet the Artists - Jordan Juras

2024-05-24T10:00:00Z

About: Jordan Juras is a Canadian immersive artist, music producer, audio researcher and consultant based in Berlin. He releases music under the aliases PVAS, Available on Computers, NUG (together with Florian T M Zeisig) and marsh (together with Dylan Kerr). He completed a Bachelors of Science in Physics at McGill University (2014), and a Masters of Music in Music Technology at New York University (2016) where he conducted research in personalised spatial audio and music information retrieval under Drs. Agnieszka Roginska and Juan Bello. With experience gained working as a Research Engineer in the music technology industry, he began to develop immersive experiences in 2019 with a practice that explores subconscious or invisible externalities and challenges the behavioral responses that shape our experience. He has created immersive works for the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival (Oslo, 2021), the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology at ZhdK (Zurich, 2021), and the Screen City Biennale (Stavanger, 2019).

How do you describe your practice?

I am a Canadian immersive artist, music producer, and audio researcher, with a practice that explores subconscious or invisible externalities and challenges the behavioral responses that shape our experience.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

Spending time in nature, philosophy of science, experience, listening to cool music, friends!

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am based in Berlin. I did a Master of Music in Music Technology from NYU, NYC US, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics, McGill University, Montreal CA.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Engaging with nature is a portal to engaging with our deepest selves. Synthetic demarcations between human and nature, and animate and inanimate matter obfuscates a lineage shared by all of Earth’s substances. Life is a force that courses through animated matter, in a cyclical arc dependant on the inanimate - a state in which a host is ultimately left, ready to nurture the next; repeat ad infinitum.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

Participating in the summer school is an opportunity to develop and refine my current research interest, ‘Sound Gardening’: a conceptual frame to create immersive and interactive AR audio installations, which can re-centre urban dwellers in the natural environments within which our cities have grown.

As an initial focus, I am exploring the realm of “embodied musical instruments”, envisioned to animate and position trees and other Floral entities in a green space as collaborators within an audio-reactive music system. As a collaborator in musical experience, empathy can flourish and space opens for introspection in ways not possible outside of a musical dialog. Connection can be formed across spiritual and physical dimensions, bridging phenomenological and material distance through AR mediation.

What are your website and social media handles?

Meet the Artists - Rosa Sungjoo Park

2024-05-26T08:00:00Z

About: Rosa Sungjoo Park is a media artist and sound designer whose research interest is centered on the study of the physicality of sound, psychoacoustics, algorithmic composition, experimental film and sound, and expanded cinema. Park’s creative practice is deeply grounded in her cultural identity, memories, and religion. She has produced and presented a large number of works that deal with Korean traditional rituals, Korean shamanism, acoustic memories, and the nature of life and death. Park’s work has been exhibited and performed in galleries, theaters, and conferences in the United States, Canada, Austria, England, and South Korea. Park holds master’s degrees in Digital + Media (DM) from Rhode Island School of Design, Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and Visual Communication Design from Seoul National University. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses in sound design and production, interactive cinema, and experimental filmmaking.

How do you describe your practice?

I am a media artist and sound designer whose research centers on the physicality of sound, psychoacoustics, soundscape ecology, electronic media, and expanded cinema. My extensive body of work includes sound sculptures and multimedia installations that explore themes of representation, cultural identity, belonging, power dynamics, and the politics of identification. I blend sound with these rich themes, approaching my creative work as an act of reverence, remembrance, and reconciliation.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

I draw inspiration from the philosophical and meditative sound work and compositions of influential figures such as Alvin Lucier, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Bernhard Leitner, and R. Murray Schafer. Their innovative approaches to sound have deeply influenced my creative practice. In my work, I employ sound as an artistic medium to explore, unpack, and challenge the themes of diasporic identity, memory, ritual, and spirituality. I seek to create immersive experiences that invite the audience to contemplate and evoke a sense of connection to both the personal and collective aspects of human experience.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I am immersed in its diverse cultural heritage and vibrant arts venues. I earned master’s degrees in Digital + Media from Rhode Island School of Design, Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and Visual Communication Design from Seoul National University. Through my education, I learned innovative approaches to incorporating sound into different mediums, crafting immersive experiences that resonate with audiences on a personal and spiritual level. The liberating and inspiring environment I experienced has fueled my creativity, allowing me to explore the intersection of art, technology, and spirituality in my sound projects.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

Engaging with nature means immersing myself in the organic sounds, pulses, textures, and rhythms of the natural world and translating my reflections into visual or tangible forms, which to me is a powerful healing process. Incorporating natural elements into my sound sculptures and installations allows me to delve into the concept of soundscape ecology—how sounds within a landscape interact and influence one another. This involves understanding and representing the acoustic environment in ways that raise awareness about its generosity and fragility, thereby highlighting our impact on it. Through the Sensing the Forest project, I aim to encourage a more thoughtful interaction with our natural environment through an interactive sound installation that can evoke a deep sensory experience and influence the way we think about the human-nature relationship.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

Being selected for the Sensing the Forest summer school is a profound honor and a pivotal moment in my career as a sound artist who focuses on the interplay between sound, culture, and environment. It affirms that my work resonates with current environmental and artistic discourses in the field, highlighting the urgency and beauty of ecological awareness and preservation. This engagement not only provides an opportunity to reach a wider audience but also places me in dialogue with other artists, scientists, and researchers whose work challenges, inspires, and pushes the boundaries of contemporary art forms for the environment. Through the exhibition, I look forward to contributing to a crucial conversation on sustainability and our sensory and conceptual connection to the natural world around us.

What are your website and social media handles?

Personal website

An Online Networking Event on Acoustic Ecology & Bioacoustics

2024-05-27T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right top-down, Mark Plumbley, Anna Xambó, Pete Batchelor, Frederic Font, Jinhua Liang, Emmanouil Benetos, Panagiota Anastasopoulou, Amaia Sagasti, Lia Mazzari, Nicolas Farrugia, Błażej Kotowski, Ilyass Moummad, Antonella Maria Cristina Torrisi, and Inês De Almeida Nolasco.

On Monday 13th May, 13:30 to 15:00 BST, it took place an informal gathering across C4DM-QMUL, MTG-UPF and the AHRC Sensing the Forest project team members & friends with the common goal of promoting knowledge exchange and networking on acoustic ecology & bioacoustics.

The rationale for this meeting emerged from: 1) discussions with Emmanouil Benetos about potential synergies between the aspect of acoustic ecology of the Sensing the Forest project and the work of some current PhD students at C4DM - not to say the pioneering work done by Emmanouil in acoustic ecology and Dan Stowell in bioacoustics for many years in the centre; 2) discussions with Frederic Font about the collaboration of Sensing the Forest with Freesound and the subsequent relevant research that MTG-UPF is doing; and 3) discussions in the 2nd Advisory Board meeting of the project, with some highlights raised by the advisory board member Mark Plumbley on porting acoustic ecology to embedded systems and what can Sensing the Forest do about it, with connections with the UK Acoustics Network Plus (UKAN+)'s proposal for a Noise Network Plus.

The meeting was hybrid: we met on Zoom but with a group of six C4DM members on-site located in the same meeting room. To allow time for both individual presentations and group discussions, we organised the session as follows:

Part 1 (40-45 min) - 13:30-14:15 - Welcome & Quick round of 3-minute presentations about your work (feel free to use 1-2 slides or other media).
Part 2a (20 min) - 14:15-14:35 - Small group discussions
Part 2b (20 min) - 14:35-14:55 - General group discussion
Part 2c (5 min) - 14:55-15:00 - Closing

Next, a summary of how the meeting went is presented.

3-minute presentations

The brief for this part was that each of the participants should be ready to tell:

Who you are
What is your institution and role
How does your work relate to acoustic ecology/bioacoustics and from what disciplinary perspective(s)
Why are you interested in acoustic ecology/bioacoustics

We decided on the running order using an algorithmic tool. Next, we give a brief overview of the 14 presenters in terms of role, research topic, and how this connects to acoustic ecology and/or bioacoustics:

Frederic Font

Frederic Font leads the Freesound project and all Freesound-related research at the Music Technology Group (MTG), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). From 2016-2019, Frederic was the coordinator of the EU H2020-funded project Audio Commons, which also involved Mark Plumbley and Anna Xambó, among others. Frederic mentions that Freesound links well (and has potential) to connect even more with topics related to bioacoustics, a direction that is of current interest at the MTG.

Jinhua Liang

Jinhua Liang is pursuing his doctoral degree at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), co-supervised by Emmanouil Benetos, Huy Phan, and Mark Sandler on the topic of AI for everyday sounds. Jinhua is a member of the Machine listening lab at C4DM, QMUL. His research interests mainly focus on everyday sound perception, including sound event detection, acoustic scene classification, and audio captioning. His connection with bioacoustics relates to collaborations with colleagues such as Inês Nolasco with the Few-shot Bioacoustic Event Detection.

Nicolas Farrugia

Nicolas Farrugia is an assistant professor ([HdR]) at IMT Atlantique. Nicolas is in the BRAIn team (Better Representations for Artificial Intelligence) together with Vincent Gripon, Giulia Lioi, Bastien Pasdeloup, Axel Marmoret and Mathieu Leonardon. His research interests include developing innovative methods to better understand Sounds and the Brain using modern machine learning and deep learning. Nicolas presented three relevant projects:

Nocturnal environment observatory - Field work on (nocturnal) soundscapes of socio-ecosystems.
Silent Cities - A dataset of acoustic measurements from soundscapes collected worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LATITUDE - long-term monitoring of Arctic biodiversity.

Mark Plumbley

Mark Plumbley is a Professor of Signal Processing and EPSRC Fellow in “AI for Sound” (University of Surrey) as well as an Advisory Board member of the Sensing the Forest project. Mark’s research concerns AI for Sound: using machine learning and signal processing for analysis and recognition of sounds. Mark’s focus is on the detection, classification and separation of acoustic scenes and events, particularly real-world sounds, using methods such as deep learning, sparse representations and probabilistic models. Mark presented the related work conducted at the University of Surrey involving several centres, such as the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), the Institute of Sound Recording (IlSR), the Digital World Research Centre (DWRC), and the Centre for Digital Economy (CoDE), among others. Mark mentioned a range of related projects (e.g. Audio Commons, AI4ME, making sense of sounds, S3A Future Spatial Audio, AI for sound) and gave an overview of potential tasks and applications.

Anna Xambó

Anna Xambó is a Senior Lecturer in Sound and Music Computing at C4DM and the PI of the Sensing the Forest project. Anna presented her perspective on acoustic ecology as two-fold: as a practitioner and as a human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher. As a practitioner, Anna has been using everyday sounds in her practice, especially involving Freesound. As an HCI researcher, her work focuses on creating systems and interfaces to interact with these types of sounds. The Sensing the Forest project aims to record natural soundscapes for further analysis in collaboration with Freesound. Hence, acoustic ecology and bioacoustics will be relevant for sound recognition, sound processing and sound analysis.

Ilyass Moummad

Ilyass Moummad is a PHD Student (last year) at IMT Atlantique, working under the supervision of Nicolas Farrugia and co-supervised by Romain Serizel. Currently, Ilyass is a Visiting Researcher at C4DM, QMUL, working under the supervision of Emmanouil Benetos. Ilyass’ PhD topic is Deep Learning for Bioacoustics with a special interest in representation learning of animal sounds and few-shot learning (species sound classification and detection). His current research focus is on invariant learning: how to learn bird sound representations without human annotations? (see Self-Supervised Learning for Few-Shot Bird Sound Classification). The goal is to come up with general-purpose representations of bird songs (e.g. extend to Xeno-Canto, a website dedicated to sharing wildlife sounds from all over the world with more than 10.000 bird species), and evaluate the learned representations.

Inês Nolasco

Inês Nolasco is a PhD student (last year) at the Machine listening lab, C4DM, QMUL. Inês’ PhD topic is the automatic identification of individual animals for understanding animal behaviour and improving population monitoring. Information used to recognise individuals includes call-response and acoustic signatures. Inês’ work focuses on building on these methods to distinguish these individuals automatically. Inês is currently working on the Few-shot Bioacoustic Event Detection with other colleagues such as Jinhua Liang. This task focuses on sound event detection in a few-shot learning setting for animal (mammal and bird) vocalisations. Participants will be expected to create a method that can extract information from five exemplar vocalisations (shots) of mammals or birds and detect and classify sounds in field recordings.

Antonella Maria Cristina Torrisi

Antonella Maria Cristina Torrisi is a 2nd-year PhD student at the Machine listening lab, C4DM, QMUL, working under the supervision of Emmanouil Benetos and Elisabetta Versace. Antonella’s research interests include animal behaviour, behavioural analysis and sound analysis. Antonella’s PhD topic focuses on enhancing the affective state of chicks through communication with an artificial agent. The aim is to develop a new technology to detect and enhance animal emotional states and welfare. The research question revolves around whether the interaction with an artificial agent, used as a vicarious hen, can improve the chick’s welfare. Antonella presented the project outline to develop such a system and the research done so far.

Peter Batchelor

Peter Batchelor is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in Music Technology, and a member of the Music, Technology and Innovation - Institute of Sonic Creativity (MTI2) at De Montfort University, Leicester, and a Co-I of the Sensing the Forest project. Pete presented his work in acousmatic composition (composition with recorded sound), typically presented in a multichannel format. Pete introduced his motivation to move from the concert hall to multichannel installations. His research interests include exploring ecological relationships within and between sound environments in an artistic outcome and sonifying it in an accessible way e.g. using Raspberry Pis. Lately, he has become interested in representing the sounds in natural environments rather than appropriating them, which connects with acoustic ecology, through that intervention.

Lia Mazzari

Lia Mazzari is a sound artist and researcher based in Bristol. Lia is currently pursuing her practice-based PhD at the Geography Department of Royal Holloway, University of London. Lia works with performance, composition, installation, and curation, among others. Her research focuses on looking at the potential of live audio streaming (linked to the Soundcamp project and Luigi Marino’s work with the streamers in the Sensing the Forest project), which can connect with sonic activism, asking research questions such as: How can soundscapes be understood through live streaming? What forms of cultural and geographical knowledge might emerge from that activity? Do they transfer invisible narratives of place? How do artists compose with live audio streamings? Lia talks about her involvement with the Hydrophiles project, which explores how live audio streaming engenders different modalities of being and listening with environments, in this case, the waterways of Amsterdam.

Panagiota Anastasopoulou

Panagiota (Penny) Anastasopoulou is a 2nd year PhD student at MTG, UPF. Penny’s PhD topic is characterisation and retrieval in large and diverse sound collections. Freesound is the main use case of her PhD topic. Penny is looking at a range of aspects, including taxonomical structures and classification; data accessibility for a broad audience; music creation and live coding (use case for artistic practice); and soundscape analysis. One of the main categories in her work is soundscapes, which are relevant to bioacoustics. Penny’s work aims to propose better ways of accessing online the data (e.g. soundscapes, sounds recorded).

Amaia Sagasti Martinez

Amaia Sagasti Martinez is an Acoustics Engineer and Researcher at MTG, UPF. Her research position is on acoustic monitoring to develop acoustic sensors based on embedded platforms capable of running machine learning algorithms for the analysis of urban acoustic environments. The work is carried out in the context of the SoundLights project. Amaia talked about the development of a device for estimation of acoustic “pleasantness” and “eventfulness” in urban soundscapes. The project team is trying to create a device that can predict pleasantness and eventulness using machine learning and deep learning. The project goals are to raise awareness of noise, control and reduce noise, question the current legislation, and generate a device in the form of a traffic light with the signs “too noisy!” (red), "be careful with noise! (ambar), and “nice sound environment!” (green).

Emmanouil Benetos

Emmanouil Benetos is currently Reader in Machine Listening at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) of QMUL, Royal Academy of Engineering / Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow in resource-efficient machine listening, and Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. Within QMUL, Emmanouil is member of C4DM, Centre for Multimodal AI, Centre for Intelligent Sensing, and Digital Environment Research Institute, and he co-leads the School’s Machine Listening Lab. Emmanouil mentioned that more than 10 years ago, he co-founded with Mark Plumbley, Dan Stowell and a few others the DCASE challenges, which has taken off as an annual event. His main research topic is computational audio analysis, also referred to as machine listening or computer audition - applied to music, urban, everyday and nature sounds. Over the years, Emmanouil has worked with several PhD students on different aspects of machine listening. Currently, Emmanouil is working on machine learning and signal processing methods for sound understanding, representation learning, multimodal approaches, and so on.

Błażej Kotowski

Błażej Kotowski is an artist and researcher born and raised in Poland, currently based in Barcelona. Błażej is pursuing his PhD (1st year) at the MTG, UPF, examining the intricacies of AI’s architectural design and working around Freesound. Błażej is interested in representations because they encode patterns that might be relevant. Błażej gave an overview of his interests in latent representations and the importance of keeping the human-in-the-loop. He has an artistic practice as a musician, composer, and field recordist, as well as working with collaborators from different disciplines and creating tools for them. Błażej’s interest in acoustic ecology connects with his experience as a field recordist, with questions related to understanding the ecosystem as a complex system, enabling forms of non-semantic mediation, as well as understanding soundscape as a “space for multi-species semiosis”, among others.

Small group discussions

The brief for this part was that 3 small groups would be created, which should be ready to:

Find common interests among the group
Explore how this connects with present/future challenges & opportunities in acoustic ecology/bioacoustics
Identify potential new research areas/interests that emerged from the discussion that can inform your work

We created 3 breakout rooms with 4-5 attendees. Each breakout group had a Chair. The three Chairs were Emmanouil, Frederic and Mark. The chair was in charge of facilitating the discussion and also assigning a voluntary “scribe” who could take notes. We used a padlet, a collaborative writing platform.

General group discussions

After the small group discussions, we convened back to the general room. The three Chairs shared a 2-minute brief of the discussion when the groups (we had less time than originally planned due to the presentations taking longer than expected).

In sum:

Group 1 - Chair: Mark Plumbley. Members: Lia Mazzari (RHUL), Błażej Kotowski (MTG-UPF), Jinhua Liang (C4DM-QMUL), Antonella Maria Cristina Torrisi (C4DM-QMUL). Mark summarised that the group mainly discussed their common interests. Representation was a shared interest, highlighting the difference between real-time and non-real-time representations. As challenges, the group agreed that it should be approached as a complex system approach rather than simple systems or individual elements.

Group 2 - Chair: Emmanouil Benetos. Members: Panagiota Anastasopoulou (MTG-UPF), Amaia Sagasti Martinez (MTG-UPF), Nicolas Farrugia (IMT Atlantique). The group discussed potential connections among their projects and research interests. The group talked about how automatic labelling works, as well as various analysers/features and psychoacoustic indicators which can be used to predict pleasantness and eventfulness. This connects with state-of-the-art descriptors that can be used for predicting psychoacoustic descriptors.
Taxonomies can also be used to predict psychoacoustic descriptors and add them as analysers on Freesound to enhance search and retrieval.

Group 3 - Frederic Font. Members: Peter Batchelor (DMU), Ilyass Moummad (C4DM-QMUL/IMT Atlantique), Inês Nolasco (C4DM-QMUL). The group commented on the commonalities of using the same datasets for both artistic and scientific purposes. The team members also discussed what is the bias in their collections with the open question of whether the use of supervised learning and labels to tackle specific problems is biasing their algorithms and how this affects different practices. The group also talked about the relevance of explainability and the understanding of learnt spaces linked with the perceptual/semantic/cultural meaning of soundscapes.

Take-away message & what’s next

An overall take-away message is that acoustic ecology and bioacoustics can be studied from different angles, namely engineering/computing/acoustics and humanities/music/geography/practice-based research, with some shared methods, but different research questions. We found that the research questions in engineering/computing/acoustics tend to be technical, narrow and specific, whereas in humanities/music/geography/practice-based research, the research questions tend to be open and exploratory. Can we combine both approaches to solve more complex problems?

A second salient aspect is that especially in the fields of engineering/computing/acoustics, the role of the machine and AI (machine learning, deep learning) is taking over manual tasks such as tagging or classifying sound events. Questions about data bias were highlighted. How can the state-of-the-art algorithms used in engineering/computing/acoustics inform humanities/music/geography/practice-based research disciplines?

A third prominent aspect is the qualitative aspect of the “listening” experience and keeping the human-in-the-loop, which is especially advocated by the humanities/artistic disciplines. How can we make sure that we avoid data bias and keep the human voice with more large-scale automatic processes related to engineering/computing/acoustics disciplines?

We all agreed that this meeting was a good start, it was too short and that it might be the beginning of an interdisciplinary conversation. Thanks to all the participants for their contributions and for their patience with a hybrid meeting that is still a technical challenge per se! Special thanks to Emmanouil, Frederic and Mark for chairing the sessions and for promoting the need for this inter/multi/cross disciplinary conversation.

Extras

The slides of the outline of the sessions are available here.
The notes taken during the group discussions are available here.

Meet the Artists - Beccy Abraham

2024-05-27T12:00:00Z

About: Rebecca Abraham is an engineer, researcher, and musician. In 2020, they graduated from UC Berkeley, where they studied electrical engineering and computer science. Now, they’re pursuing graduate studies at Dartmouth with the goal of creating ways to share the joy of musical expression. Rebecca’s primary instrument is the marimba, and they have more than a decade of concert percussion experience. They’ve played trombone with Cal Band and acted as principal percussionist for the University Wind Ensemble. They also help organize poetry events in the East Bay, and they enjoy crafting, cooking, and visiting local coffee shops.

How do you describe your practice?

I am an instrument builder and researcher pursuing an MFA in Sonic Practice at Dartmouth College. I work in creative coding and interface design with the goal of giving broad audiences easy access to sound-making and creative expression. My primary instrument is the marimba, and my performance practice has spanned solo marimba, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and marching band.

What are your influences, what inspires you?

Many of my first music-making experiences in grade school and college were in large ensembles, like marching bands and wind orchestras. I’m drawn to these kinds of collective experiences, as well as more informal ones. I’m interested in creating similar playful, and intimate experiences with the instruments I create. In that respect, I’m inspired by Pauline Oliveros’s work, especially Sonic Meditations, and I’m curious about ways ubiquitous technology can become a tool for contemplation and creative expression rather than a means for disengagement. Most recently, I’ve been building Tiny Touch Instruments (TTIs), software instruments that can be accessed on a mobile website and controlled with touch gestures. With support from the Leslie Center for the Humanities, I’m planning a series of group improvisation workshops with the TTIs for people with a wide range of musical backgrounds.

I’m passionate about education and making technical skills accessible to young people, especially folks who are underrepresented in STEM fields. I think creative coding can be a powerful pedagogical tool, and I enjoy teaching workshops in p5.js and similar technologies. I’m constantly inspired by my students and what they come up with after learning just a few functions to create visual art or music.

Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?

I’m currently based in the United States, in Vermont, and I’m an MFA student studying Sonic Practice at Dartmouth College. My undergraduate degree was in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. I grew up in the East Bay in California and worked as a software engineer in Oakland before pursuing graduate studies.

What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?

I moved from a California suburb to a rural town in Vermont last year to focus on my creative practice. Situated in the middle of a forest, I’m finding that the everpresence and easy access to nature colors everything I create. Vermont residents have been instrumental in building the climate movement in the United States, and it makes sense given the community-building power I’ve experienced here regularly, often centered around agriculture and outdoor activities.

I’m experiencing dramatic seasonal shifts for the first time in New England, and I’m reminded of the many natural cycles that intersect with and influence our life cycles. This particular cycle of grad school, deeply engaged with my natural environment, affords me a slowness and stillness that directly feeds into my craft.

What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?

I feel really honored to be a part of the summer school, with a group of incredibly talented researchers and artists. I’m excited to get to know them and their practices and to share time and space this summer.

What are your website and social media handles?

Fifth Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-05-31T08:00:00Z

Photo: From left to right: Anna Xambó holding a CO2 concentration sensor, Luigi Marino holding an anemometer sensor, and Mike Bell holding a net radiation sensor.

On Wednesday 22 May, Luigi and I went to visit Mike at the Alice Holt Forest Research Station on our fifth field trip to do a mini-hackathon to progress with the development of the customised data logger and related web services.

From Bentley Rail Station to Alice Holt Forest Research Station

Getting to the Alice Holt Forest Research Station from the train station is halfway to getting to the Alice Holt Forest. This time, I explored the Bentley Station Meadow Reserve, a reserve that has been owned and managed by Butterfly Conservation. According to the poster description, “it suits the butterflies of both grassland and woodland, providing the food plants for their caterpillars and nectar sources for the adults”. The meadow is fantastic but I could not see any butterflies!

Bentley Station Meadow Reserve.

Collecting Streamer I

Before meeting with Mike and Luigi, I went to the Alice Holt Forest Visitor Centre to collect Streamer I, which was successfully launched in our fourth field trip in the Alice Holt Forest. On one of the mirrors of the women’s toilets in the Alice Holt Visitor Centre, you can read the quote:

“The forest is full of wildlife. But you’ll have to be quiet to see it”.

It is also true that:

“The forest is full of wildlife. But you’ll have to be quiet to hear it”.

Collection of Streamer I.

Data logger

At Forest Research, data loggers are used to measure a range of environmental variables that help scientists understand the carbon balance of the forest. For the Sensing the Forest project, Mike is developing a customised data logger for measuring air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, photosynthetically active radiation, net radiation and carbon dioxide concentration. The system will be powered by a solar panel, and data will be sent via a cellular modem to an online server that the artists can access.

Customised data logger.

The customised data logger comprises two main components:

The hardware with the weather sensors.
The software with a JavaScript web server and a Pure Data web client example for artists to use, which is suitable for embedded devices such as the Raspberry Pi.

Mini-hackathon

Objectives

Our main objectives to fulfil in this mini-hackathon were to:

Get familiar with the data logger (Luigi, Anna)
Complete the communication between the hardware and the web server (Mike)
Decide frequencies of data transmission (All)
Test the JSON readings in the web server and Pure Data web client (Anna, Luigi)
Polish the web server and Pure Data code accordingly (Anna, Luigi)
Create a Pure Data music example (Luigi)

Hardware

First, we got familiar with the different sensors that Mike wants to include in the data logger.

Photosynthetically active radiation sensor (PAR)

The photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) sensor is an instrument for measuring solar radiation from 400 to 700 nanometers, which is used by photosynthetic organisms for the process of photosynthesis (active radiation).

PAR sensor.

Net radiation sensor

The net radiation sensor is an instrument for measuring the balance between incoming and outgoing radiation under outdoor conditions.

Net radiation sensor.

Wind speed (anemometer)

The anemometer sensor is an instrument for measuring the speed of the wind.

Anemometer sensor.

Carbon dioxide concentration sensor

The carbon dioxide concentration sensor the CO2 is an instrument that measures the level of carbon dioxide as a percentage of a volume of air.

Carbon dioxide sensor.

Air temperature & relative humidity

The HygroVue™10 sensor is a smart sensor that combines air temperature and relative humidity and has a digital SDI-12 output. Air temperature monitors the temperature of the air. Relative humidity measures water vapour relative to the temperature of the air.

Air temperature & relative humidity sensor.

Software

We then worked on the creation of the JSON file to be sent from the data logger to the web server. The programming language is CRbasic, and we found some constraints in terms of the length string limit due to the large number of variables that we want to send! We agreed on the naming of variables to be human-friendly. Most of the variables include average, minimum and maximum values.

Although we expect to transfer the data at three different frequencies (1min/5min/30min), for now ,we are developing for the 1min frequency.

We also tested the Pure Data web client and decided that just parsing the values from the JSON file should suffice for the artists and musicians to progress with their musical patches.

Follow-up

After the visit, Mike solved the problem of CRbasic related to sending a long string of variables and values to the web server and I polished the basic Pure Data patch for Pete and the interested artists to use. We are employing the PuRestJson external to parse the incoming JSON files into Pure Data. We found that the external version for Raspberry Pi works well with our initial patch, but for the Mac version, we had to hack a bit the patch to convert the values conceived as lists to float numbers.

Pure Data basic patch parsing JSON values from the data logger suitable for Raspberry Pi.

Pure Data basic patch parsing JSON values from the data logger suitable for Mac OS.

The next steps include:

Change the web server to a 1-year plan and create a historic dataset.
Set the data logger outside.
Write a quick HelpFile: we will create a basic HelpFile HTML page listing all the variables used.
Create a musical example.

We plan to release the web server and Pure Data code once it is ready. For now, it is available for Pete and the summer school participants. While we are preparing the art event on the 20th of June, we will continue testing and tuning the hardware and software.

The data logger will be showcased by Mike during the exhibition on the 20th of June and later will be set more permanently in the weather station at the Straits Inclosure. Pete’s installation will demonstrate an artistic application of using weather data from the logger and Luigi is planning to explore data-music mappings for his musical practice.

As per the data logger, a second step (of low priority now) will be to think also about capturing photos, which could be tuned with a frequency similar to the audio recordings of the streamers.

The mini-hackathon was successful because we could work in a team, learn from each other, and progress to the “almost-there” moment. Luigi and I could also ask Mike about the Forest Research’s experience on powering off-grid systems, which we are currently dealing with the streamers and Pete’s installation.

Thanks, Mike and Alice Holt Forest Research for hosting us and making the mini-hackathon possible! Thanks to Danielle for coordinating our collection of Streamer I at the Alice Holt Visitor Centre. Also thanks to Gerard for his technical advice on Pure Data.

Summer School Online Session 6

2024-06-09T08:00:00Z

Photos: Screenshots from the different projects presented

On May 23, 2024, we had our sixth and last online summer school session. The session was co-hosted between Pete Batchelor and me. The session was divided into two parts.

*Videos: In the first part of the session, we watched the videos that the summer school participants sent in advance. The brief of the video was:

You are expected to produce a 3-minute video in advance about your project. This can take the form of a lighting talk.

Group discussion: Apart from the team’s feedback in written format that we sent after the session, we had a live group discussion with the option to use Discord channels for each project to collect live feedback.

3-minute videos

For the lineup, we used again the random tool List Randomizer from Random.org. Next, we present a summary of the ten projects and the video that includes the presentations.

Sound Gardening at Alice Holt by Jordan Juras

Jordan Juras’s Sound Gardening is a conceptual framework to create immersive and interactive AR audio installations. This project explores the creation of embodied musical instruments, which animate and position trees and other Floral entities and are modulated by environmental sensor data collected by Alice Holt Forest Research Station.

Tree Museum by Ed Chivers

Ed Chivers’s Tree Museum is a piece that focuses on the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, whose population has declined by 91% since 1967, and is on the UK’s red list for endangered species. The sound of the woodpecker’ drumming is reproduced artificially in the trees, considering the sounds that are lost when we loose a species.

A tree listens to itself by Miles Scharff

Miles Scharff’s A tree listens to itself is a system in which a tree and the space around it are used as antenna for radio reception in an effort to listen to what electromagnetic signals are physically permeating through the natural world. The received signals are heard through speakers placed about the roots of the tree.

Resonant Grove by Austin Blanton

Austin Blanton’s Resonant Grove is based on a tree with a tangle of wires and copper that is spouting noises from its trunk, inviting you to explore the mystery. As you move your hand closer, the sounds mutate, and activate invisible threads to other noisemakers in the forest.

Within and Between by Rosa Sungjoo Park

Rosa Sungjoo Park’s Within and Between is an interactive sound installation that explores the interconnectedness of humans and the environment. The audience is invited to intervene in their natural surroundings by interacting with the installation through their own playful gestures.

tread(LIGHTLY) by Gabrielle Cerberville

Gabrielle Cerberville’s tread(LIGHTLY) is an installation that takes the form of a labyrinth built into the forest floor, triggered by human activities. The phrase “tread lightly” refers to being cautious, taking care, thinking before acting, and the labyrinth is designed to make us aware of how we move through natural environments by sonifying and amplifying human movements.

Remembering the Mighty Oak by Kate Anderson

Kate Anderson’s Remembering the Mighty Oak is a sculptural reliquary to great oak trees. Constructed with oak and decorated with ink illustrations. Echoing the loss of the Elm in the 1970s, and the decline of the Ash this century, it invites the audience to consider a future where the Nation’s Oaks are no more.

The Walking Tree by Bardia Hafizi

Bardia Hafizi’s The Walking Tree is a multi-modal installation/performance that traces the kinship of people and trees, of cities and forests: Bardia’s work investigates the technological boundaries between the two, and tries to re-imagine them through sonic -as well as other forms of- media.

Leaves Echo by Qianyi Rose Sun

In Qianyi Rose Sun’s Leaves Echo, every interaction is a testament to the balance of our ecosystem. It challenges us to perceive the unseen, to hear the unspoken, and to understand the delicate interplay between our actions and the natural world.

In touch by Beccy Abraham

Beccy Abraham’s in touch uses a collaborative musical instrument to build soundscapes with forest recordings as source material. It encourages visitors to connect with their environment by connecting with each other.

Group discussion

Pete and Hazel led a group discussion after watching the videos. They praised the diverse range of ideas and plans with brilliant videos with nice titles showing useful, interesting approaches. In the group discussion, there were both general and specific questions related to the projects.

One important topic was the logistics surrounding the weather. In particular, would water have an impact on Austin’s use of copper plating and the way of playing the plates? It was also mentioned that connections between trees imply long distances, which should be considered in terms of cabling and the system’s design.

It was suggested that Kate could speak with the team at Forest Research to see whether Kate’s findings can affect decision-making about how the national forests are managed.

In the videos, little was mentioned about the online presence of the installations, which it is recommended to start thinking about. For example, Jordan was talking about different times of day and year, which infers that this will likely happen over the online version of the app that Jordan is planning to release after the summer school event.

There was also a discussion about the status of the data logger and how the data will be accessed. We gave updates on the minihackathon with Mike, Luigi and me on the previous day, and the almost ready PureData patch with 15 variables. Some participants expressed interest in accessing historical data of the data logger e.g. meteorological data, which can relate to the prior existence of the data logger, but also can be produced from the customised data logger.

Another topic addressed to Bardia was that even if we are speaking about technology, he should feel completely free to include the instruments from his tradition such as the tombak and setar because there are plenty of ways to still use the historical (or even live) data and acoustic instruments.

A question that emerged is if it would be possible to take fallen branches from the forest to be used for the installation because in some places it is not allowed, which we should check with Max from Forestry England.

Overall, this session concluded six amazing online sessions to now bring our efforts to the on-site event. From now on, we will be focusing on the preparation and launch of the exhibition Your Sonic Forest on the 20th of June. Please help us spread the word and try to come if you can make it! It promises to be a unique event of its kind.

Thanks to all the summer school participants for their fantastic videos and to the team for their constant support. Special thanks to Pete for co-hosting the session. I had several unfortunate Internet dropouts throughout the session that did not allow me to participate in normal conditions, so thanks Pete for saving the session!

Sixth Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-06-16T08:00:00Z

Photo: Pete Batchelor taking distance measurements between the trees.

On Wednesday 5 June, Pete and I went to Alice Holt forest on our sixth field trip to take some measurements for Pete’s installation and allocate suitable spots for the installations to be showcased on the 20th of June.

From Bentley Rail Station to Alice Holt Forest Research Station

This was the third occasion of walking from Bentley train station to the Alice Holt forest. This time I wanted to count the exact time that takes without any distractions. In my previous walks, I could not find the butterfly sculpture that appears on the route of Bentley Station to Alice Holt walk (PDF). This time, I realised that it is on the same path just in front of the Bentley Station Meadow Reserve, which I explored in the previous field trip.

Butterfly sculpture.

As part of the Shipwrights Way, this sculpture is described as:

"a silver-washed fritillary, a woodland butterfly which uses the butterfly reserve in front for gathering nectar and breeding; it has a distinctive rapid, swooping flight as the sculpture shows.

It is surprising how the same path changes every time I go. It is worth mentioning how gorgeous it looks with the blossoming of the purple foxgloves!

Purple foxgloves.

Thinking about the exhibition day and the potential visitors coming from London, I took some photos of the triple fork right just before the main road and outside of the Forestry Research land, which can make you get lost if you don’t pay enough attention. We’ll ask Max and Danielle from Forestry England if it is possible to add some signposting there (e.g. temporarily putting a laminated label there). Would we need permission?

Triple fork.

Overall, my walk took 35 minutes including the stops to take photos here and there. Hence, I guess that the walk can even take 30 minutes without any stops. Is this even possible with so many interesting spots to visit on the side of the walk?

Meeting at Alice Café

We met with Pete and Danielle at 9.45 to discuss updates and our plans for the day. It is always nice to start the day with a coffee in an outdoor office!
We talked about the organisation of the summer school and the practicalities related to the activities that we are planning to offer to the summer school participants and team.

From left to right: Anna Xambó, Danielle Grimsey and Pete Batchelor.

Tests and measurements for Pete’s installation: our method

In the morning, we worked with Pete on his installation. Pete had a clear plan of tasks, which included testing the bird box hanging system, taking measurements for the speakers, and testing the EE mobile broadband network in the area of the installation to double-check our findings from the fourth field trip, and find resonant materials to be used for audio recordings.

Speaker enclosure hanging system

The speaker enclosure and hanging system designed by Pete worked amazingly well. The box looks fixed and the strap can surround the tree bark without scratching it. The enclosure still needs weatherproofing but it looks brilliant!

Speaker enclosure.

Distance measurements of the trees

For taking measurements, we created this method:

Find the area
Draw the potential trees on white paper with circles. Distinguish the type of trees by different colours.
Locate the box with the electronics. Use this location as the starting point to measure the shortest distance to the trees expected to be used in the installation.
Measure the distance.

Below you can see the resulting map.

Pete Batchelor's installation set up.

A key tool was the 50-meter tape that Pete borrowed from Ian.

50 meter tape.

Most trees are oaks (dark green), some are beeches and a few are chestnuts. Pete showed me how to differentiate between oaks and beeches when looking at the tree bark and foliage.

Apart from these measurements, testing the EE mobile broadband network worked well in the area. Pete could not find resonant materials but we saw a baby deer!

Visit to the workshop

During lunchtime, we visited the workshop at the Alice Holt yard. Alex very kindly showed us the product they use for weatherproofing. It is a garden furniture clear oil with a smooth finish and water repellent that protects and nourishes.

Alice Holt yard.

Garden furniture oil.

We also discussed the maximum height that we can go when hanging the speaker enclosures, which seems to be 6 meters as shown in the below photo.

6 meters height.

Lunch at the Alice Holt Café

During lunchtime, we went to the Alice Holt Café and discussed the practicalities of the project forms, taking notes of questions and characteristics of the locations if cited by the artists.

Allocations of the installations

Our method for allocating the installations was the following:

Bring the notes from the project forms.
Walk the expected itinerary with a map and start allocating the installations considering the artists’ requirements: draw it on the map with a distinctive colour and take at least one photo.
If some locations are “tentative”, walk again (and again) to decide what the best spots are for each installation.
Finish once the 13 artworks are allocated.

You can see the working map below.

Map of the allocated installations.

Follow-up

This proved again to be a fruitful field trip. We felt that we progressed immensely.

Now, we plan to create a cleaner version of the itinerary map to send it to the summer school participants to confirm their locations combined with the photos taken by Pete.

Pete - use the map to design with more accuracy his sound installation.

Your Sonic Forest poster.

Thanks to Danielle and Alex for their help onsite, Jo for the design of the itinerary map that we could use to draw on top and Hazel for suggesting this process in the first place. Also thanks to Ian for the 50-meter tape!

Summer School at Alice Holt Forest

2024-07-24T08:00:00Z

📷 Group Photo by Shuoyang Zheng

It is difficult to summarise in a blog post how the summer school went. In short, it was an absolute blast!

A relevant link to how things went can be found in our Flickr gallery, with the photos taken by Shuoyang Zheng:

Next, I will briefly summarise the activities of the summer school, and what comes next.

Preparations - 17 and 18 June 2024

On Monday 17, Luigi, Pete and I arrived at Guildford, where the summer school accommodation was. We had a social meetup where Mike also joined at The Royal Oak and a team dinner at Zaitouna.

On Tuesday, 18 June 2024, we spend the day setting up Pete’s installation and Luigi’s streamers. We had a lunch meeting at the Alice Holt Café with the other team members (Danielle, Max, Jack, Mike, and Catrina).

In the evening, we met with the summer school attendees in Guildford (8 out of 10). We had a social meetup at The King’s Head Quarry Street and a dinner at Gordo’s. It was such a unique moment to get to meet everybody finally onsite!

Day 1 - 19 June 2024

We had a tight agenda. The morning started with a quick visit to the exhibition area in Willows Green Trail led by Pete.

Then, Luigi gave a hybrid keynote on “Arts, the forest, and tangential relationships” at the Alice Holt Activity Centre. The topic was very relevant to the artworks of the artists and set interesting questions to consider. We will publish the video of the keynote here soon. Apart from the summer school attendees and the Sensing the Forest Summer School team, there were 19 registered online attendees via our Eventbrite event!

After that, the summer school participants offered quick presentations on their projects, focusing on updates. Next, the summer school participants visited Forest Research led by Mike, to then met back at the Alice Holt Visitor Centre for lunch.

The afternoon was spent setting up the installations. At 3 pm, we offered a pre-launch walk and showcase for Forestry England staff members led by Pete. This was a nice way of getting ready to present the work to an audience, as well as to let the Forestry England staff what the exhibition was about.

In the evening, we met in Guildford. We had a social meetup at The White House and a dinner at Zizzi. We had lively conversations about the summer school and we shared the excitement for the official launch of the exhibition on the following day.

Day 2 - 20 June 2024

Your Sonic Forest leaflet designed by Johana Knowles.

And the day arrived. In the morning, we first took the group photo that you can see at the top of the blog post. Then, there was some time for setting up. We had a beautiful opening presented by Hazel and Pete with all the group present that was live streamed. Then, time flew. We had visitors throughout the four hours (11am-3pm), and there was time for everybody to explore the exhibition as well and also have lunch at the Alice Holt Visitor Centre! We had about 40 people registered from our Eventbrite event.

The closing was quite intense. We had to say bye and pack/break down everything at the same time. All in all, it was fantastic to see all the work put together on a very special day. We were blessed to have such good weather for the three days.

What’s next

Although it felt like a big achievement, we still have lots to do! We are now working on the online gallery with photos, sound and text for each artwork. We want to continue the conversation with the artists so that we can include the visitors’ feedback. Pete’s installation will be relaunched at the beginning of August which is incorporating the feedback received from the visitors as well as technical and aesthetic improvements. Luigi is working on a more stable version of the streamers, which will be also launched in August. We are preparing documentation on the web client that connects to the data logger so that everyone can use it. We are also making a video about the summer school. More soon!

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all the visitors who attended the event. Thank you to Natalia Diaz Romero (University of Surrey) for her constant help with the accommodation, to Holly from the Alice Holt Café for the fantastic food, to Ian and Sam from Candy Tours for their drives from Guildford to Alice Holt Forest, and to Catrina James from Forest Research for helping with the data logger.

Special thanks to the Alice Holt Forestry England team for their generous support and to the summer school artists: Bardia Hafizi, Ed Chivers, Qianyi Rose Sun, Gabrielle Cerberville, Austin Blanton, Miles Scharff, Kate Anderson, Rosa Sungjoo Park, and Beccy Abraham.

Last but not least, thank you to the Sensing the Forest summer school team: Peter Batchelor (De Montfort University), Mike Bell (Forest Research), Max Gravestock (Forestry England), Danielle Grimsey (Forestry England), Johana Knowles (Forestry England), Luigi Marino (Queen Mary University of London), Hazel Stone (Forestry England), and Nick Wardlaw (Forestry England).

Seventh Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-08-03T08:00:00Z

Photo: Streamer I Giorgio in front of the small pond near the Alice Holt Forest hub area.

On Tuesday, 23rd of July, Luigi and I went to Alice Holt Forest on our seventh field trip to find a bioacoustically relevant location for Streamer I Giorgio. The original location of this streamer was in a large meadow in front of a gorgeous chestnut tree (see figure below), in an area with plenty of sun for the solar panel to feed the streamer. However, we did not find the streaming acoustically appealing and, in turn, the planned daily subsample of 5-minute audio recordings.

Streamer I Giorgio located in a large meadow near the Lodge Pond in Alice Holt Forest.

During today’s visit, we wanted to explore a few locations in search of a promising soundscape with birds and amphibians. In particular, we planned to investigate the area of Lodge Pond (yet we were suspicious about the noise from the nearby road) and the small pond in front of the Alice Holt Visitor Centre.

We have been discussing with the team what a bioacoustically relevant spot could sound like. Although we admit that silence will generally be present when listening to the forest, we would expect some degree of biodiversity (e.g. bird songs, grasshopper chirps, mosquito buzzes…), which should be identifiable from listening to the live audio streaming at certain times of the day and the audio recordings at key moments of the day and night.

Audio recordings in the Lodge Pond

I went to the Lodge Pond at about 9.30 in the morning. I recorded two samples: one facing a forest with the pond at the back, and a second sample facing the pond. Our guess was confirmed: the road was constantly present (especially with the recording facing the pond), but the human activity was also intense (e.g. visitors walking their dogs).

Zoom H1 audio recorder in the Alice Holt Lodge Pond facing the forest.

A spectrogram of the audio recording taken in the Alice Holt Lodge Pond facing the forest.

Zoom H1 audio recorder in the Alice Holt Lodge Pond facing the pond.

A spectrogram of the audio recording taken in the Alice Holt Lodge Pond facing the forest.

Streamer I Giorgio in the small pond near the visitor centre

With Luigi, we discussed the above recordings while looking at the spectrograms over coffee at the Alice Holt Cafe. We agreed that the Lodge Pond is too noisy for what the project expects as a natural soundscape.

We then moved to set up Streamer I Giorgio in the new small pond as the potential site for the continuous live stream of a natural soundscape. The Forestry England’s Alice Holt Forest team suggested this site. Before that, we went to the Large Meadow near the Lodge Pond to collect the custom waterproof box built by Luigi, which was going to be used for Streamer II Paula and planned to be set up next week. The survival of the box was proof that the box was resilient to water!

A customised waterproof box.

As part of the set-up of Streamer I Giorgio, we then went to charge the EcoFlow battery in the Alice Holt Activity Centre using a common AC cable to get it ready for the new launch of Streamer I. While charging the unit, we had lunch.

At 2pm we set up Streamer I Giorgio at the new location. We were happy to discover that the O2 SIM card has coverage in the area. We discussed the optimal location of the solar panel. It should not face north, but a good semicircle was covered by trees. We decided to face the pond for reflections facing est.

Luigi setting up the streamer near the small pond.

A closeup of the streamer facing the pond.

What’s next

We are planning to monitor the soundscape for a week and then decide if this is the correct spot. We also will monitor if placing the EcoFlow solar panel under the canopy still works.

Next time, we will set up Streamer II Paula next to Pete’s installation, which will be updated. We also left for the next time to mount a trolley that we will use for maintenance of battery charging if need be. This field trip was useful to turn our attention to the sonic dimension of the natural soundscape, which is a fundamental part of the project so that we can create one year of meaningful natural soundscape recordings.

Eight Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-08-04T08:00:00Z

Group photo: from left to right, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino and Peter Batchelor.

On Monday 29 July, Pete, Luigi and I went to Alice Holt Forest on our eight field trip to update Pete’s installation and Streamer II Paula in Willows Green. This was yet another fruitful field trip to Alice Holt Forest that kept us busy from the beginning to the end of the day. We were lucky with the weather again!

Early morning set-ups

In the morning, Pete started installing the updates for his sound installation Dendrophone (including a solar panel!) as well as checking that all was in their right place (only some wires had been tugged away from a tree). I managed to assemble as best as I could the trolley that we bought for maintenance purposes (e.g. carrying heavy car batteries). Later, Jack helped us to tighten the bolts with a proper adjustable spanner.

Dendrophone installation - setting up one solar panel.

Trolley suitable for maintenance purposes in the Alice Holt Forest.

Understanding our data

After these first tasks, Pete and I went to the Alice Holt Cafe for a coffee and discussed several open questions related to the audio recordings of the streamers and the historical weather data that Pete might be using for his installation.

Although in the original proposal, we wanted to align the recording times of the two streamers for a potential comparison between natural and modified soundscapes recorded at the same time, external factors have made this option too challenging. It is simply very difficult to compare both because the conditions are different: for the altered soundscape, Pete’s installation is live 9:00-17:00 (UK time) and so it will be meaningful to make 4 recordings within this range. For the natural soundscape, by contrast, we would still like to cover a meaningful representation of the entire day. Hence, we decided to keep both groups of recordings as two separate datasets: a raw natural soundscape with four 5-minute recordings around sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight; and a modified soundscape of four regular 5-minute recordings capturing Pete’s installation within the daytime that the installation is live.

Inspired by a publication on soundscape phenology in a subtropical woodland, we commented on whether moonrise and moonset could also be relevant. We even consulted ChatGPT for some advice before taking any decision, which was helpful! We then discussed the historical weather data that Pete had plotted using a Python script. It was a comprehensive way of seeing the different variables and how they interconnect among them depending on the time of the day, the month and the season.

Overall, it was an important discussion that will justify the motivation and type of audio recordings that will last for one year.

Exploring two solar panels in parallel for Pete’s installation

During these days, Luigi has done intensive research on DIY solar panels. We have been very much inspired by the blog post How to Build a Small Solar Power System from the amazing Low<-Tech Magazine, “a solar-powered website, which means it sometimes goes offline”. Luigi shared with Pete his discoveries. From this conversation, and the constant guidance of Ho, Pete has decided to also try the use of DIY solar panels in his installation to make a system that is as sustainable and independent as possible.

As part of this field trip’s update, Pete brought two DIY solar panels that he arranged in parallel. He first tried one single DIY solar panel, which was already giving 0.6A-1.3A of input solar power. As expected, with the addition of a second solar panel in parallel, the current augmented as well staying over 1A most of the time. This was very promising!

Dendrophone installation - two solar panels connected in parallel.

Luigi arrived at the precise moment we were learning from the use of the Ecoworthy solar power controller, and his knowledge was essential for understanding the basics of how to turn it on and off!

Dendrophone installation - behind the scenes including an Ecoworthy solar power controller.

Decisions on Streamer I Giorgio and Streamer II Paula: location and power

During our lunch meeting at the Alice Holt Cafe, and as a follow-up of our previous field trip where we set up Streamer I Giorgio in the small pond in front of the Alice Holt Visitor Centre, we decided that the small pond was not satisfactory enough in terms of the biodiversity richness for a natural soundscape (too much human activity!). In addition, the lack of sunlight due to the solar panel being below the tree canopies ultimately affected the correct standalone operation of the unit.

We agreed to find a new location for the streamer with enough sunlight and fewer human-made sounds. Luigi had 3 options but we had to discard two of them for not being within Forestry England’s land. Later in the afternoon, we were going to inspect this option. Given the potential remote location of this new spot and the difficulty for the Forestry England staff to monitor it so frequently, we decided to use the Ecoflow solar power system to feed Streamer II Paula next to Pete’s installation in the Willows Green trail and use a DIY solar-powered system for Streamer I Giorgio.

Streamer II Paula

Accordingly, after lunch, we first set up Streamer II Paula. Luigi had wired the cables of the microphones more securely than Streamer I Giorgio to avoid potential electromagnetic interferences (EMIs). Using his phone, Luigi programmed the recordings at four times a day during the opening times of Pete’s installation in agreement with Pete. Note: there are several mobile apps that work as an Secure Shell (SSH) client, such as Termux, Termius, Qute, CommandBot, JuiceSSH, or TermOne Plus.

Luigi talking to Streamer II Paula using his phone and Pete talking to Dendrophone using his laptop.

The second task was to set up Streamer II Paula. Although the Ecoflow battery was uncharged, we decided not to charge it through the AC charging (grid charging) to see if it could survive the solar-power charge ind this new area. However, as we will report in the next blog post, this approach did not work.

We went to see Danielle at the Visitor Centre with a bunch of questions about how to best arrange the solar panels given the testing mode we are still in for the next days but considering the prime time in Alice Holt with all the families and kids around.

Streamer I Giorgio

Following Jack’s advice, Luigi and I went back to the area of the Lodge Pond trying to find a suggested quiet spot that could work well for the natural soundscape that we were looking for related to Streamer I Giorgio. We could not find the described spot, but we found instead another small meadow previously spotted by Luigi on the map that seemed to be ideal: it seemed to have the right balance of quietness plus it faces south without the shade of tree canopies! We agreed with Luigi that we would try Streamer I Giorgio in this spot in the next field trip once Giorgio would have the new wiring cables to avoid EMIs (similar to Paula) as well as a DIY solar panel to be tested in these new conditions.

A promising spot for Streamer I Giorgio near Alice Holt Lodge Pond.

Wrapping up

We went back to Willows Green to meet Pete. Pete had tightened the solar panels. We helped Pete to find wood logs of different sizes to protect the solar panels and cables. The final composition looked very well integrated with the natural landscape, and it sounded great!

Collecting wood logs from the nearby area.

Dendrophone tidied up with wood logs.

Dendrophone and Streamer II Paula at the end of the day.

What’s next

Our next plans include Luigi’s return within the next days to set up Streamer I Giorgio powered by a DIY solar-powered panel in the new promising meadow with the new wiring cables as well as see if the O2 SIM card will have coverage there. We will also monitor Streamer I Giorgio in the new shaded location using the Ecoflow system and Dendrophone if it works during the expected times and has enough battery to last. We have also discussed whether two more solar panels (up to four solar panels in parallel) might provide enough energy to fully power the installation, which Pete would like to try in his next visit.

The potential wall of solar panels has raised the discussion of how to best display them and how to inform the audience about their relevant role in making it all self-sustainable. We can also maybe put all the panels together including the streamer’s solar panel so that it looks neater. Even heightening them to the speakers’ level is an option to increase their efficiency.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Forestry England Alice Holt team for their constant help. We are thankful to Alice Eldridge for her advice on the frequency of the recordings of the natural soundscape. Thanks to Ashley Lauren Noel-Hirst for recommending us the Low<-Tech magazine. Thank you to Mike for the historical data shared with Pete for his installation. Last but not least, thanks to Ho for his constant help and support in designing self-sustainable systems.

Ninth Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-08-05T08:00:00Z

Luigi’s guerrilla visit

Luigi went on Saturday, 3 August 2024, to set up Giorgio in the new meadow with the new audio cables and a foldable portable solar panel 100 Watt. The unit still has the old sign, which will be fine-tuned at the end of August. The streamer worked perfectly well with this new setup, including the O2 SIM card, and the sonic material is good enough for what we intend. We might have found the perfect spot!

Streamer I Giorgio in a meadow near the Alice Hold Lodge Pond with new wiring and a foldable portable solar panel.

Then, Luigi moved to the Willows Green trail to check Pete’s installation (which was working fine!) and fixed Streamer II Paula. This entailed fully charging the EcoFlow unit using AC charging (grid charging) and securing it to the tree with a new lock. The intention was to see how long the battery lasts and then decide whether to buy multiple solar panels, possibly going for a more DIY direction, similar to Giorgio’s approach.

Streamer II Paula with the EcoFlow unit secured with a lock attached to the tree and protected with gaffer tape.

Anna’s guerrilla visit

On Monday, 5 August 2024, I went to check both streamers and the installation as well as record some sounds from both sites for research purposes.

Streamer I Giorgio status

The live stream from Giorgio has been working with no interruption since Luigi set it up on Saturday, 5 August 2024 (2 full days), and bugs seem to embrace it! I even saw a baby deer passing by.

Closeup of Streamer I Giorgio in a meadow near the Alice Hold Lodge Pond after a few days of transmission.

I recorded an audio extract of about 5 minutes to start getting a feel of this natural soundscape. I also took some notes on how the signs can be improved to let casual visitors what this setup is about.

Streamer II Paula and Dendrophone status

Pete’s installation was working wonderfully well and standalone with the two solar panels. I recorded a few audio extracts of about 5 minutes to also get a sense of this modified soundscape.

Dendrophone in Willows Green fully working using two solar panels.

While Giorgio worked from Saturday to Monday with no interruption, the day after Luigi’s visit and before my visit, Paula stopped working. My visit would be meaningful to debug why. Until we get the three systems stable enough, and capture common reasons for failure, we cannot document how to maintain them and ask for help from Forestry England.

As shown in the photo below, the dongle’s antenna was upside down, and the streamer’s button was switched off. Likely a kid made it all.

Streamer II Paula in Alice Holt Willows Green with the dongle's antenna and microphones upside down.

The assumption here is that the height of the tripod was too close to the children’s hand reach, so I heightened the tripod to its maximum position, moved the tripod closer to the tree and moved the dongle as far as possible from the tree to avoid any obstacle for the 4G dongle’s antenna to work.

Streamer II Paula in Alice Holt Willows Green with the dongle's antenna and microphones upside up again.

Regarding the status of the EcoFlow battery, it was at 65%, probably because the streamer was switched off, so I decided to leave it as it was. As shown in the photo below, the output from the streamer was 2W/hour. For some reason, the solar power input was zero, but the day was not very sunny and thought I would continue monitoring the battery’s behaviour within the next days including another field trip on the following week and Pete’s visit on Thursday this week.

A closeup of the EcoFlow display with zero as solar power input and 2W as USB output from Streamer II Paula.

I left with the two systems working. It is great to be able to test the links to the two streamers while walking back to the train station. More monitoring is needed, but hopefully, we are reaching a more stable situation with lighter monitoring checks.

Dendrophone and Streamer II Paula, from afar, up and running.

Follow-up

Pete will go on Thursday to add two more solar panels to his Dendrophone installation. This might provide enough energy to fully power the installation, which would be incredible! I will return next week to continue monitoring the two streamers and installation and capture a few more audio recordings. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Tenth Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-08-15T08:00:00Z

Pete’s guerrilla visit

On Thursday, 8 August 2024, Pete went for another guerrilla visit to install 2 more ECO-WORTHY 120-Watt solar panels arranged in parallel with the previous two for his Dendriphone installation, shown in the top photo. We will now keep an eye on it to see if it is truly self-sustainable.

Dendrophone installation in Alice Holt Willows Green using four solar panels.

Pete also had a quick look at the EcoFlow unit that controls the solar panels and battery of Streamer I Paula. Pete mentioned that the input solar power was at zero, and the charge was at 0%. This explains why the streamer stopped working on Wednesday 7 August, giving only 2 days of battery when I left it at 65% on Monday 5 August, with presumably, zero to low solar power input.

Anna’s guerrilla visit

On Monday, 12 August 2024, I went back to charge the EcoFLow unit of Streamer II Paula and inspect a bit more the power system, as well as more generally, to check both streamers and the installation. Also, I planned to record some more field recordings in the form of audio excerpts to get a better understanding of the sonic material that we are automatically capturing from the two locations, the natural soundscape and the installation soundscape. This should be helpful once we start analysing the batch of automatic recordings.

Streamer I Giorgio status

Since Luigi set it up on 3 August 2024, Streamer I Giorgio has kept streaming uninterruptibly, which is excellent news! Today, I could hear crickets’ chirps that were not present the previous week, combined with birdsongs, sounds of planes and human steps such as small groups of runners or walkers with their dogs.

Streamer I Giorgio in the meadow near the Alice Holt Lodge Pont with a clear sunlight exposure before 10am.

Dendrophone status

When I arrived at the Willows Green trail, I was not sure if the Dendrophone was working because of the presence of silence. It was after a few minutes that I noticed the sound installation was working. You can listen to a few audio excerpts of how it nicely blends with the natural sounds. When I arrived, there was a curious group reading about the artistic intervention.

A group of visitors reading about Dendrophone.

Streamer II Paula

For now, Streamer II Paula is the system that is less reliable due to the EcoFlow River solar power system not working properly. As reported by Pete a few days before, the battery charge was at 0% as well as the solar power input was at zero. I took the EcoFLow unit and charged it using AC charging from the Activity Centre.

Charging the EcoFlow unit using AC charging.

I installed the EcoFlow app, which is very handy! While charging, it tells you the remaining charge time, and once charged, it tells you the time remaining until it gets uncharged again.

Two screenshots of the EcoFlow app while charging the EcoFlow unit.

Once I brought back the EcoFlow unit, it kept giving zero as solar power input. My impression is that something in the pipeline of the solar panel is faulty because the solar power input always gives 0, even if setting it just below direct sunlight as shown in the photo below.

The EcoFlow solar panel connected to the EcoFlow River.

In any case, we can now enjoy the streamer with the charged battery, with an estimation to last 3.1 days according to the EcoFlow app (74h 46m using 2W/hour) or until Thursday evening. In fact, when checking the streamer yesterday, a group of kids was interested in the streamer and after their chaperone read the sign about the scientific purpose of the streamer, a kid said: “Good job people that are scientists, good job!” This is encouraging for them but also for us!

Screenshot of the EcoFlow app with the estimated time remaining.

Follow-up

Next week, I would like to debug the EcoFlow solar panel by trying with a new solar charging cable, measuring if the solar panel keeps giving the expected voltage/amperage values using a multimeter and testing the solar panel in another space to avoid the shade of the canopies. I asked George, who said this is a common task and gave me a bit of advice on how to proceed with this type of debugging. More to follow soon.

11th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2024-09-16T08:00:00Z

On the 19th of August, I went for a maintenance trip to Alice Holt. As discussed in the previous field trip, the plan of this 11th field trip was to debug the EcoFlow solar panel by trying with a new solar charging cable, measuring if the solar panel is giving the expected voltage/amperage values using a multimeter and testing the solar panel in another space to avoid the shade of the canopies.

For this trip, I also wanted to establish a procedure for checks for Streamers I (Giorgio) and II (Paula). This involves:

Checking that the solar panel is working as expected.
Checking if the cables are well connected.
Checking if the battery is charged as expected.
Check that the streamer is switched on and is working.
Checking that the items are securely and correctly positioned as expected (e.g. microphones facing slightly down, antenna facing up, solar panels correctly positioned, and so on).

Thirdly, I also wanted to continue with a few manual recordings of the two sites to understand better the soundscape characteristics of the site.

Status of Streamer Giorgio and Natural Soundscapes

Although Giorgio was working perfectly fine (still uniuninterruptibly, well done Luigi!), the metal cable that holds the dongle was a bit bended. If this has happened in the summer probably from a strong wind, we might need to reconsider a stronger material to hold the dongle tighter and resist the potential cold winds in the winter.

The antenna of Streamer I Giorgio upside down (left) and back to upside up (right).

This time I wanted to also capture the fauna of the site. I installed the Flora Incognita, a free mobile app that automatically identifies plant species. After providing a few pics, it identified a shrubby blackberry, a black pine tree (coniferous), a maritime pine tree (coniferous), a white birch tree (deciduous), a bitter dock and a bracken fern. In general, we can describe the site as an area with conifers predominantly combined with a few deciduous trees.

I noticed the soundscape was different compared to last week. Probably the time of the day and the weather matters! For example, I could not hear the crickets’ chirps as loud and present as last week. I wonder if the cloudy day compared to last week is part of this.

The first recording is a quiet soundscape recorded at about 10am. You can hear birds singing from the distance, planes, an occasional insect approaching the microphone and a person walking that can be heard from the distance.

The second recording is another quiet soundscape recorded at about 10am. You can hear birds singing from the distance, planes and a kid talking that can be heard from the distance.

Status of Dendrophone and Modified Soundscapes

Panoramic view of Dendrophoone and Streamer II Paula.

Pete’s Dendrophone installation was working perfectly well, which is a great achievement! A few of the wooden locks protecting the system’s box seemed to have been moved, so I put them back.

Some of the locks around the Dendrophone's installation were moved.

Locks rearranged around the Dendrophone's installation.

Here are two audio extracts of the immersive soundscapes produced by Dendrophone, which nicely merge with the natural sounds. The first audio extract was recorded at about 11am and we can hear the sound of the installation merged with birds singing, kids playing in the distance, occasional planes, and steps from a visitor. The second audio extract was recorded at about 2pm and we can perceive the sound of the installation merged with bird singing, kids playing at the distance, and occasional planes.

Status of Streamer Paula

The battery of the Ecoflow that powers Paula was totally dried out (again). This has been a recurrent problem where the solar panels do not seem to do their job. Hence, only with the battery, Paula lives for 3 days. I took the entire Ecoflow unit (battery and solar panel) and charged the battery using mains power. I wanted to measure the solar panel to see if there is any problem with them.

How To Test A Solar Panel Is Working With A Multimeter

The way of testing a solar panel with a multimeter is well explained in the following two videos:

How To Test A Solar Panel Is Working With A Multimeter: a short and sweet video that gives a perfect summary of what is involved.
How to Test Solar Panels! - this a longer video. The first part shows the same technique as the above video, whereas later it shows two more expensive (and complicated) techniques plus other tips when solar panels are faulty.

Note: The multimeter should be fused, and the fuse rating value should be higher than the amperage of the short-circuit current value of the solar panel - this is explained very well in the first video (0:36).

For complementary information, you can also check this short tutorial on how to test solar panels with a multimeter.

I followed the above instructions to realise:

The open circuit voltage was giving 20.6V, which is within the range of correct values (it should be +/- 10% of 21.8V).
The short circuit current was giving 0.9A instead of the expected 6.5A. As shown in the featured image at the top, under the canopy it was giving 0.2A. This is a problem!

I replaced the solar power cable with a new one and we also bought the Ecoflow bag on the 15th of July that went with the unit to the new location at the time (small meadow), so the unit/battery is very likely not the problem as we can use it for charging and the bag is weatherproof (we use gaffer tape to protect the open part of the bag to let the cables go inside safely). This can explain why the solar power input of the EcoFlow gives always 0.

Taking voltage measurements of the Ecoflow solar panel using the multimeter.

Taking current measurements of the Ecoflow solar panel using the multimeter.

In this occasion, I charged the battery again to let it work for 3 days. According to the battery station, it will last 70h 41m, so Paula will be able to stream until Thursday 22 August at 13:40.

Closeup view of Dendrophoone and Streamer II Paula.

Follow-up

The plan will be to return next time with Luigi with some new measures, including a DIY powering system that replicates the successful Giorgio’s setup (streamer of the natural soudscape). We are learning so much on the way!

Presentation at Aix-Marseille University - October 23, 2024

2024-10-23T10:00:00Z

The Master’s degree in Acoustics and Musicology from Aix-Marseille University prepares students for careers in sound, engineering and sound design, perceptual acoustics, sound design, and music, creation, cultural action, musicological and ethnomusicological research. Mathieu Barthet invited me and Luigi Marino to present the Sensing the Forest project at the research seminar series of the master’s.

The seminars are addressed to Master 1 students who are part of two streams. One of the streams is called “Sound design engineering” and includes students coming from physics, electronics, and computer science. The other stream is called “Music, technology and humanities” and includes students who have backgrounds in musicology and music.

The session consisted of two parts. In the first part, we presented the project in the format of a research seminar. In the second part, we had an interactive discussion on research professions.

About the talk

Title

Sensing the Forest: Lessons learned from our artistic-acoustic intervention at the Alice Holt Forest

Abstract

In this talk, Anna Xambó and Luigi Marino will present the ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project Sensing the Forest: Let the Forest Speak using the Internet of Things, Acoustic Ecology and Creative AI (09/2023-08/2025), which explores how artistic practices, acoustic ecology, and the Internet of Things (IoT) can be combined to raise awareness of climate change. We will reflect on the project’s progress to date, including the creation of a solar-powered 24/7/365 soundscape streamer that continuously captures the forest’s auditory environment, the organisation of a summer school and art exhibition featuring site-specific works by ten international artists, and upcoming activities focused on community science engagement. Through these reflections, we aim to discuss how artistic and acoustic interventions can inspire new ways of listening to and learning from the environment.

Bibliography recommendations

Bernie Krause. 2008. Anatomy of the Soundscape: Evolving Perspectives. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. Audio Engineering Society 56 (Jan 2008), 73 – 80.
Bruno Latour. 2017. Face à Gaïa. Huit conférences sur le nouveau régime climatique / Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. Polity Press.

Q&A

Some of the questions that emerged from the 10-12 students who attended the talk were about leadership in terms of how the project is managed and how decisions are made. There was also a question about whether we could elaborate on a statement that we made that sound is the most universal sense among all the life forms and could be seen as the lingua franca, which we then elaborated as a sense that has even been questioned in trees. Another question was on the correlations between sound and climate change. We explained that this is the most difficult part of the project and that we are reflecting on how to improve this connection after receiving feedback from the art exhibition at Alice Holt.

Research careers

For the second part of the session, Mathieu proposed exploring the nature of research careers through an interactive discussion. The questions posed by Mathieu, were about what motivated us in doing research, how we combine our teaching and research activities and our artistic practice, and what piece of advice can we give to the students to develop their research careers.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Mathieu Barthet for the invitation and to the students of the Master in Acoustics and Musicology, Aix-Marseille University, for their curiosity and good questions.

Welcome three third-year undergraduate students

2024-10-30T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Aleksander Skutnik, Ning Liu, and Stanley Parker.

We are happy to welcome three third-year undergraduate students from Queen Mary University of London who are joining the Sensing the Forest project and will work on related final projects. Welcome!

Aleksander Skutnik is a BSc Computer Science final year student at Queen Mary University of London. For his final year project, he has decided to undertake a research based topic within the Sensing the Forest project under the supervision of Dr Anna Xambó and Kok Ho Huen. His areas of interest and academic experience include probabilistic algorithms and risk analysis, as well as research experience in cognitive and sociocultural areas of psychology. Aleksander also has experience in community organising, advocacy and charity work for a range of organisations which include event and campaign planning. The aim of his project is to conduct a thorough analysis of different power solutions in an attempt to eventually design a fully self-sustainable solution.
Ning Liu is the final year student in BSc(Eng)FT Electronic Engineering(with BUPT) at Queen Mary University in London. Under the supervision of Dr Anna Xambó and Dr Luigi Marino, she chose to take a study on the evaluation of MEMS microphones in the “Sensing the Forest” project as the last year’s research topic. Her fields of interest and academic experience include interactive algorithms and communication analysis, as well as research experience in Arduino installation and cloud connection. The aim of her project is to find optimal solutions of recording in silent conditions.
Stanley Parker is a BSc Creative Computing student at Queen Mary University of London. He is creating an environmental monitoring module for his final year project and is working with the Sensing the Forest team to help make this happen and is being supervised for his project by Dr Anna Xambó and Kok Ho Huen. His areas of experience include sound design and generative audio, interactive media design, web programming, working with sensors and data mapping. Stanley also has an interest in music and audio production, conservation and general use of computers and other digital media in association with the natural world. The aim of his project is to design a system that can be used in a domestic outdoor environment to give people knowledge on what’s happening in the environment around them, and show them what the environmental quality of the environment they’re living in.

Hackathon at Northern Research Station Edinburgh - Day 1

2024-11-12T08:00:00Z

📷 Group Photo by Mahmoud Elmokadem

We met for the first day of our 2-day Sensing the Forest hackathon at the Forest Research Northern Research Station in Edinburgh to develop a new prototype, which is one of the main contributions of Work Package 2 (WP2). The objective of WP2 is to develop an in-house Internet of Things (IoT) prototype to measure variables related to tree stress, such as sap flow, air temperature, humidity and soil moisture to be piloted using community/citizen science methodologies connected to web applications for data analysis, visualisation and sonification. Figure 1 shows a diagram of our vision.

Figure 1. Diagram of the prototype we aim to build in WP2.

Figure 2. Poster of the hackathon designed by George Xenakis.

Hackathon contributors

The hackathon contributors are:

George Xenakis (lead of WP2’s vision)
Luigi Marino (QMUL)
Mahmoud B. Elmokadem (DMU)
Subhash Arockiadoss (DMU)
Ning Liu (QMUL)
Stanley Raymond Parker (QMUL)
Krishna Nama Manjunatha (DMU) (online)
Ireti Olowe (UAL) (online)
Anna Xambó (QMUL)

Aim of day 1

The aim of day 1 has been to create a think-tank space and bring together our different disciplines, related projects and early prototypes to the table. The day started with a provocative keynote speech by Ireti Olowe about ideas on mappings from climate data to audiovisual data. After that, George Xenakis introduced the key scientific concepts behind working with tree talkers. After lunch, we had a show and tell session where first, Mahmoud B. Elmokadem, Subhash Arockiadoss and Krishna Nama Manjunatha presented the progress on the hardware side of the prototype, and Luigi Marino introduced a detailed account of the lessons learned from designing the streamers for the forest. Next, we detail a bit more about the day and the key takeaways.

Quick introduction about StF, WP2, the hackathon

George and I gave a warm welcome to the participants and gave a short introduction to the project. We presented the vision and aim of the Sensing the Forest project, and in particular what we expect from Objective 2 and the hackathon. We also briefly mentioned the forthcoming participatory design of a tree talker prototype scheduled for February-April 2025. Then, we moved to Ireti’s talk.

Ireti Olowe’s talk: [Audio. Visual. Audiovisuals] Instruments for Sensing: The Common Denominator

Bio: Ireti Olowe’s research focuses on employing data as creative material, specifically related to audiovisual expression and performance. Audiovisuals represent a broad range of interdisciplinary practices where image, interwoven with sound are performed and projected through some form of creative endeavor. Through Creativity Support Tools, Ireti seeks to explore sound and its associated data as phenomena, facilitating meaningful outcomes that provide agency and opportunities for creativity. Ireti has led industry research projects in games, virtual and urban experience, Web3, Internet of Things, digital twins, and smart cities, contributing expertise in human-computer interaction and user experience. Currently, she is a research fellow at UAL’s Creative Computing Institute working on the AHRC-funded Transforming Collections discovery project for the Towards a National Collection program, where she focuses on user interfaces that enable humans, facilitated by machine learning, to interrogate and manage museum-collections-as-data.

Abstract: An Information Age that continuously evolves as it transitions into subsequent Industrial Revolutions, requires new instruments to explore knowledge derived from behavioral systems that conform them. Systems eg., natural, human, analog, and digital, that may differ in oddity, operation, osmosis, and output, however, find convergence in their extracted, distilled numerical and semantic forms. Either common denominator provides means to embed meaning and transform raw data extracted from systems and, in turn, behaviors that represent them into artistic material for exploring phenomena creatively through audio (sonification), visual (visualization), and audiovisual interpretation. This talk focuses on how data extracted from climate phenomena, specifically humidity, temperature, sap flow, and soil moisture can be employed by creative instruments to generate knowledge discovery and inspire exploration for storytelling and tacit understanding.

The talk was also open to attend online by Forest Research staff members and QMUL students from the QMUL’s MSc module Interactive Digital Multimedia Techniques. The talk was well-attended with 10-20 online attendees and the hackathon group onsite of 7 people. With a solid foundation in her PhD work Bountiful Data: Leveraging Multitrack Audio and Content-Based for Audiovisual Performance, Ireti presented different approaches that we can consider when mapping climate data to audio, visual, or audiovisual. Mapping was defined as *“using behaviour of one modality to control behaviour in another modality”. Ireti gave us a summary of mapping strategies and techniques. Ireti recommended to use of metaphors to create a narrative that others can understand, with a particular focus on the variables we want to measure, such as humidity, temperature, soil moisture and sap flow. Many considerations were raised, such as the environment as a system and the entanglements that exist, the open-ended nature of engaging with data, and factors that can influence such as time, space, and features. Also, she stressed aspects that need to be considered when designing for others with an emphasis on playfulness, interaction and discovery, as well as potential sources of inspiration, such as Scavengers Reign. Overall, the talk was enlightening and a food-for-thought for the entire hackathon.

WP2/Tree talkers

Figure 3. George Xenakis explaining WP2.

Georgios Xenakis, a co-investigator of Sensing the Forest who is the lead of the WP2’s vision, presented relevant concepts about stress in trees, and how trees can respond to stress in terms of what changes to their physiology and the use of resources. We realised that it is important to understand the different parts of a tree because by observing them, we can know if the tree is stressed or not. For example, trees have stomata, which are tiny pores on the underside of leaves that allow for the exchange of gases and water. When stomata close, there is stress.

Then he introduced us to the concept of sap flow, which refers to the water movement within a tree. This connects with the live part of the tree (sapwood) as opposed to the dead part of the tree (heartwood). Georgios works with tree talkers, which helps understand water movement and if the tree is stressed. The technique requires inserting two probes into the xylem tissue, and a heat pulse method determines the sap flow velocity by comparing the temperature of the heating probe with the reference probe. Positive values indicate upward sap flow while negative values indicate reverse sap flow.

Tree talkers measure the conductance and not the resistance of the sap flow. The higher the difference between the two probes, the higher the speed of the flow of water in the stem. Typically, fast sap flow occurs during the growing season, whereas slow sap flow occurs during dormancy in the winter. Sap flow can be affected by several factors, such as temperature, humidity, sunlight, and soil moisture. We are planning to explore these relationships as part of the project, which should be reflected in the prototype.

Another highlight is the unit of measurement of the tree talkers. The quantity of the water is measured in cubic metres (m3) captured as length (in meters) per width (in meters) per height (in meters).
Sap flow is often expressed as litres (L) per hour: cm3 (volume of sap) per cm2 (area of sapwood) per hour (time). This means that we need to know the area of the sapwood.

The last part of the presentation proposed some ideas and informative questions to develop the prototype. Informing people is the main goal of the prototype, and George envisions the use of clear concepts such as more water => happier tree and less water => sadder tree, where we can operate with the values of 1=tree happy and 0=tree is struggling. Connecting water with the flow should consider that there is a lag between the cause and the effect. Hence, granularity is important. This similarly happens with soil moisture and the sap flow. George proposes that perhaps a granularity of 10 minutes of data collection should suffice.

The talk concluded with a sonification that George created to showcase the energy balance (see below). George is using real data of net carbon capture from a mature Sitka spruce plantation as measured by scientific equipment at the Harwood long-term flux monitoring site. Monthly values of net carbon capture together with meteorological data were converted into music to make this composition. George is mapping the different values to different instruments. Reflecting on Ireti’s talk, we discussed that it would be useful for the listener to be able to mute/unmute the different instruments/tracks to understand better how each variable/instrument works so that the relationship among the different variables can be facilitated.

George Xenakis · Listen to our data - Harwood Tower

Show and tell

This session was meant to be for showing informal presentations of related projects/prototypes we have been working on, to get to know each others’ skills.

Mahmoud B. Elmokadem, Subhash Arockiadoss and Krishna Nama Manjunatha presented the progress on the hardware side of the prototype and Luigi Marino introduced a detailed account of the lessons learned from designing the streamers for the forest.

Mahmoud B. Elmokadem: the node

Figure 4. Show and tell of the node prototype by Mahmoud B. Elmokadem, Subhash Arockiadoss and Krishna Nama Manjunatha.

Mahmoud started summarising the progress so far achieved with the hardware prototype that under Krishna’s supervision, Mahmoud and Subhash have been working on.

The node prototype has the following features implemented:

Simultaneous charging of power bank from solar cell while drawing the power from power bank to power R-Pi.
Possibility to track and monitor power consumption of RPi with and without sensors.
All parts are assembled in a small cute and robust metal enclosure that is waterproof.
Ability to measure, record and display the readings of temperature, humidity, and soil moisture.

Mahmoud also discussed the ongoing work on:

Improving the accuracy of the readings and sending JSON file data.
Working on the assembly and fittings, which is giving some challenges but a few solutions are considered with the help from the Mechatronics workshop at DMU.
3D printing a few parts to help with holding the parts within the enclosure.

George recommends the team add a switch on/off to avoid the spikes of the sensors and to save battery. Choosing a sampling interval will be important. To make it more efficient, it is also recommended to turn off the visuals of the RPi, no desktop, no browser and just use the command line to reduce the resources. Given that there are different types of soils, we also discuss about calibration of the soil moisture sensor, which is expected to be done by the user before measuring a particular soil. We will need to make sure to add to the instructions how to calibrate the sensor, which typically will need a bucket with soil, water it, let it dry, and measure the voltage to be mapped. Finally, it is advised to use a precise clock for the timestamp because otherwise, the interpretation of the data can be misguiding.

Subhash Arockiadoss: DIY sap flow sensor

Figure 5. Subhash Arockiadoss presenting.

Under Krishna’s supervision and Mahmoud’s mentoring, Subhash has been also working on investigating comparing, selecting and analysing the system design of the sap flow sensor, to propose a potential solution for a DIY implementation. Subhash presented a very detailed analysis comparing three different commercial products and some suggestions on customising a commercial sensor from one of the companies. The presentation had well-presented technical block diagrams and schematics, that allowed us to understand how the scenario of converting from the analogue signal of the probes to the digital signal would work, as well as how the data processing of the digital value would be converted from the temperature calculation to the sap flow calculation.

This presentation gave us more evidence that we might build only one DIY sap flow sensor to demonstrate what we promised in the project, but it might not be economically feasible to scale it up to more units. George proposed that we might consider an alternative to the DIY sap flow sensor that should be easier to use and with an affordable price, which is the band dendrometer. A dendrometer is a sensor that measures the growth of trees, which can vary over the day, months and years. This created a nice discussion of whether a dendrometer would allow us to “sense the tree”. We agreed that we would like the users to experience the tree and the environment in terms of what happens if there are environmental changes (e.g. warmer/drier/wetter temperature) and how this can help the user start making connections with climate change.

Luigi Marino: the streamers

Figure 6. Luigi Marino presenting the lessons learned from the streamers.

Luigi shared with the group his experience of building two DIY streamers for the forest without using mains. This has been (and still is) a difficult challenge because a) the streamers are on all the time (so not switching on/off the system is possible to save energy) and b) one of the streamers is under the canopy, which has a general lack of sunlight, especially since the days have become shorter in autumn, which affects the unit because it is based on solar-powered energy combined with a car battery.

Luigi has presented both the hardware and software of the two streamers. Giorgio, the streamer in the small meadow, has been presented as the successful proof of concept that the system works. Paula, the streamer under the canopy in the Willows Green trail, has been presented as the challenging case. For example, not only the lack of sun is an issue, but also the humidity, which affected the MEMs microphone becoming rusty after a few days, and this affected the sound quality of the soundscape.

Figure 7. Show and tell of the node prototype by Mahmoud B. Elmokadem, Subhash Arockiadoss and Krishna Nama Manjunatha.

The feedback from the hardware part was very useful. On the one hand, George mentioned that when the season changes, the inclination/angle of the solar panels needs to be increased to capture the lower sun. He also suggested the Photovoltaic Geographical Information System, which helps to plan what solar panels you might need depending on the time of the year and the location. We should also be careful when the car battery is too low because if you let the charge drop too low, your battery can become irreparably damaged. Another piece of advice from Mahmoud is to buy a fire-protected blanket to cover the plastic box that contains the battery to prevent any potential issues.

Next, Luigi presented the software in terms of how it works and what libraries it is using. Apart from the updated version that Luigi developed so that it would work with the latest OS version of Raspberry Pi, there are several libraries that are used related to audio features, modem features, and recording features, among others. For example, to make the recordings based on the astral time, the astral library is used. As final feedback, George mentioned that there is a lot of work in the streamers. Luigi is planning to polish the code for publication, as well as improve the quality of the recordings and the efficiency of the battery under the canopy.

Dinner

We concluded our first hackathon day by having dinner at Mowgli Street Food Edinburgh, where we celebrated a very productive first day. We also agreed that we would continue working as a team (without any subteams) on day 2, and outlined a plan for the day, which would be more focused on hands-on demonstrations, data, and mappings.

Figure 8. Dinner at Mowgli Street Food Edinburgh.

What’s next

Tomorrow we will have a more hands-on experience of learning how to install a tree talker and then discussing data and mappings as a team. We should have something visible/audible by 3pm to show to Ireti Olowe, who will act as an opponent of our prototype.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Forest Research Northern Research Station for hosting us during these two days and to the team members for all the nice contributions to the hackathon.

Hackathon at Northern Research Station Edinburgh - Day 2

2024-11-13T08:00:00Z

📷 Group Photo and Portraits by Mahmoud Elmokadem. From left-right, Subhash Arockiadoss, Luigi Marino, Georgios Xenakis, Anna Xambó, Stanley Parker, Ning Liu, and Mahmoud Elmokadem.

We met for the second day of our 2-day Sensing the Forest hackathon at the Forest Research Northern Research Station in Edinburgh to develop a new prototype, which is one of the main contributions of Work Package 2 (WP2). The objective of WP2 is to develop an in-house Internet of Things (IoT) prototype to measure variables related to tree stress, such as sap flow, air temperature, humidity and soil moisture to be piloted using community/citizen science methodologies connected to web applications for data analysis, visualisation and sonification. Figure 1 shows a diagram of our vision.

Figure 1. Diagram of the prototype we aim to build in WP2.

Figure 2. Poster of the hackathon designed by George Xenakis.

Hackathon contributors

The hackathon contributors are:

George Xenakis (lead of WP2’s vision)
Luigi Marino (QMUL)
Mahmoud B. Elmokadem (DMU)
Subhash Arockiadoss (DMU)
Ning Liu (QMUL)
Stanley Raymond Parker (QMUL)
Krishna Nama Manjunatha (DMU) (online)
Ireti Olowe (UAL) (online)
Anna Xambó (QMUL)

Aim of day 2

The aim of day 2 has been to create a hands-on hackathon space where we can share more ideas towards designing the DIY tree talker by both reflecting on Ireti Olowe’s talk and continuing the discussion about hardware and software. The day started with a hands-on demonstration of how the hardware prototype works led by Mahmoud B. Elmokadem and Subhash Arockiadoss. Then, George Xenakis did an outdoor demonstration of how to install a tree talker. This was continued with short project presentations by Stanley Parker and Ning Liu about their final-year projects to get feedback from the team. After lunch, we had a brainstorming session on audiovisual mappings. The session concluded with a discussion led by Ireti Olowe on the potential directions that the prototype could take. George Xenakis gave the closing speech. Next, we detail a bit more about the day and the key take-aways.

The node prototype

After the presentation of the node prototype on day 1, Mahmoud and Subhash started the day by showing us how to set up the system and how the system works in a lab for these purposes. George prepared a small bucket with watered soil to use the soil moisture. As we were unclear about the output values, we compared it with a standalone soil moisture. Subhash realised that putting the two together was not a good idea because it created a noisy signal. Mahmoud also said that the sensor takes some time to establish. George reinforced yesterday’s message of capturing with a lower intensity because the changes are slow. Mahmoud left the unit sending data for the entire day.

Figure 3. The setup of the node prototype.

The installation of a tree talker

We then moved outdoors. George had prepared a unique demonstration of how a tree talker sensor is installed on a Scottish spruce tree. See below for the video demonstration that explores new and cheaper ways of data acquisition using known technologies. Mahmoud also took a series of portraits, which you can enjoy as a carousel at the top of this blog post.

Figure 4. George demonstrating the installation of a tree talker.

George also introduced us to the fascinating measurement object of the increment borer, which is used to extract a section of wood tissue from a tree to determine the age of the tree. It is possible to count the number of rings in the core sample and to infer the age of the tree as well as the growth rate.

Figure 5. George demonstrating how to measure the .

Two related UG’s projects

Before lunch, we dedicated a session to hearing from Stanley Parker and Ning Liu about their final-year projects of their respective undergraduate degrees at QMUL. Stanley is a BSc Creative Computing student. He is creating an environmental monitoring module for his final year project. Ning is a final year student in BSc(Eng)FT Electronic Engineering(with BUPT). She is evaluating the quality of MEMS microphones to improve the audio quality of the streamers in silent conditions. Each of them presented informally their projects and had fantastic feedback from the team.

Figure 6. Stanley and Ning presenting their 3rd-year project.

Brainstorming session on audiovisual mappings

Stanley Parker: An AV mapping example

After lunch, we devoted a session to discussing what are the potential mappings. We started from existing examples. First, Stanley shared an audiovisual project he did as part of his degree about changes in the environment where a realistic landscape would change depending on the environmental and climate changes on a physical plant.

Figure 7. Screenshot of AV mapping presented by Stanley Parker.

George Xenakis: A sonification example

Then, George presented the data that a sap flow generates and what is the type of plot that he used for the sonification. From the data, we could clearly see daily fluctuations of the sap flow expressed in litres per hour, where negative values would mean sap flow going downwards.

Figure 8. Screenshot of sap flow data presented by George Xenakis.

Then, George explains the process of sonification for his piece. The three variables used are sensor flow, air temperature and relative humidity (which measures water vapour relative to the temperature of the air). The tool used is TwoTone as shown in Figure 8. Existing relationships that we can observe are, for example, when there is high temperature and low humidity, the atmosphere is dry, which means the soil is dryer, and the tree starts getting stressed. George talks about an existing lag between changes in the atmospheric conditions and how they affect the tree’s sap flow.

The sonification is made by choosing one musical instrument for each variable. A church organ for the sap flow, a harp for the air temperature, and a glockenspiel for the relative humidity. When listening to the piece, we confirm from yesterday’s discussions that it would be useful to allow the user to mute/unmute the different instruments so that they can make the connections clearer.

Figure 9. Screenshot of the sonification from the sap flow data presented by George Xenakis.

In terms of visualisation, George would like to see the metaphor of the emotion of the tree by showing a face on the tree of when the tree is happy vs sad, perhaps emoticons. Happyness refers here to an optimal balance of temperature, humidity and soil moisture. For example, a happy face on a tree could be triggered when there is a high temperature and the soil moisture is high. On the contrary, a sad tree could be triggered by a lack of water. We also talked about how these correlations could translate from replacing the sap flow sensor with the dendrometer when replicating a few units for the forthcoming user study next year. In the case of the dendrometer, we measure the relative change to where you started, where the bigger the difference, the bigger the sap flow.

Subhash Arockiadoss: A sonification example

Subhash presented an example of NASA where they map the supernova to different colours. NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a mission that uses infrared light to scan the sky, capturing images of stars, galaxies, asteroids, and comets, among others. An example of how WISE ‘sees’ is explained in NASA’s blog post WISE Sees an Explosion of Infrared Light and An Explosion of Infrared Color.

Figure 10. A colourful nebula that represents the supernova remnant IC 443 depicted by WISE. This image shows how stellar explosions interact with their environment by using infrared colours. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Here we see the representation of the explosion of the star IC 443, 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, to then die. When a massive star dies, it provokes blasts, which are called supernovae, and it sends out shock waves, which in turn create supernova remnants. In Figure 9 we see the infrared light color-coded to reveal different densities of the materials from the infrared wavelengths of the shock waves hitting the materials.

Luigi Marino: Considerations on mappings

Figure 11. Luigi presenting.

Luigi gave a theoretical overview of mappings based on his PhD work Revisiting a relational approach to Electronic music performance (2021). He recognised that it is not possible to summarise in 15 minutes the history of mappings in electronic music that started in the 1960s, but he will focus on relevant aspects. Luigi mentions the continuum seen in the examples previously discussed from realism (Stanley’s and George’s examples) and the interpolation of data (Subhash’s example). Luigi recommends observing the phenomenon and forgetting any preconceptions. He then shows a few examples between arbitrary and the real world.

Figure 12. Graphic representation of the tangential agency line. Image Credit: Luigi Marino.

The first example is the composition of music from a bird feeder. Luigi talks about generative sound and animal science as areas that inform this work. This composition focuses on the anomalies of the signal and plays with different continuums e.g. short-term memory vs long-term memory or natural timeframe vs reactive artificial timeframe. Luigi proposes that for a full experience, you need to incorporate both full causality and inexistence, a quote he refers to from Bruno Latour on p. 101 of his thesis: “There might exist many metaphysical shades between full causality and sheer inexistence”. Luigi talks about this continuum and how tangential agency goes in line with this continuum where different shades of mediation are possible.

Figure 13. Graphic representation of the relationship daychord of a music composition. Image Credit: Luigi Marino.

Also from his PhD thesis, Luigi presents a second example of a graphic representation based on relationships and tangential agency. Figure x shows, from top to bottom, how tangential the relationships are to the gestures of the performer. At the bottom, there is a representation of time in time cycles. Overall, Luigi recommends promoting surprises vs static behaviours e.g. looking at Subhash’s supernova example, every day we could see a different colour palette, or include some noise/artefacts for variation, which is extremely important in music.

Figure 14. Graphic representation of a relational score. Image Credit: Luigi Marino.

Discussion with Ireti Olowe

While we had the brainstorming discussion, we circulated a white paper with three interconnected bubbles, data, sound and visuals, for each individual to fill in. This drawing was the starting point of our discussion with Ireti, who chipped in to act as an opponent role to our ideas.

Figure 15. Brainstorming on paper about mapping from sensors data to AV data.

Our summary to Ireti was that we could not finalise the prototype, but we had a direction. We agreed that our starting point is the tree and its ecosystem, which always has feedback, that we want to build a narrative around it, and that we would like to offer a web-based interactive experience that should give ownership to the user. We also said that we are interested in observing patterns (not only data points).

Some application features that we discussed are:

Ability to play with the data and listen to it.
Support “plluralism” in terms of designing for a diverse range of users.
Empower the user by switching on and off different layers.
Support data inference and data interpolation.

In terms of metaphors:

tree emotion, what is happy for a tree?
network or cloud (no node can take over another node) with potentially many-to-many mappings
nature

As per mappings:

Work with continuums e.g. tangential agency (causality-independence), figurative vs abstract, musical vs sonic.

We all agreed that representing the connection between trees and climate change is very difficult, and it is the quintessence of the Sensing the Forest project. We should keep exploring and discussing interdisciplinarity to succeed in this challenge. Ireti has provided us with many examples that we can dig into and start finding more concrete representations we can get inspiration.

Collecting data from the node

The final part of the day was to check the data collected by the node prototype. It was a success to see that the node was still collecting data and that the soil moisture sensor had stabilised by giving more correct values than in the morning. Figure x shows stable values from the temperature sensor, humidity sensor and soil moisture sensor. George suggested again that adding a switch on/off can help with the efficiency and stability of the data collected and values and that reducing the frequency might also help, for example, every 10 minutes instead of every 5 seconds.

Figure 16. Collecting data from the node prototype.

We left Forest Research Northern Research Station exhausted but very happy with how the two days went. A starling swarm said bye to us with an audiovisual immersive experience of random but coordinated behaviours that exemplifies how we could approach the AV mappings for the prototype.

Figure 17. A starling swarm.

Dinner

We concluded the 2nd day of the hackathon at Cafe Royal in Edinburgh for dinner. Many of us experienced the haggis for the first time and other well-elaborated dishes.

Figure 18. Dinner at Cafe Royal in Edinburgh.

What’s next

Overall, working with a focus for two days has proven to be very productive. Although we have not been able to solve the problem in such a short period, we now understand better the different disciplinary perspectives that will help us to take the next steps. The group discussions have been fundamental for polishing the system’s requirements and outlining the next steps. Moreover, the hackathon has been a fruitful space for potential future collaborations.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Forest Research for hosting us during these two days and to the team for the effort and contributions to the hackathon.

3rd Advisory Board Meeting

2024-11-29T10:00:00Z

Photo: From left-right top-down, Danielle Grimsey, Anna Xambó, Peter Batchelor, Leigh Landy, Luigi Marino, and Louise Fedotov-Clements.

We had our 3rd Advisory Board (AB) Meeting on 27th November 2024. This meeting aimed to present the updates of the project to the AB and seek their feedback. We discussed the three work packages and where we are at the moment.

WP1: Artistic audio ecology intervention concerning forests and climate data

We started with WP1 giving updates on the streamers, customised data logger, multichannel sound installation, and summer school.

Streamers: Luigi presented an overview and status of the two audio streamers. In his last field trip this past week, Luigi changed the angle of the solar panel of Streamer I (natural soundscape) as per George’s recommendation to accommodate the winter’s sun - this is a common practice among the Forest Research scientists. Streamer I has been generally working fine due to being in a meadow with no trees’ shades and facing south. For Streamer II, Luigi presented all the difficulties of making it work under the canopy 24/7/365. Luigi has faced several challenges including the corrosion of the microphones due to the environmental humidity, and the perils of the kids when the streamer was at their hand’s reach. We all agreed that we should recognise that these systems might not work due to being solar-powered. Another novelty is that Luigi has been polishing the streamers’ log received once a day by email, and now the battery voltage value is also sent. The AB praised Luigi’s work and wondered about the transferability of these systems to other environments and by other users. Luigi is planning to release 3D models, code and tutorials soon to allow others to adapt it to their needs.

Figure 1. Giorgio's Streamer I (natural soundscape).

Figure 2. Paula's Streamer II (sound installation).

Customised data logger/Featured sound installation: Pete started summarising the customised data logger led by Mike to read the environmental data to understand the carbon balance of the forest. This data logger measures air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, photosynthetically active radiation, net radiation and carbon dioxide concentration. We created a web server to collect and transmit these values via JSON files and a PureData web client to make it easier to map it to sounds. This has allowed Pete to develop his sound installation.

Pete then presented the updates of his solar-powered sound installation, a 16-channel installation using suspended speakers that was premiered in June 2024 during the summer school and is live for one year in the Alice Holt Forest reading real-time values and mapping them to sounds. The system is solar-powered using a model of solar panels recommended by Luigi and a 12V leisure battery. Pete described how the system works with a timer switch that schedules the system to work from 11am until 5pm as a tradeoff for making the system work autonomously and the visitor centre’s opening times. Pete also described all the work to make the system waterproof using a wooden box for the electronics built by Max and the Forestry England team and covered with waterproof material as well as using a waterproof junction box designed as an outdoor electrical box. The mappings include relative humidity mapped to multichannel soundscapes suggestive of forest ‘dryness’ vs ‘wetness’; net radiation mapped to drones which suggest ‘energy’; and CO2 mapped to ‘breathing’ sound — slower breathing = greater CO2 uptake.

The AB congratulated Pete for this achievement. Louise asked questions related to how we communicate to the visitors about the processes involved e.g. mappings, and liveness of the data. Pete outlined our plans to improve the signage in collaboration with Forestry England and the use of QR codes to point to online web pages with further information. The elephant in the room of how the sound installation maps to climate change was also discussed if it only reads real-time data. Pete recognised the challenge but is in his plans to incorporate historical data since 2,000 provided by Mike, which were recorded in a nearby place. To distinguish the differences within the piece according to the weather, Louise suggested getting access to several recordings. This should be possible once we get Paula’s audio streamer working with stability. Leigh commented on the great value of the PureData patch and questioned how we are capturing the visitors’ engagement and reactions. The broader picture (and elephant in the room) of communicating how the artistic work connects with the political agenda of climate change is something that we are trying to get our heads around. Pete recognised that there is a limit to what can be conveyed in the installation on its own and that the website should give follow-up/complementary information. Danielle suggested having a promotional leaflet for the visitors and Nick was in favour of adding QR codes.

Figure 3. Dendrophone's 16 suspended speakers.

Figure 4. Dendrophone's behind the scenes.

Summer school: Pete summarised how the summer school went. The last time we met with the AB we were in the middle of the online seminars and organising the summer school and exhibition. This time, we could reflect on how it went. The summer school and exhibition were successful from our perspective because we achieved the challenging goal of working together towards a site-specific exhibition where different voices manifested artistically on how sound and the arts can communicate about climate change. The 2-day summer school was intense, included a keynote by Luigi on Arts, the forest, and tangential relationships and culminated with the opening of the ephemeral 4-hour exhibition curated by Pete and Hazel with the help of the Sensing the Forest Summer School Team and the Sensing the Forest Summer School Participants. Pete gave a brief of the feedback gathered on the day, with appraisal from the visitors but with only 29% reporting an increase in their knowledge on climate change after visiting the exhibition. This is food for thought for us. Shuoyang is producing a video as an output of the exhibition that can be used as a tool for reflecting on this connection and inviting viewers to visit Alice Holt. We have also identified some common themes across the installations that we would like to promote on the online version of the website.

The AB posed questions related to the artists’ work processes and artistic documentation. Louise was curious about the process of working with the artists from proposals to reality. Pete mentioned the high quality of all the works, and we described the efforts made by the team to get the artists to be familiar with the site from afar. During our team’s field trips, we created an Exploration of the Willows Green Trail for the summer school art exhibition that was handy, and we allocated the installations in advance considering the artists’ expectations and needs. Forestry England offered constant and invaluable help to make the projects a reality. The summer school seminars were also designed to provide different perspectives on designing a sound installation to be displayed in the Alice Holt Forest. Leigh was impressed by the pitches from the participants and is looking forward to Shuoyang’s video. Leigh also commented on the importance of documenting, and how we are making it relevant to the artists. Pete commented that it is a learning process, we are still learning how to communicate.

Figure 5. Artists preparing their exhibitions for Your Sonic Forest.

Figure 6. Artists preparing their exhibitions for Your Sonic Forest.

WP2: Community science intervention with forests and climate data

We then moved to present the status of WP2, which has officially started in August 2024. We gave updates on the DIY tree talker, the hackathon, and what’s next.

DIY tree talker: Mahmoud summarised the work that Krishna, himself and Subhash are doing on the hardware side of the prototype. They are working on the first DIY tree talker hardware unit that will then be replicated 4-6 times, depending on the costs. The prototype is based on Raspberry Pi, is solar-powered to a certain extent, and it incorporates air temperature, humidity and soil moisture sensors. Adding a sap flow sensor is under evaluation due to the high costs and complexity of setting it up.

Figure 7. The hardware part of the DIY tree talker prototype.

Hackathon: Mahmoud highlighted the key points of the hackathon that was held in Edinburgh on 12-13 November at the headquarters of the Forest Research Northern Research station. We have published two blog posts about it: Day 1 and Day 2. These two days were important to secure a think-tank space to discuss the development of the prototype. The audiovisual mappings will be another challenge that will be key to the success of communicating the connection of the audiovisual data with climate change. We shared the unanimous conclusion from the hackathon that representing what a happy/sad tree is can convey this connection.

The AB had questions on the interdisciplinarity of the project and the nature of this WP. Louise asked about the type of conversations with Forest Research. Mahmoud replied that George gave very important advice on how to implement certain aspects of the tree talker. Leigh was surprised about this WP and wondered how this got integrated into WP1 and into the broader narrative. Although WP1 and WP2 explore differently the same problem, we should make sure that we share the results using a cohesive narrative.

Figure 8. Group photo of the hackathon (day 1).

Figure 9. Group photo of the hackathon (day 2).

User study: I gave a summary of the forthcoming user study once we get the units built. We hope to recruit 6 participants in the UK to test the custom-made tree-talker prototype from home. The study is expected to last for 3 months (likely February-April 2025). We will meet online four times (1h/session) via a Zoom call with the group of participants. We hope to gain essential insights that could shape the future
implementation of the tree talker.

WP3: Public conversations and debate

We had also time to discuss the status of WP3, which lasts for the entire 24 months of the project related to the website, public engagement and publications output.

Website & Media: The website is at the core of this project. We try to share all that we do through blogging, videos, etc. We started to track visitors on 29.10.2023. Since April we have tripled the visits from 1.4K visitors from 60 different countries and 385 different cities to 4.1K visitors from 71 different countries and 673 different cities.

Public engagement: so far we have done 3 external (CHIME, ADC, Aix-Marseille University) and 2 internal presentations at QMUL about the project. We have published 17 videos so far (9 seminar series videos, 7 summer school videos, 2 StF presentations and 1 demo) plus other videos related to documentation of the summer school. We have 47 blog posts published so far. We expect more content to be published on the developments of the different technologies. We also hope to start releasing relevant code soon. We have a mailing list with 13 members, our YouTube channel has 12 subscribers, and our Instagram account has 46 followers.

Publications output: We are a bit behind the original schedule. We discuss the difficulty of developing technologies and so the publications get delayed for this reason. The AB acknowledges that this pattern is common. There are 3 undergraduate students working on their final projects on Sensing the Forest-related topics, Alex, Ning, and Stanley, which is fantastic. We have recently announced four topics at a master level as well. Xinyue will be working on mappings from weather sensors to sound.

Final general feedback & discussion

We had a final discussion with the AB about how to measure/demonstrate a successful AHRC-funded research project and when it ends.

Leigh commented that academic outputs tend to get delayed, but he is more worried about the artistic outputs and the website material. Leigh insisted that WP3 has a key role in putting it all together and that documenting well the work should be prioritised always connecting to the project’s vision of raising public awareness of climate change. The effort now should be on putting things together holistically. The AB can help devise a strategy keeping in mind that we need to be practical and realistic. Beyond the academic outputs, we should not forget about the societal aspects. The AB can help with any worries we may have.

Louise commented that we should showcase the work for external visibility review and recognition. The questions that we should consider include how to increase the visibility and what are the burning elements that we want to achieve in the proposed framework. Louise suggested finding different narratives. For example, the participatory design component of WP2 can bring a new, complementary narrative.

We all agreed that the development phase is transitioning to the narrative/documentation phase and this should be reflected on where we put our efforts now. The project should be transferable, as well. The final words of the AB were very positive, congratulating the team for all the great work.

This was the last “programmed” AB meeting. However, we discussed with the AB that we might meet again, and we could prepare an interim report in the next 1-2 months to share with the AB to discuss and one more meeting might be useful. Thank you to Louise, Leigh and Mark for your time, help and valuable feedback!

We had our ABM#3 in a very busy time of the year. Thanks to those who attended!

Presentation at CHIME 2024 - December 2, 2024

2025-01-18T10:00:00Z

The CHIME Annual One-day Music and HCI Conference 2024 took place on Monday 2 December 2024 at The Open University, in Milton Keynes, UK. This is a one-day research event for sharing work in the area of music and human-computer interaction, with a particular emphasis on participative hands-on demos. This is an opportunity to hear the latest research in music and interaction; network with peers; get hands-on experience with participative demos; and share your work and interests with representatives from music-interaction-related industry and charities.

Luigi presented the development of the streamers and the challenges that we are facing. It was nice to present the status of the streamers to the CHIME network after our CHIME seminar one year ago on November 2023 about the Sensing the Forest project.

About the talk

Title

Developing DIY Solar-Powered, Off-Grid Audio Streamers for Forest Soundscapes: Progress and Challenges

Abstract

This project presents the ongoing development and challenges of building two permanent listening stations for one year located in the Alice Holt Forest in the UK using DIY practices and techniques:

Soundscape: http://solid41.streamupsolutions.com:8010/
Installation: http://solid67.streamupsolutions.com:8063/

Reference

Marino, Luigi and Xambó, Anna (2024). Developing DIY Solar-Powered, Off-Grid Audio Streamers for Forest Soundscapes: Progress and Challenges, Proceedings of the CHIME Annual One-day Music and HCI Conference 2024, Milton Keynes, UK.

Q&A

The talk was very well received. There were several questions on the manufacturing and replication of the streamers. The questions included: what is the audio quality/range (is it recording beyond what humans can hear?); the cost of producing one streamer (is it an affordable cost?); and how many streamers we are planning to develop. We will soon be releasing the software and hardware details as well as what needs to be changed to improve the sound quality even more under a tight budget.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the organisers Tom Mudd and Simon Holland for such an inspirational event. Thank you to the CHIME attendees for their feedback.

12th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-01-19T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Anna Xambó and Luigi Marino.

Status of Streamer Giorgio and Natural Soundscapes

We started the day with a 5-minute audio recording that can be listened here. This has the purposed to get familiar with the soundscape of the site.

We used the Merlin Bird ID app to see what birds are identified. A great variation is identified including Common Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Eurasian Wren, European Robin, Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Blue Tit, and Eurasian Treecreeper. We will need to investigate more and contrast these results with what bird-recognition algorithms will tell us from the dataset that we are building. We also used the mobile app Flora Incognita, which identified the following plants and trees: Shrubby Blackberry, Black Pine, Pine Tree, Birch, and Dull-leaved Sorrel.

A panoramic view of the meadow where Giorgio streamer is located.

A close-up view of the meadow where Giorgio streamer is located.

The power draw of Giorgio’s streamer in this clear meadow is 0.25Ah. We have observed that with 15 hours of sunlight, it works with a battery of 7AH and one solar panel of 100W but after 4 days in a row, it stops working. Hence, we replace the battery with a 50Ah. We checked the Voltage of the solar panels, which was as expected (20.3V) and the Amperage was high too (3.54A), measured at noon, which can be seen as a peak time. Other maintenance duties include collecting the recordings and cleaning the dust of the MEMs microphones.

Several maintenance tasks on Giorgio streamer.

Status of Streamer Paula, Dendrophone and Modified Soundscapes

We did also create a 5-minute audio recording that can be listened here of the Dendrophone sound installation, with the purpose to get familiar with the modified soundscape of the site.

The right mic stopped working. It showed major signs of corrosion and rust. Luigi replaced it. Luigi is still awaiting the right conformal coating to protect circuits in a humid environment. Luigi temporarily used a neutral-cure silicone (non-neutral ones corrode the copper). When silicone is wet it is conductive. This means that there can be clicks in the recordings.

We changed the battery to one of 50 Ah. Currently, there is one solar panel of 120W (18.66V, 0.19A) that shortly after we changed to two solar panels of 120W in parallel. We need to verify its longevity. The power draw of Paula’s streamer is very low (0.1Ah). We changed the battery to 50Ah and we also changed the SD card from 128GB to 256GB. The solar crontab was also updated for the recordings to include four instances during Pete’s installation but then four more instances to align with Giorgio’s recordings.

Luigi transporting a battery with a trolley.

New signage

Luigi and I discussed that the new signage should include information about what is this about, give a warning about not touching the device, and also how to engage outside.

Earth Photo 2024

We concluded the day enjoying the outdoors exhibition Earth Photo 2024, an amazing exhibition commissioned by Forestry England, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and Parker Harris. This is an international collection of photographic images and films that stimulate conversations about our world.

Earth Photo 2024.

Follow-up

The follow-up includes adding a second solar panel to Paula streamer and continuing the development of the streamers so that they can survive the winter!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Danielle Grimsey and the Alice Holt Forest team for their help with the logistics of the day.

13th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-01-20T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Anna Xambó, Aleksander Skutnik and Peter Batchelor.

Getting familiar with the terrain and soundscape streamer maintenance

This field trip started with a regular visit to the soundscape streamer near the large pond. To our surprise, we found Giorgio a bit dislocated - we discussed several hypotheses with Alex and Pete: 1) natural forces such as strong winds; 2) human negative forces (Luigi had left a log in the front that had disappeared); and/or 3) human positive forces (all looked sheltered). The streamer has been working regardless, which “shows the robustness of the system” (quote by Pete).

In any case, Alex and I put two new logs laid in a triangular shape, set the two tripods upside up again and straighten again the dongle and the microphones. We also checked the angle of the light and the solar panel and raised it a little bit in accordance with what is expected in winter. George Xenakis told us that when the winter season arrives, the inclination/angle of the solar panels needs to be increased to capture the lower sun.

To check the angle of the solar panel we used the following link:

Solar panel tilt angle calculator

The status of Giorgio streamer when we arrived.

The status of Giorgio streamer when we left.

Sound installation streamer maintenance and an interview with Peter Batchelor

We then moved to the Alice Holt Cafe to meet with Pete to then go to the Willows Green Trail to see the Dendrophone sound installation and Paula streamer. We did not touch the solar panels of the Paula streamer. It was working in the morning, we only updated the scientific poster with the correct QR code. In the last solo field trip, Luigi brought several logs together to keep the solar panels steady.

The status of Paula streamer.

After lunch, Alex interviewed Pete about his work with solar power as part of his final BSc project. You can read the interview with Pete here.

Pete speaks with Alex about the Dendrophone sound installation.

Brainstorming session

We concluded the session with a brainstorming session in the Activity Centre to discuss potential ideas for the leaflet to promote Pete’s installation/online exhibition and Luigi’s streamers. Below you can find the result.

One side of the leaflet we plan to design to promote Dendrophone and the streamers.

Another side of the leaflet we plan to design to promote Dendrophone and the streamers.

Follow-up

The regular field trips to Alice Holt are necessary to keep the installations up and running. The forest can be harsh in the winter but we are learning so much on the way!

We will continue the field trips to improve the battery and exhibition conditions. We also hope to update the signage very soon.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Danielle Grimsey and Emma Ward for their help with the logistics of the day.

14th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-01-21T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Luigi Marino and Peter Batchelor.

Luigi and I went to the forest again on Friday. I needed to exchange the spent battery with a recharged and upload updated the software. The new software improves the character and behaviour of the sound materials in response to the environmental data, and I’m satisfied that these now better reflect the forest’s activities.

Upon arrival, I discovered that the timer switch kept flicking on and off due to a feeble residual charge in the old battery. I was initially concerned this might be harming the Raspberry Pis, so was pleased to find that upon connecting the new battery and restarting, everything powered up and ran smoothly, demonstrating that the setup has so far survived both the persistent damp (and sometimes torrential rain) and cold temperatures of December and January. Overall, I’ve been impressed with the technical performance and durability of the consumer electronics.

It seems that the current battery setup, supplemented by limited solar charging, lasts about two and a half weeks during winter. Luigi has suggested upgrading to 120Ah batteries (compared to my 92Ah ones) to extend the duration between charges, which I’ll consider.

I have listened to the stream of the installation and it seems to be functioning as it should; I also heard a few comments from passers by who had noticing the installation and commented on what they experienced.

An Interview with Peter Batchelor

2025-02-08T10:00:00Z

About Peter Batchelor: Peter Batchelor is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in Music Technology, and member of the Music, Technology and Innovation - Institute of Sonic Creativity (MTI2) at De Montfort University, Leicester and Co-Investigator of the Sensing the Forest Project. His creative activities encompass a range of electroacoustic composition and sound-making work, including radiophonic documentary, live-electronics and improvisation, multimedia and large-scale multi-channel installation work. Research interests that arise from this practice include: aural landscape construction in sonic arts practice; sound spatialisation/immersion; theories of space; place and listening as they pertain to sound; audience engagement and public art.

«It’s rewarding to see how technology and sustainability can coexist in artistic practice.»

Could we start with your background in artistic installations and what your main areas of interest are?

Sure! My background originally was in acousmatic music, which is a form of music that uses recorded sounds as its primary material. Traditionally, this music is presented in stereo, the two channels offering a sound image or sound stage within which sounds can be positioned. This virtual image is then ‘realised’ via diffusion in a concert setting, where the sounds are projected to multiple channels using fader movements on a kind of inverted mixing desk. It’s a fascinating approach, and this was very much the one I used to begin with, but over time I began experimenting with multichannel setups where I could pre-compose the spatialisation. This allowed me more flexibility and precision in how I deployed sounds over loudspeakers. But I still conceive of multichannel environments in the same way as I approached stereo – i.e. conceiving of the speaker array as a single, coherent sound stage rather than treating each speaker as an independent source. This approach allows for a much richer experience where sounds move fluidly through space.

Over the years, I’ve worked on ever larger multichannel projects. Studies on Canvas was a 30-channel installation with hidden speakers behind blank canvas which were deployed to create realistic soundscapes that the audience could look ‘into’. That project taught me a lot about creating depth and complexity within multichannel systems. More recently, my work on the GRIDs series has focused on achieving high-channel counts using affordable and scalable technology—an essential consideration for large-scale installations without unlimited funding.

«I operate within very much a DIY aesthetic, trying to manage costs while achieving quite ambitious technical goals.»

Could you tell me more about the technology behind your installations?

I operate within very much a DIY aesthetic, trying to manage costs while achieving quite ambitious technical goals. For the Dendrophone project I rely on Raspberry Pi Zeros for their affordability, low power consumption, and flexibility. These are paired with consumer-grade sound interfaces and amplifiers, such as D-class kit amps, which are both cost-effective and energy-efficient.

I used a modular system design. Each Raspberry Pi runs its own instance of Pure Data (Pd), which handles tasks like sample playback and processing, and with the audio interfaces can handle eight channels each. For a previous installation, Cascade, I aggregated 256 channels using 32 Raspberry Pis in a similar way, each similarly connected to their own sound interface. This modular approach has allowed me to scale up or down based on a project’s requirements. The Raspberry Pis communicate with each other using FUDI (Flexible Universal Digital Interface). Synchronisation is close enough, though not sample accurate, so the compositional aspect needs to accommodate this.

In terms of sound generation, for Dendrophone I was a little limited by the CPU and memory capabilities of the Zeros, so the patches trigger sounds from quite a large library of pre-composed eight-channel soundfiles. They then apply relatively simple processing, the parameters of which are all determined by the incoming forest data. For Cascade I had Pis and so I was able to do live granulation across systems, which is quite forgiving in terms of synchronisation if I get any data hangups with networked triggering. I find granulation is also highly effective for creating immersive textures which can work rather beautifully over multichannel systems. By layering grains of sound, I can emulate real-world phenomena like rain or rustling leaves while maintaining a sense of spatial depth. I had to do this granulation in advance for Dendrophone.

«One of the main challenges is the variability of sunlight due to the forest canopy and seasonal changes.»

How do you power these installations, especially in remote locations?

Powering these installations can be quite challenging, particularly in off-grid environments like forests. For the Dendrophone installation, Luigi and I adopted solar-powered solutions for our respective interventions. Initially, we rather naively considered portable battery packs, but they proved hopelessly insufficient for the energy demands of our systems. Instead, we each use four 120-watt solar panels paired with a lead-acid leisure battery for energy storage. While not the most cutting-edge solution, it’s reliable and pretty cost-effective.

One of the main challenges is the variability of sunlight due to the forest canopy and seasonal changes. Solar efficiency can drop significantly under dense tree cover, producing as little as 0.1 amp, even from four solar panels. On a clear day, and when the sun manages to penetrate the canopy, we might get 1.3 amps or more, which if it were consistent, would make the installation comfortably self-sustaining. But it isn’t consistent, even in the summer! To manage the fluctuations, the installation operates on a fixed schedule, running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This ensures that we don’t overdraw the battery, particularly in winter, when the solar capture is particularly poor.

All of this means that we need to replace the battery with a fully charged one from time to time – more frequently as we approach the winter months. We will have a better idea, after the winter, of how often we need to change the battery and how this changes depending on season.

Close-up of Peter Batchelor showing to Aleksander Skutnik how the Dendrophone installation works.

How did you decide on the positioning of the solar panels?

The solar panels are essentially fixed at a 45-degree angle, which is a practical compromise. We’ve propped them up using wood from the forest, which seemed an environmentally fitting solution. The main challenge is optimising placement to maximise sunlight exposure while minimising interference from the canopy. Ideally, I’d adjust the angle seasonally—we’re told they should be at about 30 degrees in summer for optimal capture, and at a steeper angle in winter. I’ve made a few adjustments but where we’re positioned in the forest means that the angle doesn’t really make much difference.

«I see a lot of potential for renewable energy to expand the reach of sound installations into remote and outdoor settings.»

What benefits and challenges have you encountered while sourcing energy for your installations?

The biggest challenge is balancing efficiency with practicality. Again, tree canopy and low winter sun limit solar panel output, but these constraints have forced me to think creatively about energy use. For instance, I’ve optimised the software running on the Raspberry Pis to minimise power consumption. Using D-class amps has also been a game-changer, as they’re much more efficient than A-class amp designs I’ve used in the past.

On the positive side, using renewable energy aligns with the themes of my work, which often explore environmental processes. It’s rewarding to see how technology and sustainability can coexist in artistic practice.

What’s your vision for the future of sound installations and solar-powered solutions?

I see a lot of potential for renewable energy to expand the reach of sound installations into remote and outdoor settings. As technology improves, we’ll have more efficient and smaller computer solutions and advanced batteries, making complex installations more feasible. I’m also interested in integrating energy data visualisation into the artwork itself, creating a feedback loop between the technical and artistic elements.

Welcome four MSc students

2025-02-09T08:00:00Z

From left-right top-down, Xinyue Xu, James Shortland, Andrés Sánchez Castrillón, and Tug O’Flaherty.

We are happy to welcome four MSc students from Queen Mary University of London who are joining the Sensing the Forest project and will work on related final projects. Welcome!

Xinyue Xu is a MSc Sound and Music Computing student in EECS at Queen Mary University of London. She participates in the “Sensing the Forest” project, focusing on research in parameter mapping sonification and interactive music systems and under the supervision of Dr Anna Xambó and Dr Luigi Marino. Her research interests center on translating meteorological sensor data into sound and enhancing the understanding of the connection between forests and climate change through sonification techniques. She is also interested in immersive audio, 3D binaural sound rendering, and spatial hearing.
James Shortland is an MSc Data Science and Artificial Intelligence student at Queen Mary University of London. Originally from California, he is passionate about the outdoors and exploring AI’s potential to support nature conservation and combat climate change. He is contributing to the Sensing the Forest project through his work on Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) under the supervision of Dr Anna Xambó and Dr Luigi Marino.
Andrés Sánchez Castrillón (Queen Mary University of London) is a Master’s student in Artificial Intelligence with a focus on Computer Vision. Originally from Medellín, Colombia, he has a background in software engineering and a keen interest in using AI to address environmental and sustainability challenges. Currently, he is starting to explore soundscape analysis for detecting patterns linked to climate change as part of his research under the supervision of Dr Anna Xambó and Dr Luigi Marino.
Tug O’Flaherty (Queen Mary University of London) is a Sound and Music Computing MSc student at Queen Mary University of London. Having previously undertaken a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science at Kingston University, he specialises in web and cross-platform mobile application development. Tug is excited to be applying his software development background to producing an interactive tool for the sonification and visualisation of climate and tree data within the Sensing the Forest project, under the direction of Dr Anna Xambó and Dr Luigi Marino. He is passionate about climate change awareness and community-focussed initiatives, and keen to contribute his expertise in data mappings, music, and web development.

15th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-02-18T08:00:00Z

The new version of Paula’s streamer with the RPi in a vertical position.

Today I replaced the batteries and added the battery sensor on the tree. Actually, I replaced the whole thing with a version that has the RPi in a vertical position, so the card can be easily accessed only by removing the lid.
Both streamer and installation have a 130Ah battery fully charged from today.

The installation was down, the battery discharged, so I just replaced it, and both the sound and modem started again without any issues after the delays.
When I noticed the installation was off, I didn’t think of any eventual problem in starting it by connecting the battery, I thought I was exactly like the power switch; I regularly do that with mine all the time, and I never had issues. This procedure worked well here.

I have also worked on a battery sensor for monitoring the status of the battery, which Pete will also try for his sound installation.

Close-up of the battery sensor.

16th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-02-19T08:00:00Z

The new version of Giorgio’s streamer with a higher-quality audio model.

Today, I had my trip to the forest.

Everything keeps working exactly as we expect now. The Dendrophone installation was up, and the installation streamer went down yesterday after 15 days when the battery dropped below 11.4v.

I replaced the batteries and installed the newer hi-end model in the soundscape. This includes two RODE Lavalier microphones and a mini RODE audio interface. You can check the difference, especially by night when it’s silent.

🔥 Note: This is a solar-powered system in the woods, which means it sometimes goes offline.

Streamer I (Giorgio): http://solid41.streamupsolutions.com:8010

The RODE Lavalier mics are seriously shielded everywhere, and as electret, they have lower impedance than the MEMS, so even if cables are all coiled near the modem, you can hear zero interferences. If power requirements are met again and humidity doesn’t cause troubles, I think we truly know everything we need to know! And I’m really happy about it.

Stay tuned for the forthcoming release of the code and tutorials related to the streamers!

An Interview with Sarah Hall

2025-03-10T10:00:00Z

About Sarah Hall: Sarah Hall studied architectural glass in Canada, the UK and the Middle East before establishing her own studio in Toronto in 1980. Sarah Hall was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada on December 28, 2019. Her work comprises contemporary art glass at an architectural scale. Over the past forty years she has created hundreds of large-scale artworks for public, private, and institutional settings. In the process she has gained international recognition for her creativity, uncompromising artistry, and the innovative use of solar technology in architectural glass. Sarah is also a respected educator and writer in the field of architectural glass.

«A huge benefit was seeing the tower alight at night with energy generated by sunlight alone – what a delight!»

Can you tell me about your background in artistic installations?

I studied Architectural Glass at Swansea College of Art, UK, apprenticed with Lawrence Lee (Glass Master at the Royal College of Art), received my City & Guilds in Architectural Glass, studied Islamic techniques in glass (Jerusalem) for one year, returned to Canada and established my own studio in 1980 creating contemporary work exclusively of my own design. I have created hundreds of architectural glass commissions for secular and sacred space. Throughout my career, I have explored many techniques. In 2019, I was awarded the Order of Canada for my contributions to architectural and environmental glass.

«In the evening, a column of LED’s is illuminated using the stored solar power. This illuminates the artwork, the tower and park at night.»

What is the technology behind the operation of your installation (board/OS/peripherals)?

In this interview I will focus on one installation: Lux Nova, Regent College, UBC (Figure above). This project fits your requirements as sustainable off-grid power solution for immersive art installations. (Some of my other solar projects are grid-tied). Twelve solar panels are integrated into a wind tower which sits above an underground Theology library. The solar glass and art glass are created as thermopanes and collect energy, which is passed first through a controller, then inverter and into battery storage. In the evening, a column of LED’s is illuminated using the stored solar power. This illuminates the artwork, the tower and park at night. The LED column is programed to be a two hour cycle of changing colour. The battery storage system is clearly visible from the library floor by looking up into the tower.

«It was a challenge to bring solar panels together with art glass and have this accepted as an art installation.»

What benefits and challenges have you faced while sourcing electric energy to your installation?

It was a challenge to bring solar panels together with art glass and have this accepted as an art installation. It was the first installation of its kind in North America and there were different safety certifications for the different types of glass. There were none that matched my technology. Eventually the German safety certification CEN was accepted. A huge benefit was seeing the tower alight at night with energy generated by sunlight alone – what a delight!

What factors did you take into consideration while thinking about the positioning of solar panels?

It was important that the panels were facing east and were not shaded - to collect as much energy as possible. None of the cells are obstructed or shaded by the artwork.

«I would say there is not a downtime for the installation. It looks good collecting energy during the day and was specifically designed for both its daytime and nighttime appearance.»

How do you measure energy usage of your installation(s)? How does that relate to the amount of energy produced by the solar panels?

There is a monitor in the Library which shows how much energy is being collected at any given time. The purpose of the solar energy collection is to power the LED column at night – and to showcase solar technology in a beautiful, new way. If less energy has been collected (overcast, rainy days) the LED column is illuminated for less time that night.

How does the electric energy circulate within your installation(s), what kind of storage and connection hardware did you implement?

The energy stored in the battery bank feeds the LED column at night. There are four batteries in the bank.

What is the uptime and downtime for your installation? How does the energy consumption change over time, is it different depending on any other factors?

I would say there is not a downtime for the installation. It looks good collecting energy during the day and was specifically designed for both its daytime and nighttime appearance. The solar energy is collected during the day and used at night (from battery storage). It is seasonally changeable and depends on how many overcast days there are. If there are several in a row the light will only be one for a few hours. The good news is that there has always been some energy to power the LED column. I like the fact it is responding to sunlight in a real way – not “switched on” from the grid.

«I am very excited by the new organic solar products being developed.»

What are the main factors affecting the performance of your installation’s energy sourcing, both positively and negatively? Do you feel there is anything that could be done or investigated in order to neutralise the negative ones?

There is maintenance for the batteries needed so they are easily accessible. The exterior of the glass needs to be cleaned bi-annually. This is easy to do. The only consideration I would change is the proximity of my installation to the School of Engineering at UBC. Engineers love to see if they can damage art on campus. Perhaps engineers can have their own world… somewhere.

One other factor affecting solar installation is the client’s tendency to plant trees near solar installations. I ask them not to - they do not understand trees grow and shade the panels.

Do you have any vision/ideas/thoughts on the future of artistic installations and solar powered solutions as a whole?

I am very excited by the new organic solar products being developed. These dye-sensitive solar surfaces (Oxford Photovoltaics) will be able to be printed in many patterns and offer bird-friendly solar collection glass. What an environmental bonus!

Do you have any other comments, ideas or suggestions that you feel would be vital for this project and for my investigation?

I think it might be interesting to contact Oxford Photovoltaics and see what the state of their research is.

An Interview with Chris Meigh-Andrews

2025-03-14T10:00:00Z

Sunbeam, installing screen, 2011

About Chris Meigh-Andrews: Chris Meigh-Andrews is a video artist, writer and curator from Essex, England, whose work often includes elements of renewable energy technology in tandem with moving image and sound. He is currently Professor Emeritus in Electronic & Digital Art at the University of Central Lancashire and was Visiting Professor at the Centre for Moving image Research (CMIR) at the University of the West of England for a period of four years (2013-2017).

«The goal should always be to create a meaningful relationship between the energy source and the artistic experience.»

Can you introduce yourself and your artistic work?

I started working with video in the 1970s, initially focusing on single-screen works. By the 1990s, I transitioned into installation art, exploring how screens interact with space rather than just their screen content. This shift led me to consider sculptural and spatial dynamics, and I began experimenting with site-specific installations. Eventually, I became interested in outdoor installations and the challenges of powering them sustainably. This led to my use of renewable energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines, not only as power sources but as integral conceptual elements of my work.

«Sunlight availability impacts reliability, so solar energy must first be stored before it can be used.»

How do you approach energy use in your installations?

Each installation is different, but a key consideration is whether it’s powered by natural sunlight outdoors or artificial light indoors. Sunlight availability impacts reliability, so solar energy must first be stored before it can be used. Conceptually, I focus on transduction–the transformation of one energy form into another–making the energy transformation process part of the viewer’s experience. For example, in Perpetual Motion, I used a wind turbine to generate electricity, making the act of energy conversion a central part of the piece. I aim for the viewer to not just see the work but to experience the energy flow that powers it.

«Solar-powered installations often require collaboration with engineers or technicians, which brings creative and practical challenges.»

What challenges have you faced in integrating solar power?

Many. First, technology rarely performs as advertised-solar panels, for instance, are affected by temperature fluctuations, which can significantly reduce efficiency. Environmental factors, like tree cover or indoor heating, can disrupt power generation. Then there are logistical constraints: structural concerns, safety regulations, and access limitations, particularly when working in historic buildings. Additionally, solar-powered installations often require collaboration with engineers or technicians, which brings creative and practical challenges. I’ve also encountered resistance from institutions hesitant to alter their spaces. Overcoming these obstacles requires adaptability and a willingness to modify initial ideas based on real-world constraints.

How do you decide where to place solar panels in your installations?

Placement is both an aesthetic and functional decision. The panels must be visible to reinforce the conceptual link between energy production, and artistic output, but they also need to be positioned efficiently for maximum energy absorption. Some works operate on timers or restrict power usage to balance energy input and output. For example, Sunbeam stored daylight energy to be displayed at night, creating a tangible connection between solar power and its artistic representation. In other works, I had to adjust the positioning of panels to minimize shading and optimize efficiency.

«My focus was on ensuring that installations remained conceptually intact while working within energy constraints.»

How do you measure and regulate energy consumption?

I usually collaborated with engineers for energy management. My focus was on ensuring that installations remained conceptually intact while working within energy constraints. In some cases, I powered only the most critical components with solar energy and supplemented the rest with conventional power sources. In Mothlight II, for example, I used solar panels to power the infrared signals that controlled projectors, while the projectors themselves ran on mains electricity. This allowed me to maintain the conceptual integrity of the piece while working around energy limitations.

«Artists working with renewable energy now need to think beyond novelty and consider how to frame solar power within their work in a meaningful way.»

Do you think solar power is viable for future art installations?

Absolutely, but the context has changed. When I first used solar panels, they were novel, and some people didn’t even recognize them. Today, they are commonplace, which changes their conceptual impact. Artists working with renewable energy now need to think beyond novelty and consider how to frame solar power within their work in a meaningful way. Advances in technology have improved efficiency and affordability, but they also require artists to be more intentional about the messages they convey. The focus should be on how renewable energy integrates into the broader artistic narrative rather than just the fact that it’s being used.

«Art and technology rarely behave as expected, but adaptation can lead to new creative possibilities. »

What advice would you give to artists looking to use solar power?

Research is key—understand the efficiency, cost, and availability of solar panels. Expect obstacles and plan for them. Work with specialists if needed, especially when dealing with energy storage and regulation. And most importantly, be flexible—art and technology rarely behave as expected, but adaptation can lead to new creative possibilities. Additionally, artists should consider whether the visibility of solar panels adds to the conceptual strength of their work or if they are merely a practical necessity. The goal should always be to create a meaningful relationship between the energy source and the artistic experience.

17th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-03-19T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Anna Xambó, Luigi Marino, Tug O’Flaherty, Andrés Sánchez Castrillón, Xinyue Xu and James Shortland.

On Friday 28 February 2025, we went on a field trip to Alice Holt Forest with the QMUL MSc students Xinyue, Tug, Andres, and James to meet Luigi and experience the streamers and Pete’s Dendrophone installation on site. After enjoying a nice walk from the Bentley station to the Alice Holt Visitor Centre and our weekly meeting in the Alice Holt Cafe with a rewarding coffee/tea, we met with Luigi and started our expedition.

Willows Green Trail: Dendrophone and Paula’s streamer

The tasks for this first part of the expedition in the Willows Green Trail included mainly three.

First, we helped Luigi with the regular maintenance tasks: code update, battery exchange of Pete’s installation and Luigi’s streamer, and backup of the SD card with the recordings of the month.

Second, we placed two QR codes manufactured with the help of Geetha Bommireddy using a laser cutter machine. It took us some time to find this waterproof solution thanks to the advice from Geetha and the feedback from Luigi and Pete. We placed one QR code in acrylic for Pete’s installation and one QR code in wood material for Luigi’s (Paula) streamer using VELCRO tape on the two respective chalkboards.

The two new QR codes on the chalkboards for the installation and streamer at the Willows Green Trail.

Third, we coated the wooden QR code using acrylic coating.

Luigi coating the new QR code for the Paula streamer.

Meadow near the pond: Giorgio’s streamer

After lunch, we went to the meadow where the natural soundscape streamer is located to conduct three more tasks.

First, we helped Luigi with the regular maintenance tasks: code update and backup of the SD card with recordings.

Luigi updating Giorgio's streamer.

Second, we placed a new blackboard using a mallet as well as placed the wooden QR code and coated it.

Xinyue coating the new QR code for the Giorgio streamer.

Third, Luigi presented the group with in-depth detail on how the streamer works.

Luigi showcasing how the streamer works to Tug, Xinyue and Andrés.

Follow-up

Overall, it was a beautiful day outdoors and we achieved all our objectives for the day.
Next, we need to update the A4 scientific poster because the laminated paper version collects water and the ink with the text disappears. The summer time is coming soon and we will need to change the angle of the solar panels back to the expected angle in spring/summer seasons.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Danielle Grimsey and Emma Ward for their help with the logistics of the day and Geetha Bommireddy for her help and support with printing the QR codes.

Behind the Scenes of the Your Sonic Forest Video

2025-04-15T08:00:00Z

Folder of photos taken during the exhibition.

I was invited by the summer school team to make photo and video documentation during the Sensing the Forest Summer School, to capture the sound installations made for the exhibition and some of the behind-the-scenes moments. The summer school to me was going to be a nice break from my research work, as well as a chance to learn about some of the nature IoT, environmental design, and forest research.

AV Documentation Onsite

A few weeks in advance, the summer school team provided a detailed schedule and protocol, as well as a map of the site, which was very helpful in envisioning the exhibition and planning out what specific activities needed to be documented. I packed my equipment for the AV documentation a few days before departure - a Sony A7RII digital camera, a telephoto 70-200mm lens very good for distant subjects in the forest, a tripod, camera flash, and portable charger, plus a lot of lens wipes just in case.

The summer school started with a keynote given by Luigi, project updates from the summer school artists, and a visit to the Forest Research led by Mike. Then, the summer school artists started working on the assembly of their projects along the Willows Green Trail. I also took a trip around the site to get familiar with the terrain and the spot of the installations to make sure that I wouldn’t miss any of them. I took mainly photos instead of videos on the first day - one thing I like the most about walking around and around the trail and seeing the installations incrementally built up by artists. With the telephoto lens, I was able to observe the construction processes at a distance, without distracting their flow too much.

Artists are in the middle of their making processes on day one (more photos can be found in the Flickr photo album).

The exhibition started on the second day with lovely weather. I spent some time on each installation to record footage of them. I tried to stay on the walking path when recording the videos, to recreate an “audiences’ view” of the exhibition. The walk along the trail was a pleasant and immersive experience - the sound from one installation gradually transited to the next one, feeling like discovering pieces of gem in a forest.

Left: The a-frame at the entrance of the exhibition; Right: Visitors gathering around Rosa Sungjoo Park's work.

Video Production

The production of the video started a few months after the summer school. The footage lay in my hard drive for a while before I reopened them to gather usable pieces - this feels like a time capsule made of sounds, which immediately took me back to the lovely soundwalk at Alice Holt. The edit of the video was inspired by an exhibition video from David Nash, which presents a narrative of a collection of works from the artist. I used the map on the leaflet designed by Johana Knowles to refresh my memories of the exhibition, and I found that it could be a nice visual guide to lead the narrative in the video. So I organised the footage according to how they were presented along the Willows Green Trail. The establishing shot at the beginning of the video was provided by Ed Chivers.

A screenshot of the editing workspace in Premiere Pro.

Something I feel that is missing from the video is perhaps the making process of the installations, it would have been nice to add some of the recordings from day one, or perhaps even the prototype phase before the on-site summer school to expand the timeline - longer than the ephemeral moment when the installations were presented on-site.

It was a genuine pleasure to attend the summer school as both an audience - to enjoy the soundwalk along the Willows Green Trail at Alice Holt, and as someone who was behind the scenes - to observe the making processes of the installations. I’m very glad that I was a part of it.

Left 1: The open space outside the activity center; Left 2: Meeting room in the activity center; Right 1: The social meetup at The White House; Right 2: The accommodation at the Manor Park campus of the Univerisity of Surrey. Right 3: Work-in-progress of Miles Scharff's installation.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ed Chivers who provided the hi-res videos recorded along the Willows Green Trail, Anna Xambó who provided the screen recording of the Pure Data patch using data from the data logger, and Luigi Marino who provided the photos of the streamer.

Reveil 3-4 May 2025

2025-05-02T10:00:00Z

Image source: Soundcamp

REVEIL is an assemblage of live audio feeds provided by soundcamps, streamers of the Acoustic Commons network, open microphones on the Locus Sonus soundmap, and live sound sources collected for this event.

The 12th edition of the Reveil broadcast will take place on Dawn Chorus Day, over the first weekend in May. The London soundcamp will be located at Stave Hill Ecological Park, Rotherhithe.

The broadcast will start at 5AM London time (UTC+1) on Saturday 3 MAY to 6AM on Sunday 4 MAY 2025. You can listen to the broadcast here: soundtent.org/reveil

The selected streams (each with their own page) appear on the schedule here:
https://streams.soundtent.org/2025/streams

We are happy to announce that the Sensing the Forest project will contribute to the event this year with two streamers located at the Alice Holt Forest: the Soundscape streamer and the installation streamer.

You can find more info about the event on the following links:

Design of Cost Effective IOT Dendrometer Sensor for Environmental Monitoring

2025-05-05T10:00:00Z

Introduction

Monitoring tree growth is essential for understanding forest health, ecosystem dynamics, and climate change impacts. At the heart of this process is the dendrometer sensor—an instrument designed to measure changes in a tree’s diameter over time. This helps to understand seasonal, and annual growth patterns in response to environmental conditions. As this is linked to and can be correlated with the tree diameter fluctuations with temperature, rainfall, humidity, and soil moisture and identify the stress events like droughts, heatwaves, or cold spells. Growth data of the tree can be used to estimate biomass accumulation, indicate root damage or poor soil conditions, and growth with respect to fertilizers, irrigation regimes and climate. However, traditional dendrometer systems often come with high costs and complex installation requirements, limiting their accessibility for small-scale researchers, farmers, and institutions in low-resource settings. As environmental monitoring becomes more critical globally, there’s a growing demand for affordable, reliable, and scalable solutions. A cost-effective dendrometer sensor can democratise access to valuable data, enabling broader participation in ecological research and resource management. By reducing financial barriers, we not only make long-term monitoring feasible but also support sustainable practices in both forestry and agriculture.

Overview of Different Types of Dendrometer Sensors

There are various types of dendrometers currently used by researchers and scientists to measure changes in the diameter of trees, plants, or even fruits. While the designs may differ, they all share a similar sensing mechanism aimed at achieving the same objective: tracking dimensional changes over time to study growth patterns, water transport, and environmental stress responses. The most common types include point dendrometers, band dendrometers, and manual dendrometers as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Comparison with different types of commercially available dendrometers (a) Point Dendrometer [1] (b) Band Dendrometers [2] (c) Manual Band Dendrometers [3].

Point dendrometers use a single contact point against the bark to detect radial changes. Band dendrometers wrap around the stem or trunk and measure circumference changes, making them ideal for long-term monitoring. Manual band dendrometers uses a tape measurement warp around the stem or trunk. Despite their effectiveness, many of these instruments are expensive, complex, or power-intensive—limiting their use in remote, large-scale, or low-budget projects. This highlights the growing need for a simplified, cost-effective dendrometer that maintains accuracy while being affordable, easy to deploy, and suitable for long-term environmental monitoring.

Designing a Cost-Effective Dendrometer Sensor

The proposed cost-effective dendrometer sensor design is heavily based on an open-source magnetic dendrometer as described in this research paper [4]. In that study, the researchers developed a dendrometer using a carbon fibre frame (as shown in Figure 2) and utilised the AS5311 magnetic sensor to capture the change in diameter of the tree/branch, data was processed using an Arduino-based microcontroller. Reported total cost was approximately $260 per unit.

Figure 2. Carbon fibre based dendrometer sensor.

Building on their approach with a focus on cost reduction, we made two key modifications: replacing the carbon fibre frame with 3D-printed components made from high-density PLA and using a industrial accepted Raspberry Pi Zero 2W single-board computer for data acquisition. These changes enabled us to reduce the overall cost by 50%, making the solution significantly more affordable without compromising core functionality.

Dendrometer Sensor Design

Details of our modified version are presented below. Figure 3 illustrates the final design of the cost-effective dendrometer sensor, representing the 3D CAD model of the sensor. Final prototype was achieved after several iterations, with multiple versions developed and tested for each component throughout the design process. These developmental stages are shown in Figures 4, 5, and 6. Each version contributed valuable insights, helping us refine the mechanical structure, sensor placement, and integration with the Raspberry Pi. By systematically evaluating and improving individual parts, we achieved a compact, robust, and low-cost solution suitable for long-term outdoor use.

Figure 3. Various parts of the dendrometer that is designed in this work.

Figure 4. Different version for the main chassis that was used and modified to achieved more reliable and repeatable measurements.

Figure 5. Different versions designed for the T shape mount to accommodate the magnet sensor and the magnet.

Figure 6. Carbon fibre based dendrometer sensor.

Working Principle of the Dendrometer Sensor

Figure 7. Dendrometer sensor connected to Yucca Plant to carry out measurements and remotely stream the data of key parameters.

The main chassis of the dendrometer sensor is secured to the tree/plant using a strap, ensuring stable attachment without causing any damage to the bark or applying external stress. A movable component, referred to as the T-shaped magnet mount, is connected to the chassis via an extension spring and is positioned to slide forward and backward in response to the tree/stem’s natural expansion or contraction. These micro-movements—often in the micrometer range—are detected by the AS5311 magnetic linear encoder, which precisely tracks the relative position of the magnet. The sensor transmits data to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W via a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signal, which is then processed and converted into readable measurements that reflect changes in stem diameter over time. The sensor is integrated into a larger sensing unit that also includes additional sensors to monitor environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, and soil moisture—alongside the tree’s natural expansion or contraction. All collected data is streamed to a central server for real-time monitoring and analysis. The complete unit is shown in Figure 8, while a sample of the recorded sensing data is presented in Figure 9.

Figure 8. Sensing the Forest DIY IOT Sensing Unit that measures and streams data such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and tree diameter.

Figure 9. Streaming data from the Raspberry Pi Zero remotely with all the key parameters required to understand the health of a tree.

List of References

[1] https://tomst.com/web/events/point-dendrometer/
[2] https://ictinternational.com/product/band-dendrometers/
[3] https://jeetekno.com/product/series-5-manual-band-dendrometers/
[4] Clonch, C., Huynh, M., Goto, B., Levin, A., Selker, J. and Udell, C., 2021. High precision zero-friction magnetic dendrometer. HardwareX, 10, p.e00248.

18th-19th Field Trips to Alice Holt Forest

2025-05-17T08:00:00Z

From left-right, natural streamer on 28th February 2025 with two solar panels (photos 1 and 2), natural streamer on 14th March 2025 with one solar panel (photo 3), installation streamer with two solar panels (photo 4) and closeup of the installation streamer with shorter distance between modem and RPi (photo 5).

After our group visit on 28 February 2025, I went for two more consecutive visits to the Alice Holt Forest on 14 March and 20 April 2025. The main goal of these two follow-up field trips was to collect the monthly recordings, replace the batteries of Paula’s streamer and Pete’s installation in the Willows Green trail, adjust the solar panels of the streamers for the spring period, and adjust the hi-fi streamer.

Before Feb 28th 2025, the recordings of the natural soundscape were done using MEMS microphones. Since February 28th 2025, the quality of the recordings has improved considerably because of changes in the equipment, including switching to Rode LavalierGO mics with Rode AI-Micro audio interface and software updates. On Feb 28th, I also updated the new OS of the streamers with a remote code update.

On 14th March, I reshuffled the solar panels, changing the number of solar panels for the natural soundscape (Giorgio) from four to two. I moved these two to Paula’s streamer to have two instead of zero. Also, I changed the inclination from about 80 to about 60 degrees for the spring season.

After a month, on Mar 14th, I could confirm using my self-built battery sensor that the battery was fully charged for Giorgio with two solar panels at the right inclination. This month was especially sunny. For Paula’s streamer under the canopy, surprisingly, the battery was still at 12.28v. Under the canopy, with only rare direct sunlight, it lasted a full month with 2 solar panels, and it didn’t show signs of low voltage.

On Apr 20th, I collected the recordings of the two streamers. I shortened the distance between the RPi and the modem of Giorgio’s streamer (natural soundscape) to make the streamer more sturdy (with an audio interface, there was less risk of interference). Moreover, I replaced the battery of Paula’s streamer and Pete’s installation. Everything seems to be going fine.

Presentation at UAL - May 14, 2025

2025-05-17T10:00:00Z

📷 Photo by Femi Isiaq

We are delighted to have been invited to deliver two sessions at UAL Creative Computing Institute in London about the Sensing the Forest project targeted at students from Computer and Data Science and AI. It is exciting because it is always nice to reflect upon the project’s journey when presenting it to others. Furthermore, we can learn from UAL’s students and their projects, which also pursue talking to trees using computational tools.

In this first session on Wednesday, 14th May 2025, we presented the general perspective of the project and dug into the behind-the-scenes of Pete’s Dendrophone installation. We combined short talks with a few hands-on activities.

The slides of our presentation are available here.

The main highlights were the following:

The six themes that have emerged from the exhibition Your Sonic Forest were well received as inspirational prompts to think about their work and also as an example to find themes for their projects.
The video of the exhibition, which has no words but only sounds from the forest, was acclaimed as a beautiful statement about the power of acoustic ecology.
Getting to see the full techno-artistic production of Pete’s Dendrophone installation and the follow-up activity of designing a spatial sonification for climate engagement was insightful to think about the different components that need to be considered when designing a sound intervention considering forest data. The students presented great ideas illustrated on the post-its shown in the top header photo.

Luigi will return on Wednesday, 4th June 2025, to give an in-depth perspective of building the streamers (physical design, code, audio engine, dataset…) with 1-2 hands-on activities or take-home tasks.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Femi Isiaq and Corey Ford for the invitation and to the students for their curiosity during the session.

20th Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-05-22T08:00:00Z

Self-portrait of Peter Batchelor, Dendrophone and Paula the Streamer.

On 17 May I made my first trip to Alice Holt since February. Luigi has kindly been overseeing and undertaking battery changes for all our interventions in the meantime, but there were some modifications I wanted to make to the installation and setup ready for the summer.

This weekend’s visit was to:

install a battery monitor based on a circuit and code shared by Luigi; I now receive an hourly update of the battery condition by email while the installation is running.
update installation — this involved relatively minimal intervention, just to increase levels of what was already there and ensure all three layers are clearly audible and distinguishable. As per publicity, the parameters now represented are:
- RH — mapped to dryness/wetness of sounds;
- PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) — mapped to pitch (transposition) of a drone;
- Photosynthetic Activity (derived from PAR+Air Temperature) — mapped to amplitude modulation of drone to produce a ‘judder’, implying photosynthetic ‘busy-ness’;
- CO2 — mapped to regularity of synthesised breathing.

While in the forest I addressed some minor ‘wear and tear’ and ‘unsolicited public intervention’ issues:

cleaned solar panels for both installation and streamer, which had accumulated grime, algae and detritus (I estimate efficiency was being compromised by at least 5% from these, given the cells occluded).
optimised signag (one had been uprooted and moved, and both needed cleaning); I attached my signage to a tree directly adjacent to my installation.
notified the team of a missing QR code on Luigi’s signage (a replacement has been ordered).
straightened some misaligned speaker boxes (with a stick, in the absence of a ladder!)

Beyond this, the speakers are looking a little weathered, but so far all 16 remain connected and functional. I’m a little concerned about one of the cable lengths between trees, which has dropped (I suspect the steel cable has snapped), so that it’s within reach from the ground; this may invite tampering, so I shall need to keep an eye on it.

The installation has now been running 11am-5pm (10-4 in winter) without interruption since September, bar a few occasions over the winter when the battery expired due to low solar charge (limited daylight, low solar angle and poor weather). I’m pleased that this seems to demonstrate the robustness of the chosen components and of the system overall. I’m also satisfied that the modified levels ensure that the installation’s more audible while remaining acoustically transparent and unobtrusive, and I think it sits reasonably comfortably within the existing soundscape.

Dendrophone + Streamer site.

Equipment pre (left) and with (right) battery checker.

Solar panels from Luigi's Streamer: pre and post clean.

Solar panels from Pete's Dendrophone pre and post clean.

Signage of Luigi's Streamers: pre and post clean.

Top-left: Signage of Pete's Dendrophone pre-clean uprooted. Top-middle: Pre-clean. Top-right: Post-clean. Bottom: Resited sign and equipment box.

Dendrophone's low hanging cable.

Video walkthrough (press on the image to play the video and reload the page to stop the video)

Participate in our survey

2025-06-26T10:00:00Z

📷 Photo by Shuoyang Zheng

We are excited to announce the launch of our new online exhibition:
🌲 “Your Sonic Forest – Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations in Alice Holt Forest / Online”

We need your help! Please follow these two easy steps:

1) 👉 Explore the Exhibition here:

Whether you explore the digital experience or visit Alice Holt Forest in person, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Your feedback is invaluable and will help us shape future projects.

sensingtheforest.github.io/exhibition/

2) 👉 Take our quick follow-up survey:
It only takes a few minutes!

app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/qmul/
your-sonic-forest-v2

Also feel free to leave comments on the artworks’ pages. Thank you so much for your participation and support!

21st Field Trip to Alice Holt Forest

2025-06-27T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Christopher Meigh-Andrews, Hiroko, and Anna Xambó.

On Thursday, 26 June 2025, we went on a field trip to Alice Holt Forest to check the status of Luigi’s streamers and Pete’s Dendrophone sound installation as well as to show Dendrophone to Christopher Meigh-Andrews in preparation for an interview he will conduct for a podcast we are organising.

Meadow near the pond: Giorgio’s streamer

I first went to the meadow near the pond to see the status of Streamer I. All looked good. I cleaned the solar panel and noticed that the QR code was not working. The QR code that we coated a few months ago seems to have lost strangely all the coating. Although we produced a new QR code and a new wooden scientific poster for replacement, this has not been replaced yet. We will make sure to do it within the next few days so visitors can make a connection with the online information of the project.

Streamer I Giorgio on 26 June 2025.

Close-up of the QR code that has stopped working.

Willows Green Trail: Dendrophone and Paula’s streamer

On Saturday, 21st June 2025, the summer solstice, the two streamers stopped working for no apparent reason. Streamer I came back to life after a day or so, but Streamer II (Paula) took a few days to come back. This prevented us from checking if the Dendrophone installation was working or not - yet Pete mentioned that after a few days, the Dendrophone system was running sufficiently to send the daily battery information. Luigi has created a remote monitoring system that is extremely helpful in these situations.

Anyhow, before Christopher’s visit, I went to see the installations in Willows: I also cleaned the solar panels and noticed that the Dendrophone QR acrylic code stopped working. It looks like the printed materials get damaged and/or the contrast is reduced under the canopy. I noticed that the new wooden scientific poster was not set up yet, which we need to do to keep the audience informed.

Danielle also kindly checked the installation for us right before our visit confirming that the installation was working. Thanks Danielle!

Willows Green installations. Photos by Danielle Grimsey.

Christopher Meigh-Andrews’s visit

The BSc Computer Science final year student Aleksander Skutnik interviewed Chris Meigh-Andrews for his dissertation, an interview available here on the StF blog. Chris Meigh-Andrews is a video artist, writer and curator from Essex, England, whose work often includes elements of renewable energy technology in tandem with moving image and sound. As an expert in the field, Chris will interview Pete for a final podcast that we are preparing about our collaboration with Alice Holt Forest. We decided to meet on-site so that Chris could get to see Pete’s installation first. I showed the site to both Chris and Hiroko, and we had a wonderful chat about the challenges and rewards of producing self-powered artistic work.

Follow-up

We will need to work on the signs: the scientific posters should be there and the QR codes should work. We should also bring more information about Pete’s installation on-site. We also need to encourage more participants to leave their opinions on the quick survey. It is a unique opportunity to capture visitors’ opinions while the Dendrophone installation is up and running!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Danielle Grimsey and Emma Ward for their help with the logistics of the day.

Guest blog post on the Freesound Blog

2025-07-05T10:00:00Z

We are happy to announce the publication of this blog post on the Freesound blog about two ongoing datasets from DIY streamers at Alice Holt Forest, UK:

🔥 Sensing the Forest: Two Ongoing Datasets from DIY Streamers at Alice Holt Forest, UK 🔥

This blog post presents the two ongoing datasets from the DIY streamers located at Alice Holt Forest to the Freesound community with selected examples. Thanks for the opportunity!

Art, Unplugged - In the search of a sustainable off-grid power solution for immersive art installations

2025-08-01T07:00:00Z

From left-right, Aleksander Skutnik and Peter Batchelor.

Introduction

The inspiration for this project came from the Sensing the Forest project, which focuses on collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to studying the relationship between forests and climate change. As I personally find this topic very important in terms of being a global issue, for my final year project I have decided to develop a project in that domain under pivotal supervision of Dr Anna Xambó Sedó.

Aim

For years now, it has been very well documented how excessive electrical energy production highly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. With the very rapidly increasing interest and demand for immersive and digital art installations, we can see how energy usage proportionally rises. In order to counter this, this project aims to answer the question: How can we devise a power solution to achieve selfsustainability of art installations, and how can we apply this knowledge in the art industry?

Field Study

An initial step in carrying out my project was a site visit to the Alice Holt Forest, specifically the Dendrophone installation by Dr Peter Batchelor and the Streamers by Dr Luigi Marino. I had the pleasure to visit onsite in the company of my project supervisor Dr Anna Xambó Sedó where we also met Dr Peter Batchelor. Together, we were able to see hands-on how the installations operate and their technical aspects. Dr Peter Batchelor very kindly answered all of my questions regarding his work, and I was also then able to interview him on site in an office space we booked for the day, courtesy of Forestry England. The interview has been published on the Sensing the Forest website. This visit has helped me study the theoretical background for my project and see how my topic could apply to existing real life installations. I believe that was an essential step to this project in order to ground my research and findings in a real world context.

Interviews

In order to build a theoretical framework backing up my proposed solution, I have decided to carry out a series of interviews with artists who have experience with integrating solar power in their work. I have personally reached out via email to a number of artists that have relevant experience in this field and arranged a range of interviewssome of them being in person, online or over email. Dr Peter Batchelor, Dr Luigi Marino, Dr Chris Meigh-Andrews, Sarah Hall, Elizabeth Monoian, Robert Ferry, Alex Nathanson and Shala Akintunde have all very kindly agreed to take part in the study. The questions asked about the artists’ background in art and solar power, the technical aspects behind the operation of their installations, benefits and challenges the artists have faced while implementing solar power and any visions/ideas/values they associate with integrating solar power as a green, renewable energy source for their installations.

Insights from these interviews gained in the process of thematic analysis helped me shape the theoretical framework and identify system requirements essential for the proposed solution I will discuss later on. I believe reaching out to artists was crucial for this project, as they will be the end users of the solution - thus, their insights and experiences are pivotal in the construction of said solution.

Proposed solution

This part of the project introduces an initial prototype of a solar forecasting and battery simulation tool:

Data source: PVGIS solar irradiance API.
ML forecasting: RandomForestRegressor predicts energy inflows.
Battery model: Simulates charge/discharge cycles across multiple days.
User interface: Built in Streamlit for users to input location, system specifications, time of year and day and see visualised output.

The tool calculates daily energy yield and battery status, letting users explore seasonal variability and system resilience. This is especially beneficial while planning installations to see if their operation basing on solar power is feasible and executable. The working initial prototype with instructions on how to run can be found here.

The screenshots below present the interactive user dashboard of my solution. The user inputs all geographical data for the conditions they want to forecast, e. g. location, tilt angle and azimuth of the PV panel. Then, the program fetches PVGIS database data using and API call and presents two graphs. The first one shows actual solar irradiance data across five years for the specified location which is taken from the PVGIS database.

Screenshot 1 of Art Unplugged: Energy production visualisation and forecasting.

This shows the user how solar irradiance has been changing over time for the specified location and allows them to understand which months bring the highest levels of solar irradiance. Then, a machine learning model for forecasting Global Tilted Irradiance (GTI) is trained on the fetched data and then compared in a scatter plot graph to actual solar irradiance values. The model’s R2 score is also presented. This is for the purpose of demonstrating how accurate the model actually is in predicting GTI values.

On the second tab is dedicated for solar irradiance forecasting and battery charge/discharge cycle simulation. The user inputs all required details, including the month of the year they want to forecast for, how many days the forecast should cover, battery capacity in Ah of their installation, system voltage of their installation, the power rating of their PV panel setup and the total load power of the installation.

Screenshot 2 of Art Unplugged: Energy production visualisation and forecasting.

With those specifications, the previously trained model predicts the solar irradiance values across the number of days selected by the user. Additionally, the battery charge and discharge cycles are presented on a continuous line basing on the solar irradiance availability across the different hours of the day. I believe that this tool can be really helpful for artists who are in the process of planning and designing their installation in order to determine how to make their power solution viable and functional under specified by them conditions.

Conclusion

This project was a great learning experience for me. What I loved about it most is being able to work with so many inspiring and knowledgeable individuals without whom I would not be able to achieve the goals of my project. I am really happy with the fact that I was able to study and explore a global issue in depth while at the same time applying it in an academic context, as well as exploring how the scientific and artistic domain converge.

Field-Trip to Alice Holt Forest with EECS PhD students, Dr. Anna Xambo and Melissa Yeo

2025-08-01T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Xiangyan Chen, Sofia Zahri, Melissa Yeo, Daniel Allan Gill, Yuli Sutoto Nugroho, and Anna Xambó.

We visited Alice Holt Forest on Friday, 4th July 2025, as part of a field-trip funded by the ‘Sensing the Forest’ research project, an interdisciplinary exploration blending art and science to raise awareness of climate change and forest behaviour through immersive sound installations, led by Dr. Anna Xambó Sedó.

We took the train from London Waterloo to Bentley, followed by a 40-minute walk through the forest to reach the main entrance of Alice Holt Forest. The experience was truly unique and breathtaking. Walking under the gentle breeze and warm sunshine, surrounded by towering trees, was magnificent; it felt both peaceful and invigorating.

Once we reached the main reception and entrance of the Alice Holt Forest, we went straight to take lunch with all four of us EECS PhD students and the Postgraduate Research Student Coordinator, Melissa Yeo.

Dr. Anna kindly picked up leaflets and maps from the reception and had thoughtfully arranged lunch for each of us in advance, based on the preferences we had shared over email. We sat together under a gazebo open to the forest, engaging in an open conversation about our research, our interests, and life in general. After lunch, Anna treated us to coffee and ice cream before we set off to visit the Sensing the forest project installations.

The sonic forest installations were located just a five-minute walk from the main entrance of Alice Holt Forest. As we approached, we were captivated by the beauty of the Dendrophone devices attached to the trees and the solar panels quietly integrated into the landscape.

We began by installing the new A3 poster, as recommended by Dr. Peter Batchelor. Yuli Sutoto Nugroho, a PhD student in the Centre for Advanced Robotics (ARQ), demonstrated impressive skill in tying the poster to the tree. Meanwhile, Melissa joyfully embraced the trees.

Once the poster was in place, each one of us chose a tree to connect with and listen to it through the Dendrophone setup.

Daniel Gill, a PhD student in the Cognitive Science research group (CogSci), lay beneath a tree, writing down his thoughts, ideas, and emotions as he immersed himself in the experience.

I took off my shoes and grounded myself under one of the Dendrophone-equipped trees, gently touching its bark while listening to the sound of its long, steady breath. Across from me, Xiangyan Chen, a PhD student in the Computational Linguistics research group, quietly stood under another tree, intensely focused on the layered soundscape. Meanwhile, Yuli soaked in the sunlight as he tuned into the sounds of the forest near the solar-powered installation. At the same time, Melissa and Anna observed the setup, checking the devices, solar panels, and QR codes to ensure everything was functioning as planned.

These installations transformed invisible ecological signals, like light, humidity, and carbon into sound, offering a powerful art-meets-science experience that helped reveal how forests respond to and reflect climate change.

This experience was truly breathtaking, a rare and powerful reminder of the depth of human-environment connection. As a believer, I found profound meaning in the long, steady breathing of the tree I stood beneath. Listening to it through the Dendrophone brought tears to my eyes. In that moment, the tree no longer felt like a passive part of the landscape; it became a sentient, living being, and I was overwhelmed by the beauty of its silent wisdom.

We often become consumed by our daily routines, forgetting to notice the quiet life surrounding us, life that breathes, listens, and waits for us to reconnect.

As time passes, we often lose touch with the profound connection between nature and our inner selves. This experience reminded me just how essential it is to nurture not only the bond with the environment but also with the natural rhythms that shape our lives. The sound of birds calling from the canopy, the soft breeze brushing our skin, the sunlight warming our faces, and the quiet breath of the trees all came together as a living reminder of life’s beauty. It made me realise how far we’ve drifted from our roots, and how vital it is to pause, listen, and return.

We took the train back to London Waterloo, though our bodies returned to London, our hearts remained in Alice Holt Forest; each of us silently held onto the memory of our chosen tree. This blog captures our field-trip experience through photos and reflections, as part of our contribution to the Sensing the Forest project. The pictures included here were taken by each of us and later shared in a group drive so we could remember and reflect together. It is also a response to the invitation to listen more deeply to what the forest says when we choose to hear it, a reminder that through the union of art and science, we can raise awareness of climate change and reconnect with the wisdom of nature.

Personal Reflections on Dendrophone

2025-08-15T08:00:00Z

Photos of Dendrophone by Daniel Gill

Last month, I, alongside colleagues and friends from Queen Mary University of London, took a day out of our busy schedules to visit Hampshire to experience Dendrophone. Created by Dr Peter Batchelor and the Sensing the Forest team, this sound installation “transforms invisible environmental data into an immersive listening experience”, set within the ancient Alice Holt Forest.

Our field trip was described in great detail by Sofia Zahri within an article on this blog. Instead, I wanted to use this opportunity to reflect more personally on my own experiences of Dendrophone, and particularly, how they link to my experiences of autism.

I do not exaggerate when I say that Dendrophone had a profound impact on me on that Friday afternoon. The installation features speakers spread between several trees, playing a live audio stream automatically generated based on live ecological signals from the forest environment. Each of the three signals–sunlight, humidity, and carbon dioxide—is represented with a specific sound and played through the speakers, creating a blended sound.

Many autistic people experience challenges with managing sensory inputs. While the autistic people are constantly bombarded with such sensory information, for me, Dendrophone provided a sweet relief. Instead of the automatic futile attempt to correlate disparate sensory input, my brain worked optimally, linking the sound of the wind through the forest with Dendrophone’s breathing and the sun beating on my back with increased “ticks”.

While laying down below a mighty beech, taking in all these sounds, I felt grounded—quite literally—with the forest. I knew from my lousy GCSE Biology that trees do, in-fact, “breath”, and that they do so with tiny holes under the leaves (to prevent water getting in – perhaps not lousy after all); but it’s not until you hear them breath that you fully realise that they are living things with a job to do and needs to fulfil, like us.

The sunlight level “ticks” had a similar effect: I created a link with the feeling of the sun (I had my eyes closed at this point) and the intensity of these ticks, again successfully grounding myself in the world of the forest. I use “ticks” tentatively throughout this post, as I’m still not certain I was hearing the “correct” thing: the information provided alongside Dendrophone suggests that sun intensity is represented by “smooth versus juddering hissing”, which doesn’t align with the Geiger-counter-like noise which I nonetheless correlated to solar energy.

To me, the breathing of the trees felt very human, and the thought of whether something similar was designed for sunlight energy intrigued me, despite my confusion. Peter was kind enough to answer a few questions via email, so I put this to him:

Dan: I thought the choice to humanise (or animalise) and correlate carbon dioxide levels with a breathing action was really interesting. Was there a similar thought process how you chose to represent sunlight energy with hissing sounds of varying judder?

Peter: My main concern was to be able to clearly differentiate the various types of data. But yes, I suppose intuitively I associated the drone/hiss and judder with ‘vitality’ that would suggest varying degrees of incoming energy depending on pitch and periodicity. I was also influenced by some members of the forest team saying that they might consider the installation site being used for meditation or mindfulness sessions, so I was trying to make the sound materials suitable for that (hence the drone and breathing sounds).

One thing I failed to pick up on, however, was the “‘dry’ and ‘wet’” noises for humidity: perhaps this was because it was a warm and dry day throughout, or perhaps that aspect of the sound was less noticeable for me. It is on this latter point I asked Peter about next.

Dan: Did you involve others in the choice of sound representations? Do you think there is a level of individuality in the best translation of the forest in this way for different humans/cultures/languages?

Peter: There were a few iterations of the installation prior to it ‘solidifying’ into the version you heard. I still have thoughts on how I might have chosen alternative sounds, but (as with all projects) at some point I had to stop fiddling with it! Interpretation is inevitably individual, but I tried to make the sounds relatively neutral in terms of cultural references (or absence thereof).

The final question I put to Peter was about the placement of speakers. The speakers were attached to a number of trees, connected through vine-like cables slung between them. On the day, I thought all the speakers were playing the same audio, as if the forest as a whole was speaking, but as Peter remarked, it’s slightly more complicated than this.

Dan: I noted that all the speakers (at least I thought) were playing the same audio - was this a conscious choice to represent the forest as a whole? Did you consider having different audio per tree which might blend together (or having speakers on a single tree)?

Peter: They’re playing the same type of audio, but each channel is different. In particular for the humidity sounds, which are granular, I wanted to emulate the distributed spatial characteristics of natural phenomena as made up of thousands of spatially distinct events, rather than lots of swooping movement between speakers. In retrospect the latter might have felt more visceral, but I quite like the subtlety of the outcome. As for having speakers in a single tree: this would have made things a lot easier! But I wanted a sense of distributed space. Again, there’s lots of things I would do differently if the opportunity arose to do a similar project again. But these were the solutions I alighted on this time.

Dendrophone allowed me to connect to the forest like never before, and in doing so, provided a space for a clearer and more coherent mind. I leave you with the following account, written as I sat on a tree stump taking in Dendrophone:

While perched on one of many tree stumps, friends and colleagues stand chatting some ten metres away. Above them, parabolic bows hang between trees, carrying electronic signals to a number of speakers. They all play the same audio, as if each tree has its own voice, but they choose to work together. Whilst my fellow forest explorers affix a sign, I sit lazily, surrounded by rustling leaves, overtopped by moaning planes, rejoicing in whistles of the birds and the laughter of friends. The trees breath through the speakers, as if to remind us they are alive. The low breathy sound matches the movement of the air through the forest. As the clock strikes three, a noticeable increase in “ticks” accompanies an increased feeling of sun hitting my back. To get out of the sun, I move below a tree, choosing to lay down amongst the brown carpet of leaves.

Presentation at ICLC2025 - May 28, 2025

2025-08-15T10:00:00Z

Photo by Santiago Botero (UOC, ICLC 2025)

Screenshot of the Sensing the Forest live-coding session.

The International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) 2025 was held in Barcelona, May 27-31, 2025. ICLC is dedicated to practices and research focused on technologies and philosophies that interpret the use of computer code as gesture within the context of live performances. The theme of the conference was “liveness” with an invitation to the community to reflect on liveness and its many forms and consequences within live coding.

The Sensing the Forest project has been present at ICLC2025 in two acts:

Xambó, Anna (May 28, 2025). Keynote: Liveness as an Open Work: An Ongoing Live-Coding Algorithmic Journey, 9th International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC2025), Barcelona, 27 May 2025 - 31 May 2025, Spain.

Abstract: This talk will present a personal journey reflecting on liveness that started in the early days of live coding in Barcelona as part of a community of makers connected to an international network of DIY artist-coders. Narrated as an open and undetermined work, this presentation will discuss liveness through examples that move from physical to digital places, from tangible to intangible matter, and from human to non-human actors. The attempt will be to understand the role of liveness in live coding in a century of exponential growth and complexity.

Xambó, Anna (May 29, 2025): Sensing the Alice Holt Forest, live performance. 9th International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC2025), Barcelona, 27 May 2025 - 31 May 2025, Spain.

Program notes: This data-driven live coding performance explores natural soundscape recordings from the Alice Holt Forest, UK, captured continuously over the course of a year via a custom-built audio streamer and uploaded to the Freesound database. The central enquiry is whether patterns in forest soundscapes can be linked to climate change, using acoustic ecology and live coding to highlight their interconnection. Are species’ sounds diminishing? Do environmental noises dominate? Are there other acoustic markers tied to climate shifts? The performance uses MIRLCa, a self-developed SuperCollider extension that combines AI and music information retrieval (MIR) techniques to retrieve and manipulate sounds from Freesound in real time.

Anna Xambó performing at the Sala Beckett, ICLC 2025. Photo by Miquel Martinez.

Audience at the Sala Beckett, ICLC 2025. Photo by Miquel Martinez.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to the ICLC 2025 Committee for organising such an incredible conference.

Viridi - Creating a Proof of Concept Environmental Monitor

2025-08-16T07:00:00Z

Introduction

As society grows more and more connected we all see information on a daily basis from all over the world. Inherently humans struggle to visualise the largeness of things, try to imagine a million people, or a million of anything really, and your brain simply won’t be able to picture it. This disconnection goes both ways, we struggle to relate things that are talked about globally, in my interest namely climate change, to their local effects. That’s where Viridi comes in. With this final year project I hoped to create a proof of concept for a device that would allow you to open your phone and see the state of your environment on a local level. I wanted to help people understand what the environment they live in is truly like, to see effects beyond the visible and understand how our actions have impacted the planet we call home.

Viridi was heavily inspired by the Sensing the Forest project and its goals, and made possible by support from the Sensing the Forest team and the team at the EECS Electronics Lab with extra thanks to Kok Ho Huen for his support.

Development

The goal of this project was to develop a sensor module for gathering environmental data and a connected application to allow users to easily explore and interpret the data from their own local environment.

The development process for Viridi was not a straightforward one. I encountered obstacles from broken dependencies to a complete lack of mobile support for some of my designs, but through the process I learnt a lot. In my opinion, the end result was functional, easy to use and served as a solid proof of concept for my idea. And it accomplished this whilst also being my first time creating a mobile app and my first time putting together a sensor system this complex.

The sensor setup.

Sensor Setup

The Sensors are controlled by a Firebeetle ESP32 programmed in Arduino, wired as shown below and soldered to perfboard:

Wiring layout.

The ESP32 polls the environmental sensors collecting temperature, humidity and air quality data which it then sends to a ThingSpeak web server. ThingSpeak is a web server platform focused on managing sensor and other data for IoT devices, other web hosts could also be used for the purposes of this system but ThingSpeak was ideal for the scale of this project and is designed with IoT devices like this one in mind.

From the web server the data is then sent to a connected mobile application where it can be displayed to and interacted with by the user.

Mobile Application

The companion mobile app was written in React Native making use of Expo for quick prototyping. I decided to name the app, and its connected device, Viridi, from the Latin word Viridis meaning deeply or vividly green.

The app was designed in Figma, a platform containing many useful tools for user interface design. The design was focused on novelty and a clean natural aesthetic and designed around ease of data access, and educating the user. Each metric leads to an informative modal that lets the user know what it actually means and the “Past Data” page allows the user to see statistical data and analyse trends for each metric to see the longer term effects on their environment. The designs for Viridi and other projects I have worked on can all be found on my pinterest page.

Application dashboard.

Conclusion

This project was a learning experience for me and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. I am proud of how it turned out and it was very fulfilling exploring an issue I am passionate about and developing a solution all from concept to finished product.

All of the code for this project, along with the wiring layout can be found on my Github Page (with certain information removed or obfuscated so the application can easily be adapted for your own use), the data collected during the user testing of the system can be found here. My full report on my project and subsequent testing can be found here and a video summary of Viridi along with some of my other projects can be found on my youtube channel.

Exploring Dendrophone - A day at Alice Holt Forest

2025-08-27T08:00:00Z

From left-right, Anna Xambó, Lianganzi Wang, Melissa Yeo, Merlin Goldman, and Nicolas Garcia

A group of incoming Queen Mary University PhD students, led by Dr Anna Xambó Sedó, visited Alice Holt Forest on Monday August 18th, 2025, in the heart of the summer holidays. As we arrived at the visitor centre, the grounds were full of families, laughing, playing and chatting over lunch. The occasional sunbeam pierced through the mild late summer clouds, providing welcome relief from the long sunny spells we’d been having recently. We were here to visit the remaining installations from the Sensing the Forest project, and so after a hot drink, we headed over.

There are some brilliant accounts of numerous other field trips to the site on the blog page, so I will focus my blog post on discussing my thoughts about Dendrophone’s sound material emanating from the birdhouse-like speaker array, and their marriage with the natural soundscape of the forest.

I have found that meaningful sound sources and mappings are integral to any application of a data sonification process. It can make or break the delivery and impact of the installation, and in the worst case, disrupt the ecosystem’s soundscape in damaging ways if deployed in an ecological context. Bernie Krause, a prominent acoustic ecologist, proposed the Acoustic Niche Hypothesis, which suggests that organisms in an ecosystem partition the acoustic space, forming a virtual symphony of environmental sounds.

The first thing that struck me about Dendrophone, aside from the spatial immersion created by the multichannel speaker array, was how naturally each of its three sound layers fit into the acoustic space. Depending on where you were standing, the mixture of Dendrophone and Alice Holt Forest changed, but there was always space for both to coexist and flow with each other.

This harmonious coexistence was facilitated by the choice of geophonic sound material. The three layers featuring sounds like wooden wind chimes, resonant drones, and noise gave breathing room for biophonic organisms, mainly birds, in the forest to sound on top of the installation.

Please read Daniel Gill’s earlier blog post about their own personal reflection on Dendrophone, which discusses the specific data mappings and the congruency of the sound material used to augment these data sources, in conversation with Peter Batchelor.

Overall, I came away feeling very inspired by the installation, in no small part due to the way it coexisted with the acoustic space of the forest. The installation created an environment that naturally invites visitors to listen to both soundscapes and find connections to the sounding organisms in the forest. The installation is being uninstalled on 1st September 2025, so if you have the opportunity to experience this unique blend of art, science, and nature before then, I recommend it big time!

Dismantling streamers and Dendrophone

2025-09-02T08:00:00Z

📷 Top photo by Peter Batchelor.

And the day arrived. Between Tuesday 26 August, 2025, and Monday, 1 September 2025, Luigi, Pete and I were able to dismantle the three installations: Dendrophone, installation streamer, and natural soundscape streamer.

It has been one year of exhibiting the Dendrophone sound installation by Peter Batchelor, as well as streaming and collecting audio data from the two streamers built by Luigi Marino. It has been an intense year; we had to learn on the way how to survive in the forest. And we made it. We ensured to leave zero human imprint. It feels like we successfully accomplished a big challenge rounding one year full of adventures.

As Pete says:

What remains are a few logs. Minimal disturbance.

It has been an amazing experience. We are thankful for all the constant help from Forestry England’s Alice Holt Forest Team in the success of the project. We now need to complete the datasets of audio recordings and weather data. Additionally, we are planning to organise a final online meeting to debrief the project and hear back from the team on the impact of the project on the site.

Dismantling Streamers Paula and Giorgio

Luigi Marino dismantling streamer Paula at the Willows Green, Alice Holt Forest. Photo by Anna Xambó.

Dismantling streamer Paula at the Willows Green, Alice Holt Forest. Group photo, from left to right: Anna Xambó and Luigi Marino.

Dismantling streamer Paula at the Willows Green, Alice Holt Forest. Photo by Anna Xambó.

Dismantling streamer Giorgio at the meadow near the Large Pond, Alice Holt Forest. Photo by Anna Xambó.

Dismantling Dendrophone

Dismantling Dendrophone at Willows Green, Alice Holt Forest. Photo by Peter Batchelor.

Dismantling Dendrophone at Willows Green, Alice Holt Forest. Group photo, from left to right: Anna Xambó and Peter Batchelor.

Dismantling Dendrophone at Willows Green, Alice Holt Forest. Photo by Peter Batchelor.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the entire team of Alice Holt Forest for their constant help and support.

Presentation at UKAIRS - September 8-9, 2025

2025-09-10T10:00:00Z

Top photo, from left to right: Anna Xambó and Gerard Roma

The inaugural UK AI Research Symposium (UKAIRS) took place at Northumbria University, 8-9 September 2025, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK – the first event to bring together researchers from a variety of academic disciplines, all working within the AI community.

Gerard Roma and I presented the Sensing the Forest project on Tuesday, 9th September 2025, with the poster:

Xambó, Anna; Batchelor, Peter; Marino, Luigi; Roma, Gerard; Bell, Mike; and Xenakis, George (2025). Soundscape-based music and creative AI: Insights and promises, UK AI Research Symposium (UKAIRS) 2025, Newcastle, UK.

Abstract: Technological revolution and industrialisation are, sadly, disconnecting us, humans, from our natural environment. This loss of connection with nature is waning activities such as listening to natural sounds. Monitoring and understanding the natural sounds of our environment can help identify possible changes or anomalies, which in turn can inform the bigger picture of depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and climate change, among others. This position paper investigates the insights and promises of creative uses of AI applied to soundscape-based music in the form of musical instruments and practices. By looking at AI-enhanced bespoke DIY technologies for streaming and analysing live soundscapes, live coding with natural sounds or processing sound events, we can shed light on generating and manipulating new sonic material for music performance. This approach can raise awareness of the fundamental connection between sound and the environment.

We received valuable feedback from the visitors, with suggestions including:

ReX: Use of Causal Responsibility EXplanations for Image Classifiers and Tabular Data to understand our dataset of audio recordings seen as time series to see its patterns and evolutions.
Filters: Explore the weather dataset of 15 sensor values as filters of the audio recordings.
Agency: Look more into the philosophical aspect of agency in the project, informed by our presentation on the same symposium based on the journal article: Xambó, A., & Roma, G. (2024). Human–machine agencies in live coding for music performance. Journal of New Music Research, 53(1–2), 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2024.2442355
Complexity analysis: Use of complexity analysis to understand the large amount of data collected: one year of audio recordings and weather data.

The poster can be downloaded here.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to visitors for their valuable feedback.

Sonic Forest - Mapping Environmental Sensor Data to Sound for Climate Engagement

2025-09-17T07:00:00Z

📷 Top photo: Xinyue Xu

When we think about climate change, we usually picture graphs, charts, and statistics. These tools are essential for scientists, but for the public they can feel distant and abstract. The Sonic Forest project asks: what if we could listen to the forest instead?

Sonic Forest is a real-time sonification system that transforms microclimate data from Alice Holt Forest (UK) into musical sound. By mapping variables such as air temperature, humidity, wind speed, photosynthetically active radiation (sunlight), net radiation, and CO₂ levels to perceptually meaningful sound parameters, the project turns invisible environmental data into a sonic experience.

From Sensors to Sound

A network of environmental sensors records the forest’s daily breath:

Air Temperature → background pitch
Humidity → reverberation space
Wind Speed → filtering and timbral shifts
Sunlight (PAR) → rhythm and tempo
Net Radiation → vibrato depth
CO₂ Concentration → melodic contour and harmonic mood

These values are processed in Pure Data (Pd), an open-source visual programming environment for sound. Each variable shapes a different musical element, creating a living soundscape that changes with the forest itself. On a bright morning the music becomes faster and brighter, while at night the sound slows down and darkens. Rising CO₂ concentrations shift the harmony toward tension and dissonance, serving as an audible “danger alert.”

Why Sound?

Unlike visual graphs, sound unfolds in time, just like climate processes and ecological rhythms. Sonification allows listeners to intuitively follow changes: the transition from night to day, or the sudden spike of an extreme weather condition.

Guided by the Aesthetic Perspective Space (APS) framework, Sonic Forest balances two goals:

Clarity of data – ensuring that the sound mappings remain perceptually recognizable.
Aesthetic expressiveness – shaping the listening experience into something engaging and meaningful.

This balance makes the system suitable for both scientific communication and artistic exploration.

Public Listening Test

To understand how people perceive these sounds, we conducted a structured listening test with 25 participants. The results were striking:

96% could detect temperature changes through pitch.
92% recognized humidity shifts in reverb.
100% identified sunlight-driven rhythm changes.
Listeners clearly distinguished daytime as more active and nighttime as calmer.

Many reported that the sonification felt natural and intuitive—as if they were sensing the forest’s breathing. This shows that even non-experts can grasp ecological dynamics through sound alone.

Applications and Future Directions

Sonic Forest is more than an experiment—it points to new ways of connecting people with environmental change:

Education & Outreach: Museums, science centers, and schools can use sonification as interactive installations, letting people hear climate data.
Ecological Monitoring: Scientists can detect anomalies or unusual patterns more quickly by listening, not just looking.
Art & Performance: The system can generate real-time material for sound artists and composers, blending science with creativity.
Inclusive Design: Combined with visualization or tactile feedback, sonification could expand accessibility for audiences with diverse sensory abilities.

The project will continue developing toward multimodal, cross-disciplinary applications—bridging science, art, and public engagement.

Conclusion

Sonic Forest transforms climate data into music, inviting us to listen differently to the living rhythms of the forest. By making microclimate dynamics audible, it brings us closer to ecological processes that are otherwise invisible, reminding us of the urgency of climate change and the beauty of environmental interconnection.

🎧 Explore the sounds here: https://freesound.org/people/lilyxu1006/packs/44081/
💻 Source code on GitHub: https://github.com/LilyXu1006/SonicForest_PureData

Note: Due to ethics requirements, the dataset is under restricted access. Aggregated results are reported in the thesis, and enquiries can be directed to the authors.

Phase 3 - A DIY Solar-Powered Audio Streamer that Can Record Samples at Solar Times

2025-09-17T10:00:00Z

About this Tutorial

In this tutorial, I explain how to build the exact same solar-powered audio streamers we use in the forest.

Getting to the final version was a bumpy ride, so this guide offers more of a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges I faced, how I solved them, technical insights into the code, and real-world solar power data to ensure continuous operation.

But don’t worry! If you just want to get started quickly, there’s a more direct how-to guide: first, check the shopping list then follow the instructions in the README file in our repository. If something doesn’t work or you’re not sure what’s going on, come back here for detailed explanations and tips.

As everyone seems to focus on large AI models that require supercomputers accessible only to a few, this project goes in the opposite direction — using simple tech, guided by clever ideas, to solve specific problems while embracing limitations. For example, if a technology performs better but isn’t readily available, or might discourage a curious DIYer from experimenting, I either avoid it or suggest a more accessible alternative, as long as the alternative can still solve the problem effectively. When I read online that promising solutions like bioplastics aren’t recommended for outdoor use compared to petroleum-based plastics, I take that as a challenge to find ways to make them work. And more often than not, the solutions are there, if you look for them!

Some of the problems tackled here — which also double as stand-alone tutorials — include:

Nailing solar power requirements for Raspberry Pi projects. And yes, solar works even in the UK if you meet the right requirements. Blanket statements like “solar doesn’t work in the UK” aren’t helpful. Through field testing (and only field testing), you’ll get to what actually works.
Scheduling events based on solar time instead of standard clock time. We used this to capture the dawn chorus of birds, but the same script can automate anything from turning on a terrarium light at sunrise to watering plants at sunset.
Updating and checking your remote Raspberry Pi with a 4g Dongle without relying on paid remote access services.
Answering the question: can you trust 3D printed PLA parts for outdoor use? Spoiler alert: the answer isn’t “no.”
Assessing the performance of ultra-cheap MEMS microphones as an alternative to electret mics in DIY projects where audio quality matters. MEMS connect directly to the Raspberry Pi GPIO and don’t require a separate audio interface.

Features

The streamer has the following features:

Streams 24/7 stereo audio over the Internet
Can automate recordings based on solar times (birds don’t wear watches!)
Built with DIYers in mind: Raspberry Pi, open-source code, 3D printing, and affordable, accessible materials
Small and portable
Stable and weather-resistant — it can run for months in harsh environments with no maintenance
Uses the most eco-friendly materials we could reasonably find
Fully solar-powered
Remote monitoring and troubleshooting via 4G dongle (includes software updates, shell access, etc.)
Local access via smartphone hotspot
Range of audio qualities — suitable for curious DIYers looking for budget solutions, or audiophiles working with dedicated interfaces.

Everything shared here has been field-tested. Our streamers have worked for months, running on solar power even during UK winters, withstanding rain and snow. In their final version, they required minimal maintenance — and I’d say almost none if it weren’t for Storm Darragh, which briefly turned the solar panel into a sail before we tied everything to heavy logs…

Acknowledgements and Origins

Thanks to George Xenakis and Michael Bell from Forest Research for their practical, experience-based suggestions, which consistently proved accurate and saved us a great deal of trial and error. Thanks to Nick Wardlaw, Danielle Grimsey, Max Gravestock, and Jack Diprose at Forestry England for guiding us through the forest and supporting us at every step of the deployment.

Also, huge credit to the amazing Locusonus project (active since 2006), and their streambox tutorial — both of which were invaluable starting points.

That said, our 2024 project had different needs, and in the end, it evolved significantly from the original. Here’s how it differs:

Key Differences from the Streambox

Uses standard Raspberry Pi OS instead of Arch Linux
No need to give remote access to anyone
No pre-built OS image: we use a modular approach based on the latest RPi OS + online installers
Built-in safety checks for remote deployment — automatic issue resolution
New features:
- Solar time-based automation
- Remote code updates and shell access via 4G dongle

Before you start

Make sure you understand the risks of leaving a 12V battery unattended in the field. I’ll repeat it throughout, but it’s worth saying clearly up front:
Always use a fuse like shown in the wiring section, and thoroughly test your enclosure under both water and direct sunlight.

Don’t assume that in 2025 all remote areas have reliable network coverage.
Alice Holt is a great example. Even in a well-visited, family-friendly forest managed by Forestry England, Anna and I spent a lot of time walking around with SIM cards from four different providers — and still found surprisingly few spots where even one offered a solid signal for our streamer to work.

Shopping list

Core Components

[ ] Raspberry Pi Zero 2W
[ ] Micro SD card (any size, we used 256GB but calculate storage needs based on recording time)
[ ] 2 x Windshield (this 3D-printed holder fits the shield for Shure SM57 and mics with similar diameter)
[ ] Stereo Audio Input Options we tested:
- [ ] 2 × MEMS microphones with breakout (no audio interface needed, extremely cheap but low quality)
  OR
- [ ] RØDE AI-Micro + 2 × Lavalier GO (or other lavalier mics)

Solar Power Setup

[ ] Weather-resistant enclosure (we used a 24-litre Strata storage box made of recycled plastic)
[ ] Battery Charge Controller with 5V USB Output
[ ] 5A Fuse
[ ] Fuse case
[ ] Winter (December–January)
- [ ] 4 × 120W solar panels (we used Eco-Worthy)
- [ ] 120Ah 12V caravan battery
[ ] Autumn & Spring
- [ ] 2 × 120W solar panels
- [ ] Any standard 12V car battery
[ ] Summer
- [ ] 1 × 100W solar panel
- [ ] 7Ah 12V battery

Note: These configurations worked for our specific conditions, and they are on the safe side. Solar requirements vary enormously based on region, sunlight exposure, and shading. For detailed explanation, refer to the relevant section in the guide.

Streaming Without LAN

[ ] 4G USB modem
[ ] Data SIM card with a suitable monthly plan
[ ] Audio streaming host (we used StreamUp, supports up to 320 kbps OGG/VORBIS)

Battery Monitoring (Optional but very useful to nail the solar power requirements)

[ ] ADS1115 breakout board
[ ] 1 × 100kΩ resistor
[ ] 1 × 330kΩ resistor
[ ] Small stripboard (with vertical layout preferred)

3D-Printed Case (Optional)

[ ] 3D printer (to print from our shared model files)
[ ] 4mm decorative aluminium wire
[ ] Micro USB input breakout
[ ] 12mm round waterproof on/off switch
[ ] 5 × #2 self-tapping pan head 5mm screws
[ ] 4 × #4 self-tapping pan head 5mm screws
[ ] 3 × M3 square nuts
[ ] 3 × M3 pan head 10mm bolts

The total cost of the shopping list will mostly depend on your online shopping skills! The most expensive part of the setup is usually the solar panel system, especially if you want the streamer to run 24/7 during winter. The total cost will be much lower if you only plan to stream during the sunnier seasons. For reference, if your goal is year-round streaming with no battery swap, an EcoWorthy 390W + controller package is currently about £200 (we used 4 × 120W panels for extra safety, but 390W should be enough even in the toughest winter months), and a 120Ah campervan lead-acid battery costs a little over £100 — though prices change quickly. The same goes for the SIM plan and 4G modem, as both prices and available models fluctuate so often that listing a fixed cost wouldn’t make sense. In short, if you’re setting up a simple home LAN streamer, all you really need is a Raspberry Pi and an audio capture device. See the section on microphones for a £10 stereo solution or a higher-quality option, but keep in mind that most USB audio devices work fine on an RPi Zero 2W, so the choice ultimately depends on your needs. That said, if you want to go all the way with a fully solar-powered streamer, including a year of SIM coverage and decent audio quality, the overall cost will be more substantial.

Wiring

The car battery, fuse, and charge controller go inside a box to protect them from the rain. Always consider whether children are around! If there’s any chance someone might touch the terminals, the box needs to be locked.

In the image on the left, you can see how I connected the fuse: it’s the first thing on the positive terminal of the battery. This way, if a short circuit happens anywhere else in the system, the fuse will blow. After the fuse, there’s a handy lever connector to plug and unplug all the parts that need 12V. In our setup, we send the 12V to the charge controller, which converts it to 5V for the USB powering the RPi. We also send the 12V to the voltage divider (or another step-down converter), which steps it down to 3.3V so the battery sensor can read it. (The digital pins expect a voltage between 0 and 3.3V.)

Drill drainage holes at the bottom of the box, just in case something goes very wrong and water gets inside. If the bettery will be out there for a long time, you can cover the terminals with dielectric grease: it will help prevent corrosion and, being waterproof and non-conductive, add another layer of safety.

For the assembly of the actual streamer with the microphones and the battery sensor, see the following sections.

Once the current is stepped down to USB (5V), it’s much less dangerous to people and less critical if you make mistakes, so feel free to try stuff out! Though it can still damage electronics, the risk of injury or fire comes from mishandling the car battery. That said, I probably don’t need to remind you that most cars have flooded-acid batteries under the hood, and hopefully you don’t see many cars spontaneously catching fire… though their engine bays aren’t exactly waterproof either.

3D Printed Parts

Downloads

FreeCAD:

Meshes:

Case

Lid (rain hat)

Mic holder

I assembled the parts, starting with the RPi, the battery sensor (see the corresponding section for build instructions), and the waterproof on/off switch. The case measures 10 × 10 × 8 cm, which provides enough space to fit a small USB hub and the AI-Micro.

Note the vertical design for the RPi. This way, I could collect the recordings by unscrewing only the lid and plugging the SD card directly into a Linux laptop. The root folder can be accessed from the normal file manager, just like an external flash drive. To download 40 GB of recordings, the scp remote protocol won’t help much, unless you can wait hours and hours.

All the parts that need connecting have a rectangular notch where you can slide in an M3 square nut. This holds the machine screw that locks the 4 mm aluminum wire in place. That way, you can move the parts into position, and the 4 mm wire alone is strong enough to keep them steady.
This is useful to control the stereo field of the microphones and the position of the modem - if the modem is too close to the RPi it causes interferences, more on this in the notes about microphones section. In the pictures below, I’m building the mic holder for lavaliers. Its diameter is designed to match the size of windshields for the common Shure SM57, so you can use that as a reference for the fit.

All this parts were printed with standard PLA. And this leads to the question:
Will PLA survive a year of rain and sun in the forest?

The internet: NO!

ChatGPT: NO!

My tests: well…

I didn’t head into the forest with the AI-Micro and the RØDE lavaliers right away. We started our tests with an RPi Zero and a couple of MEMS mics: if it all went horribly wrong, we’d have lost about £20.
A trick to make PLA waterproof and have cute mini boats floating in the bath is using beewax. So I coated the back of the lid with it. I coated the back only to keep the surface of the streamer nice and smooth. On top of that, I added rubber O-rings to the lid screws.

I tested it under the shower to make sure the lid design would protect it from water coming from above. It passed.

In the right photo you can see a design detail: the lid has small semicircles with a downward-facing rim. They act like mini-umbrellas for the cable notches, and the rim presses down on the cables so raindrops can’t slide along them into the box (since, well, gravity wants the water to go from top to bottom).

Now, it’s true: PLA isn’t meant for outdoor use — UV light and moisture should eventually wear it down. But… the last version stayed out there from November to August, facing sun, rain, and snow, and not a single drop of water got through the lid. When we finally retired it, it didn’t look too beat up either:

So, PLA turns out to be surprisingly resistant.
There are valid concerns about calling bioplastics like PLA eco-friendly—both because of the environmental costs of growing corn for feedstock and because industrial composting facilities are still rare. Under typical landfill conditions, PLA degrades very slowly, but in the right industrial facility it can break down within a few months, which is far better than petroleum-based plastics. In my area, companies like Vegware seem to be moving in the right direction by expanding the composting phase.

So while PLA is not a perfect solution, it seems to offer advantages over traditional plastics. My hope is that future research and infrastructure development will prove it to be more than just another case of greenwashing.

Notes about the Microphones

Choosing the right microphone turned out to be quite tricky. Since the equipment would be left unsupervised in a forest, often near a path, starting with high-end gear wasn’t an option.

A common solution online involved using Pi audio HATs with electret microphones, but these HATs tend to go out of production quickly. I wanted something that wouldn’t require rewriting code or adapting to new hardware every few months — so I ruled that out.

USB microphones were the next option. Most of the ones I tested were electret-based with onboard ADCs and worked plug-and-play on the Pi (see the first tutorial). But they’re typically mono. Using two with a USB hub might work, but you also need to power a 4G modem from the same hub — all running on battery. More importantly, I wanted flexible mic placement to control the stereo image, and USB mics in their housings make that harder. Bare capsules are easier to mount, protect from rain, and fit into custom 3D-printed enclosures.

MEMS microphones offered a lot of advantages:

No need for an external audio interface or Pi HAT. ADC is onboard the coin-sized breakout.
Most have 32-bit resolution.
Extremely low current draw.
Connect directly to the GPIO.
Dirt cheap — you can get two (for stereo) for under £5.

For initial tests, especially with an untested DIY waterproof enclosure and uncertain site security, MEMS seemed like the perfect option.

However, their low current draw made them very sensitive to interference.

After solving the interference issues, the quality was acceptable when sounds were relatively loud. But in the forest, silence is common, and at night or during quiet periods, the background noise (digital and noticeable) became an issue.

I then tested a very small audio interface designed for lavalier mics — compact enough to fit in an enclosure meant to go conmfortably up a tree. Few models offer dual input, but the RØDE AI-Micro with two Lavalier GO mics did the job. The improvement in interference was significant. The modem could sit much closer without problems, and even with the included 1.5 m unbalanced cables coiled up inside the box (right next to the battery wiring!), there was no noticeable interference — surprisingly stable for an unbalanced setup.

Setting up these USB devices is much easier than working with MEMS or Pi HATs. By following the instructions in the README file, you should have them up and running quickly.

Note: The Rode AI-Micro comes — strangely — set to mix the left and right channels into mono by default. If you’re using it, make sure to reconfigure it with the provided software, otherwise, you won’t get separate left and right channels. This has to be done from a non-Linux machine.

The lavaliers with the AI-Micro is the final audio setup I used to record all the audio files you can hear on our Free Sound database, but only from March onward, when I switched from MEMS to the Lavaliers on both streamers.

MEMS michrophones - Gradus ad Parnassum (or maybe just a slightly less ambitious destination…)

MEMS microphones seem to be here to stay — and they might just become the go-to alternative to the ever-present electret mics for DIY projects. So here’s a bit of experimentation.
No sonograph allowed! Dear DIYer: if I say “the audio here isn’t good” but it sounds fine to you, you can skip the suggested improvements.

MEMS posed more problems than advertised.

Step 1: just make it work.

For the wiring, there is plenty of info online. This project used exactly the MEMS breakout I found in stereo configuration, and the pins on Raspberry Pi zero 2W are the same.

You’ll need to solder the headers and probably have a crimper for the connections. Initially, just use whatever cables you have.

Here’s what a MEMS mic can sound like if you:

mismatch the bit resolution,
don’t shield the cables, and
use cables that are too long.

▶️ Sound of MEMS with bit mismatch and unshielded cables, mono

Keep in mind that these recordings were made in quiet settings, and the volume is relatively high to make details more audible.
But I promise, I’m not recording a synth with a random LFO — what sounds like a vintage oscillator is pure interference picked up by the unshielded cables in a noisy RF environment! Listening to nighttime forest sounds with this setup would be an unpleasant experience…

Step 2: let’s get the cable length and shielding right.

Now you’ll almost certainly need to deal with the shield, and 5-core shielded cables aren’t exactly common. You should be able to find them online, or you can make your own DIY shield.

On the left is a single mic, which I secure to the 3D-printed socket with hot glue. On the right are the two ends of the left and right mics, twisted together and crimped with the same connector. If you’re thinking in terms of analog audio, this might seem counterintuitive, but this is digital. Yes, L and R share some joined cables, yet you’ll still get separate channels on the Raspberry Pi — as long as you solder the R channel control pin to Vdd and the L channel control pin to ground. You can do this directly on the MEMS breakout board by connecting the Vdd pin to the control pin on one microphone, and ground to the control pin on the other.

The bit resolution is still mismatched, but the cables are now shielded — with the shield connected only on the Raspberry Pi side, tied to ground along with the cable ground.

▶️ Sound of MEMS with bit mismatch and 50cm shielded cables, mono

The “synth” is quiter but still noticeably there. Cables are probably too long. Let’s cut them from 50cm to about 15cm.

▶️ Sound of MEMS with bit mismatch and 15cm shielded cables, mono

Now, the “synth” is almost gone. Not perfect, but a major improvement.

Note: There’s no fixed rule for cable length. It depends entirely on the strength of RFI (radio frequency interference) in your environment. If you place the setup near a power line or a strong light source, it might not work at all. But in a low-interference area, a 1-meter cable might be just fine.

Step 3: Can a bit-depth mismatch really cause that much trouble?

My bit depth was 16-bit (S16_LE). That’s wrong for most MEMS mics, which are typically 32-bit (S32_LE).
This is the relevant part of the ALSA config file (/etc/asound.conf)

pcm.mic_hw {
    type hw
    card sndrpii2scard
    channels 2
    format S16_LE   #16-bit is usually wrong for MEMS
}

▶️ Sound of MEMS with bit depth mismatch, shielded and short cables, stereo

Fixing the bit mismatch in the ALSA config file improved things a lot.

pcm.mic_hw {
    type hw
    card sndrpii2scard
    channels 2
    format S32_LE
}

▶️ Sound of MEMS with correct bit depth, shielded and short cables, stereo

These recordings are from a morning in Bristol, and yes, we have a lot of seagulls here.
I expected it to reduce background noise — no surprises there — but it also helped significantly with interference when I moved everything to the forest, which I hadn’t anticipated, at least not to that extent.

ALSA can be a bit unforgiving. If you don’t know the exact bit format of your device (not just the depth, but the label), it’s a real problem. Unfortunately, to figure it out for sure, you’ll probably need tools that come with PipeWire. That’s what I used to discover that the AI-Micro works with 24-bit audio, 3 bytes per sample, Little Endian (S24_3LE). But if you’d rather avoid installing all that, a few educated guesses usually work. Start by trying S32_LE, then S24_LE.

Step 4: The mic sounds decent, time to plug in the modem and head to the forest? Not so fast…

You plug in the modem — and you hear a nasty glitch. You might think the mic’s broken. It’s not. That sound is modem interference, especially if you’re trying to place it inside the same box as the MEMS mic and audio cables.

▶️ Sound of MEMS next to the modem, stereo

That’s the reason I built a separate modem case, connected by an aluminium wire — to isolate it from the audio path.

Move the modem farther away, and the glitch starts to fade:

▶️ Sound of MEMS 30cm away from the modem, stereo

And with proper shielding and enough distance, we’re back to where we started before plugging in the meodem.

Circuit corrosion is real in the forest

On the left pic, you can see what happened to the exposed circuits after just a few weeks without protection.

On the right, the fix: applying acrylic conformal coating with a tiny brush solves the issue — just make sure not to cover the mic hole!

In the rainy season, corrosion progresses faster, but it always starts gradually. Listen to the left channel below: the clicks aren’t rain; compare them to the right channel. This recording was made on September 23.

▶️ Sound of MEMS with beginnings of corrosion on the L channel

And yes, when advanced corrosion causes full short circuits, it can sound a lot closer to a Merzbow performance than to an idyllic forest soundscape! This is how it sounded on September 27, after four more humid days—volume reduced by 12 dB to spare your ears…

▶️ Sound of MEMS with advanced corrosion on the L channel

Overview of the Code Architecture

Most of the code is written in Bash, with Python scripts handling more time-sensitive tasks like reading the battery sensor and syncing with solar time.
System functions and global variables are defined in the common.sh script.

common.sh also acts as the main user configuration file. Many parameters of the streamer can be adjusted there, and each option is commented directly in the file.

For audio streaming, I used Darkice, like Locusonus and many other similar projects online.

For full details, the code is available in our GitHub repository, and it’s (hopefully!) well-commented. But here’s a quick overview of the core structure of the streaming component:

boot.sh -> opens a detached screen session that runs stream.sh
   └── stream.sh -> runs monitor_stream() (a main while loop)
         └── monitor_stream() -> checks if darkice is running
               └── If not, starts darkice via start_darkice()

Monitoring Strategy

Instead of a simple ps aux | grep darkice process check (which often fails in edge cases), I implemented live terminal parsing of Darkice’s output:

If output ends with SCHED_FIFO → everything is fine, set streamer state to 1
If keywords like reconnecting 0 or TcpSocket appear → set state to 0, even if it later recovers (more about this later)

This state is stored in the state.txt file and read regularly to assess streaming health.

Why Live Parsing?

During field testing, I noticed Darkice could remain an active process but fail silently — e.g., not actually streaming due to a network dropout or crash. Live output parsing fixed that.

Now, if Darkice hits a known error state, it’s killed and restarted. This even helps revive the remote streaming server — in our case StreamUp – likely because restarting triggers a fresh connection that resets the server-side socket state.

Note: This method depends on specific terminal outputs from Darkice (set using verbosity=6). If future Darkice versions change these messages, the function will need to be updated.

Persistent Execution

The main loop (monitor_stream) runs inside a detached screen session so it can operate independently of SSH connections.
boot.sh sets everything in motion by launching the screen session at system startup using a systemd service.

See Tutorial One for more details on screen.

The Safety Measures

If you plan to leave the Streamer in a remote area, these are really (but REALLY) important. In the forest, literally everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. So here we tackle the software side of surviving the wilderness. Sure, if a tree falls on the Streamer, software won’t save you—but for many other adversities, we have error routines.

There are four levels of checks.

Level 1: `start_darkice()`

start_darkice() {
    if status_darkice; then
        log "start_darkice() - Darkice already running -> Kill and restart"
        kill_darkice
    fi
    log "start_darkice() - Start darkice with real-time output line check"
    sudo darkice -c "$PROJECT_FOLDER/darkice.cfg" -v 6 | while IFS= read -r darkice_line; do
        echo "$darkice_line" | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
        if [[ "$darkice_line" == *"reconnecting  0"* || "$darkice_line" == *"TcpSocket"* || "$darkice_line" == *"No such device"* ]]; then
            set_darkice_state 0
        elif [[ "$darkice_line" == *"SCHED_FIFO"* ]]; then
            set_darkice_state 1
        fi
        sleep 0.1
    done
}

This function in common.sh watches Darkice’s terminal output in real time and flags issues we learned the hard way after a year of forest deployment. Around 80% of those issues were internet-related.

'reconnecting 0' and 'TcpSocket' usually meant the modem or network coverage had a meltdown.
'No such device' was a fun one—it appeared when the AIMicro or Rode lav mic just decided not to exist anymore (after months of working fine, of course). It turned out the issue was failing USB cables or connections, which caused power shortages to the USB peripherals. Obviously, I didn’t get a simple on/off failure — that would’ve been easier to deal with. Instead, I had to troubleshoot increasingly intermittent and unreliable behaviour…

This function only flags problems. The actual fixing comes in later steps.

Level 2: `monitor_stream()`

This function runs every DARKICE_MONITOR_INTERVAL seconds (default: 60 — tweak it in common.sh). It checks the Darkice streaming state stored in state.txt.

If the flag is 0, it restarts Darkice. This solved a really annoying issue: when Darkice froze, sometimes the streaming server froze too. So even after Darkice came back, the server stayed unresponsive until we manually restarted it via CentovaCast.

Magically, restarting Darkice in these situations solved the server issue. Why? No idea. Maybe it reset the transmission protocol. Maybe it was just scared of getting rebooted again. But it worked.

Level 3: `monitor.sh`

This script is triggered by crontab every hour and takes a more “surgical” approach to problem-solving.

Summary of what it does:

Checks if the Raspberry Pi has internet access.
If not:
- If using a dongle (not Wi-Fi), check and refresh the dongle’s IP. If still down, reboot the dongle.
- If using Wi-Fi, try reconnecting to known networks.
If the internet comes back, restart the streaming session.
Then verify if Darkice is really streaming (not just running). If stuck, kill the stream session and restart it.
If recording is enabled, make sure solar-crontab.py is running. If not, restart it in a screen session.

Level 4: `nuclear-option.sh`

A bit of a dramatic name for a script that just reboots the system. But hey, when you’re 5 hours away and stuck without logs, dramatic works.

Working in the forest was lovely—coding on a fallen tree while birds chirped around me—but driving back and forth every time the Pi decided to sulk wasn’t ideal.

The nuclear option was designed for those moments when nothing else works—especially if the modem crashes or your mobile provider surprises you with an unexpected IP change. The Raspberry Pi doesn’t always handle these disruptions gracefully, and sometimes a reboot is the only way to recover. Even before proper fallback routines kick in, a simple reboot can buy you another 12 hours of IP lease. And those 12 hours might be all you need to regain remote access and fix the issue.

In my case, those extra 12 hours after each reboot gave me time to remotely assign a permanent IP address to the modem, solving the lease expiry problem, thus sparing me a trip to the site, and, most importantly, avoiding any loss of recordings.

I set up this script to run once a day at 3 AM. Since rebooting sends logs via email and could cause more things to go wrong than the monitor script, I keep it rare.

How to Control the RPi from Your Home with a 4G Dongle - A real HACK!

When I finally got the 4G dongles to work, it sounded great… until I realized I couldn’t just SSH into the Raspberry Pi sitting deep in the woods. These dongles with SIM cards basically act like smartphones — and you wouldn’t want people SSH-ing into your phone either, right? Carriers make sure of that by throwing in things like CGNAT and constantly changing public IPs. Great for security, terrible for remote hacking (uh, I mean maintenance).

Sure, you could pay for services that give you a stable IP and remote access — just like they do for security cams — but where’s the fun in that? Hacks are free, fun, and they add that touch of cyberpunk.

Wait… Viruses Do This All the Time!

The idea is simple. Viruses often work by getting you to download a sketchy file that runs code on your machine. What if we are both the sender and the receiver — and we actually trust our code? Congratulations, you just reinvented the concept of automatic updates.

In a few words: we have a shared space (like an email inbox), the RPi checks it regularly, and if it finds something shiny (aka an email with a subject of your choice and with an attachment), it downloads and runs it.

The Simplest Possible Shared Repo: Email

Yes. Email. Literally Gmail.

To set this up:

Enable IMAP on your Gmail account
Write a Python script that checks for emails with a specific subject and grabs the attachments
Tell the Pi to run that script on a schedule and execute the goodies it downloads

How to Enable IMAP on Gmail

Open Gmail, click the gear icon (top-right), then “See all settings”
Go to Forwarding and POP/IMAP
Under IMAP Access, select “Enable IMAP”, then click “Save Changes”

Done.

The Python Snippet That Does the Job

This little script checks your Gmail inbox, looks for emails with a certain subject from the past few days (tweak this with the var SEARCH_DAYS), and downloads any attachments into your Pi’s project folder.
Heads up: Don’t forget to enable IMAP on your email and update the placeholders in the Email account credentials section of the code before running it!

from pathlib import Path
import imaplib
import email
import os
from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# --- Email account credentials and script config (edit this section!) ---
IMAP_SERVER = "imap.gmail.com"
EMAIL_ACCOUNT = "your-email@gmail.com"
PASSWORD = "your-app-password"  # Use a Google app password, not your main account password
PROJECT_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent
SEARCH_SUBJECT = "update code myProjectName"  # <-- Change to match your subject line
SEARCH_DAYS = 3  # Number of days to look back in the inbox
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

print("______________UPDATE CODE")

# Calculate the date x days ago in IMAP format (DD-MM-YYYY)
date_x_days_ago = (datetime.now() - timedelta(days=SEARCH_DAYS)).strftime("%d-%b-%Y")

# Connect to email server
mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(IMAP_SERVER)
mail.login(EMAIL_ACCOUNT, PASSWORD)
mail.select("inbox")

# Search for emails with the subject and date filter
search_criteria = f'(SINCE {date_x_days_ago} SUBJECT "{SEARCH_SUBJECT}")'
status, messages = mail.search(None, search_criteria)

email_ids = messages[0].split()
if not email_ids:
    print(f"No recent emails found with subject: {SEARCH_SUBJECT}")
else:
    latest_email_id = email_ids[-1]
    status, data = mail.fetch(latest_email_id, "(RFC822)")
    msg = email.message_from_bytes(data[0][1])

    print(f"From: {msg['From']}")
    print(f"Subject: {msg['Subject']}")
    print(f"Date: {msg['Date']}")

    # Loop through email parts to find attachments
    for part in msg.walk():
        if part.get_content_disposition() == "attachment":
            filename = part.get_filename()
            if filename:
                filepath = os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, filename)
                with open(filepath, "wb") as f:
                    f.write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
                print(f"Saved attachment: {filepath}")

mail.logout()
print("DONE")

What If You Just Want to Run Shell Commands?

Great question. You’re not always uploading new scripts — sometimes you just want to run a reboot, or log the CPU temp, or sacrifice a process to the gods of uptime.

Here’s the plan: we download a shell script via email (same method as above), and run it if it exists. Since we’ve already automated the email checking, we don’t want to repeat the commands every time the cronjob kicks in.

So, here comes the little extra step that makes it all neat and modular.

This helper script blank.sh looks for a file called commands-tray.sh in the project folder — a sort of “meal tray” you send via email. It contains all the commands you want the RPi to execute.

The moment we run blank.sh and it finds a file called commands-tray.sh with the bash commands, it eagerly devours its contents (i.e., runs the commands), logs the output, and then throws the tray in the bin (i.e., deletes commands-tray.sh) so it doesn’t rerun the same stuff over and over—unless you forget to delete the email, in which case it will keep finding commands to execute.

source "$(dirname "$(realpath "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")"/common.sh
script_name=$(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")

commands_script="$PROJECT_FOLDER/commands-tray.sh"
temp_log=$(mktemp)

if [[ -f "$commands_script" && -s "$commands_script" ]]; then
    log "$script_name - Executing $commands_script..."
    log "$(cat $commands_script)"
    source "$commands_script" > >(tee -a "$temp_log") 2>&1
    log "$(cat "$temp_log")"
    log "$script_name - Execution completed. Deleting $commands_script..."
    sudo rm -f "$commands_script" && rm -f "$temp_log"
else
    log "$script_name - No commands to execute."
fi

if [[ -n "$reboot" && "$reboot" -eq 1 ]]; then
    log "$script_name - Rebooting now..."
    sudo reboot
fi

Automate blank.sh With Cron

We want the RPi to check its inbox regularly, so we set up a cronjob to download the attachments and run blank.sh a few seconds after:

0 * * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/venv/bin/python $HOME/audio-streamer/update-code.py && sleep 10 && $HOME/audio-streamer/blank.sh

This runs every hour. If you’re confident everything’s stable, once a day should be fine too.

That’s it. You’ve now got remote, wireless, email-powered code deployment and shell control for your Raspberry Pi in the middle of nowhere — no subscriptions, no exposed SSH ports, no nonsense. Just some hackery.

Remote Command Greatest Hits (Only the Ones That Actually Worked)

Here’s a little greatest hits mixtape of the remote commands I sent to the streamer by uploading commands-tray.sh. Only the ones that actually did something useful made it into this list.

Reminder: blank.sh uses source to load commands-tray.sh (not a subshell), so all the global variables from common.sh are available in the current session.

Reboot

This is the only command with special syntax because it gets executed after the script finishes.
Don’t use sudo reboot here — otherwise, the script will halt before cleaning up temporary files or deleting itself.

reboot=1

From here on, just standard bash…

Send the Latest System Log

You’ll receive sys.log in your inbox the next time blank.sh runs.

$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh

Get the Current Configuration Files of the Streamer

Send the key config files one by one.

$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/darkice.cfg -s "STREAMER CONFIG: darkice.cfg"
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/update-code.py -s "STREAMER CONFIG: update-code.py"
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/solar-crontab.py -s "STREAMER CONFIG: solar-crontab.py"
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/common.sh -s "STREAMER CONFIG: common.sh"
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a ~/.msmtprc -s "STREAMER CONFIG: msmtprc"

Or just send them all in one email — send-email.sh accepts multiple attachments.

$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh \
  -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/darkice.cfg \
  -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/common.sh \
  -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/update-code.py \
  -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/solar-crontab.py \
  -a ~/.msmtprc \
  -s "STREAMER CONFIG: Full config dump"

Add a new cronjob

This command adds a new cron job to the end of the crontab. The job schedules recordings to run every hour from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. These entries won’t interfere with the solar-based cron jobs (see next section), even if they overlap, because record.sh will create a separate audio file for each run.

(crontab -l; echo "0 11-17 * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/record.sh") | crontab -

Update a cronjob

Replace specific lines in your crontab with new ones.

Edit the remote update check to run every hour,
instead of every 4 hours as defined in the default cronjob.

crontab -l | sed 's|0 \*/4 \* \* \* \$HOME/audio-streamer/venv/bin/python \$HOME/audio-streamer/update-code.py|20 * * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/venv/bin/python $HOME/audio-streamer/update-code.py|' | crontab -

Amend a cronjob to use a new script

crontab -l | sed 's|\$HOME/audio-streamer/email-log.sh|\$HOME/audio-streamer/send-email.sh|' | crontab -

Save your crontab contents to sys.log and send it

crontab -l >> "$PROJECT_FOLDER/sys.log"
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh

Log all audio files and email the list

ls -1 "$PROJECT_FOLDER/audio" > "$PROJECT_FOLDER/rec.log"
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a $PROJECT_FOLDER/rec.log -s "STREAMER DATA: Audio recordings log"

Uploaded a sys file and it’s not working? Often, a just matter of permissions

Check the sys.log for clues: it usually shows a “permission denied” error. To solve this, grant read permission (+r) to all users (a) to fix it and try sending it again via email:

sudo chmod a+r /etc/asound.conf
$PROJECT_FOLDER/send-email.sh -a /etc/asound.conf -s "STREAMER SOUNDSCAPE: Current asound.conf"

Using a Smartphone Hotspot to Connect and Program the Raspberry Pi

Sometimes (often initially) I had to debug and code the RPi in the forest, and I couldn’t wait an hour for the upload technique through email. It turns out that a smartphone hotspot and a couple of free apps were everything I needed.

1. Apps, Setup, and Hotspot

Download Net Analyzer and Termius on your smartphone.
Make sure you wrote the correct SSID and password of your smartphone hotspot in the appropriate section of common.sh.
Enable the hotspot and power on the RPi.

2. Find the RPi’s IP (Net Analyzer)

Connect your phone to its own hotspot.
Open Net Analyzer → run a LAN scan. (Tip: you may need to turn off your phone’s main Wi-Fi for the scan to succeed.)
Look for a device named Raspberry Pi Foundation (or similar).
Note the IP address (e.g., 192.168.43.101).

3. Connect via SSH (Termius)

Open Termius.
Add a new host:
- Address: IP from Net Analyzer.
- Username: your RPi username.
- Password: your RPi password.
Save → Connect → You now have an SSH shell to the Pi.

Tips

Coding on a smartphone is a recipe for bugs, but not all smartphones let you connect a laptop and RPi to the hotspot and SSH from the laptop to the RPi. I tried it with a Google Pixel and it worked like a charm, but when students tried with their devices, most blocked this, especially iPhones. Programming directly from the smartphone is often the only solution unless you have a dedicated portable hotspot.
More of a warning → Verify that the RPi auto-connects to your hotspot before heading into the field!

Solar Crontab — Birds don’t sing at office hours!

The usual way to schedule things on Linux is with good old crontab. You pick an hour, a day, a month, and the job gets done. But nature doesn’t run on clocks — it runs on light.

When we set up our forest recorder, we really wanted to capture dawn choruses of the birds that starts just before sunrise and fades as the day begins. So syncing with the sun was a must.

That’s where this script comes in: it triggers scripts or Python functions based on solar events, not man-made time. It’s flexible too — I’ve used it to turn on terrarium lights, water a garden, and yes, start a remote recording session as soon as the birds start gossiping.

This version is cleaned up and doesn’t depend on the audio streamer repo, so you can use it for any project.

How it works

You define a location (lat/lon + timezone).
You specify some solar ratios:
0 = sunrise, 1 = solar noon, 2 = sunset.
You can get creative — e.g., 2.5 is halfway between sunset and the next sunrise (i.e., middle of the night).
You assign a command (bash script or Python function) to each ratio.
The script checks the solar events for today, waits until the next one, runs the command, and repeats forever like a tiny sun-worshipping daemon.

Python script and setup

from pathlib import Path
import os
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import time
import zoneinfo
from astral import LocationInfo
from astral.sun import sun

#################################################
# Edit your parameters here:

location = LocationInfo("Alice Holt Forest", "UK", "Europe/London", 51.1699307, -0.8371404)

# Solar ratios: 0 = sunrise, 1 = noon, 2 = sunset, 2.5 = night (between sunset and sunrise)
solar_ratios = [0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 2.5]

SCRIPT_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent
commands = [""] * len(solar_ratios)

# Shell scripts or Python functions
commands[0] = os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, "record.sh")
commands[1] = os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, "record.sh")
commands[2] = os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, "record.sh")
commands[3] = os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, "record.sh")

# If you need to use Python functions instead of shell scripts,
# assign them without parentheses or arguments. You can mix bash and Python functions.
# commands[0] = myPythonFunction

#################################################


tz = zoneinfo.ZoneInfo(location.timezone)

def execute_command(command):
    if command is None or (isinstance(command, str) and command.strip() == ""):
        print("Nothing to run.")
        return

    if isinstance(command, str):
        os.system(command)
        print(f"Executed shell command: {command}")
    elif callable(command):
        try:
            command()
            print("Executed Python function.")
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error in Python function: {e}")
    else:
        print(f"Unsupported command type: {type(command)}")

def get_sun_times(location):
    today = datetime.now(tz).date()
    sun_times = sun(location.observer, date=today, tzinfo=tz)
    return sun_times["sunrise"], sun_times["sunset"], sun_times["noon"]

def datetime_to_timedelta(dt):
    return timedelta(hours=dt.hour, minutes=dt.minute, seconds=dt.second)

def calculate_intermediate_time(start, end, ratio):
    return start + (end - start) * ratio

def convert_ratios_to_times(ratios, sunrise, noon, sunset):
    sunrise_td = datetime_to_timedelta(sunrise)
    noon_td = datetime_to_timedelta(noon)
    sunset_td = datetime_to_timedelta(sunset)
    times = []

    for ratio in ratios:
        if ratio <= 1:
            td = calculate_intermediate_time(sunrise_td, noon_td, ratio)
        elif ratio <= 2:
            td = calculate_intermediate_time(noon_td, sunset_td, ratio - 1)
        else:
            td = calculate_intermediate_time(sunset_td, sunrise_td + timedelta(days=1), ratio - 2)
        times.append(datetime.combine(datetime.today(), datetime.min.time(), tz) + td)

    return times

def print_solar_times(ratios, times):
    print("Today's solar events:")
    for ratio, time in zip(ratios, times):
        print(f"  → Ratio {ratio}: {time.strftime('%H:%M:%S')}")

def calculate_delay(target_time):
    now = datetime.now(tz)
    delay = (target_time - now).total_seconds()
    return delay + 86400 if delay < 0 else delay

# Main loop
if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(f"Location: {location.name}, {location.region}")
    print(f"Lat: {location.latitude}, Lon: {location.longitude}")

    while True:
        sunrise, sunset, noon = get_sun_times(location)
        solar_times = convert_ratios_to_times(solar_ratios, sunrise, noon, sunset)
        print_solar_times(solar_ratios, solar_times)

        delays = [calculate_delay(t) for t in solar_times]
        next_idx = delays.index(min(delays))

        next_time = solar_times[next_idx]
        next_delay = delays[next_idx]
        next_ratio = solar_ratios[next_idx]
        next_command = commands[next_idx]

        print(f"Next event (ratio {next_ratio}) in {int(next_delay)} seconds at {next_time.strftime('%H:%M:%S')}")
        time.sleep(next_delay)

        execute_command(next_command)
        print("Waiting one minute to avoid double-triggers...\n")
        time.sleep(60)

The Simplest Battery Sensor: ADS1115 breakout with voltage divider

The battery sensor is incredibly useful for monitoring a solar-powered setup. This one is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. I used a common analog-to-digital converter (ADS1115) to read the battery voltage directly, and a simple voltage divider—just two resistors—to scale the 12 V down to 3.3 V (with some headroom), which the Raspberry Pi can safely read on one of its GPIO input pins. For the voltage divider I soldered a piece of breadboard with the conductive side up.

You should definitely include a fuse in this setup. If you leave it in a place with fire hazard, it’s absolutely mandatory — but if you’re using this specific voltage divider, the fuse isn’t just mandatory, it’s non-negotiable. You’re connecting the + and – from a 12V battery directly onto a tiny breadboard. A stray wire, a drop of water — that’s all it takes to short the rails, and car batteries can dump hundreds of amps in a flash.

Anything around 5A will do. A cheap inline fuse could save your gear — or the entire site if you’re not very careful.

In the picture, I soldered all the wires on the stripboard, so if I make mistakes, I don’t have to mess with the sensor itself. That part is left out in the diagram for clarity.

Below there is the Python code used to read the battery voltage. Here, I removed the functions that log the values to the project log, so this code can be used separately if you’re only interested in the battery sensor. But the original script I use with the streamer is in the repo.

The voltage divider can be built with many combinations of resistor values — but if you change the resistors, you must also update the values in the code so that the function can rescale the readings accordingly. (Yes, this is one of those cases where analog and digital meet in a very tangible and understandable way!)

Also, the sensor needs calibration. Here, I implemented the simplest possible method: comparing one reading from the sensor to a manual reading taken with a multimeter. You should do the same and change the values in the code to reflect your setup.
The correct way (as George at Forest Research reminds us) is to take several readings at different battery charge levels and use those to build a proper scaling function. But if you don’t need extreme precision, a single comparison point will usually do the job just fine.

import time
import board
import busio
import adafruit_ads1x15.ads1115 as ADS
from adafruit_ads1x15.analog_in import AnalogIn

# Create I2C bus
i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA)

# Create ADS1115 object
ads = ADS.ADS1115(i2c)

# Set the gain to handle voltages up to 4.096V (ADS1115 reference voltage)
ads.gain = 1  # Gain of 1 corresponds to ±4.096V range

# Select the input channel to read (e.g., A0)
channel = AnalogIn(ads, ADS.P0)

# Voltage divider parameters
R1 = 330000  # 330kΩ resistor
R2 = 100000  # 100kΩ resistor

# Divider factor
divider_ratio = R2 / (R1 + R2)  

# Measurments for calibration
sensor_voltage = 13.1
multimeter_voltage = 13.05

calibration_factor = multimeter_voltage / sensor_voltage

def read_battery_voltage():
    # Read raw ADC voltage
    adc_voltage = channel.voltage  # Voltage at the ADC pin (post-divider)
    # Calculate the actual battery voltage
    battery_voltage = (adc_voltage / divider_ratio) * calibration_factor
    return battery_voltage

# Dummy read. After boot, the first read is wrong.
channel.voltage
time.sleep(0.1)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    battery_voltage = read_battery_voltage()
    print(f"Battery Voltage: {battery_voltage:.2f} V")

If you’re using our installer, all required libraries should already be included.

But if you’re setting up only the battery sensor, you’ll need to install a few Python libraries and run the script inside a virtual environment, as required by Python on Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and newer.

sudo apt install -y python3-pip

# Create and activate the virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install required libraries inside the venv
pip install RPi.GPIO
pip install adafruit-blinka
pip install adafruit-circuitpython-ads1x15

Make sure to run your script inside the activated venv each time:

source venv/bin/activate
python your_script.py

To activate the venv and log the voltage automatically with crontab (e.g. every half hour), use this line instead:

0,30 * * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/venv/bin/python $HOME/audio-streamer/battery.py

Getting the Solar Panel Setup Right

If there’s one thing no blog post, forum, or ChatGPT session could really help me solve without getting my hands dirty, it was figuring out the solar power requirements to keep a low-power streamer alive through a UK winter.

So here we go.

I started experimenting in June 2024. Between June and August, in an open field, anything works. A standard 80W or 100W panel plus a 12V 7AH battery is plenty to keep a Raspberry Pi running 24/7. Most of the panels you find online come with a basic controller, usually with at least one 5V USB output — just plug it into the Pi and you’re done.

One key detail: USB cables are the weak point, especially the junctions. Keep them short, avoid unnecessary splits or adapters, and protect any exposed joins with self-amalgamating tape. It really helps.

In our setup for Pete’s installation, we had the streamer mounted up a tree, using a 4m USB cable from the controller to the Pi, and a 1m USB from the Pi to the modem. The setup also included a USB hub (for a modem and AIMicro interface), and two Rode LavGo lavalier mics. It worked… for a while. But over time, we saw weird failures: the modem stopped being recognized, the hub was unreliable, etc.

Eventually, the culprit turned out to be the cables and the hub. I swapped in a sturdier USB hub and a thick 40cm USB cable between the RPi and the modem, and wrapped the connections where possible. I also replaced the power line with a new 4m USB cable. After that, everything started behaving again — even with the long 4m run, though with standard cables, that length is usually a weak point and might need replacement from time to time.

But then winter comes (and the Pi goes offline 😞)

Winter is a completely different story.

In summer, a 50W panel might be enough.
In winter? You might need four 120W panels — 480W total(!) — and a 120AH deep-cycle battery just to keep a device drawing 0.2A online.

In the UK winter, the sun barely gets above the horizon. In early December it just peeks out, waves hello, and ducks back down.

Here’s a south-facing photo taken in late November, with the red dotted line roughly marking the sun’s path.

As you can see from the sun’s path, even in a wide open space, the low sun angle means that distant trees can block direct sunlight for hours. That, plus the shorter days, changes everything.

And yes, direct sunlight makes a huge difference. Here’s a matrix of comparison shots to show what kind of light we’re talking about. Notice on the left how much sunlight is hitting the panel, and on the right, the measurements taken within seconds of the shot. All pictures taken on 29-Nov-2024 from 10.40AM to 11.30AM.

Direct sunlight - 2 x 120W panels	Direct sunlight - ampere reading
Partial shade - 2 x 120W panels	Partial shade - ampere reading
Shade - 2 x 120W panels	Shade - ampere reading

Adjust Your Panel Angle!

The angle of the solar panel matters a lot. You want the sunlight to hit it as close to perpendicular as possible. To get sunlight across all seasons, it’s essential that the panel faces south. Even a little deviation can noticeably reduce power generation during winter months.

Winter
Nearly vertical

Autumn/Spring
Around 60°

Summer
Around 45°

And now some numbers - kindly brought to you by our battery sensor.

I set up voltage detection to run every 30 minutes. Below are graphs from two sunny days — 11 January and 11 May — showing the big difference in solar charging. Keep in mind that these graphs, especially the first one, also reflect the shading caused by surrounding trees, so they shouldn’t be considered typical examples of full-sun conditions in an unobstructed field.

The background color shows the battery status under load — meaning with all the devices running. If you measure voltage when the battery is idle (nothing connected), the reading will be higher and not directly comparable. At 12.5V, the battery is fully charged, so fluctuations during solar charging don’t make much difference: as soon as the sun goes down, the voltage settles back around 12.5V and begins to discharge slowly.

You don’t want the battery sitting in the yellow or red zone for more than a week or two. If that happens, sulfation can occur — a process where lead sulfate crystals build up on the plates, permanently reducing the battery’s ability to hold charge.

And now a quick look at how I figured out the actual solar panel requirements. This is the battery log from the first 20 days of January:

The initial setup was based on a guess: 2 × 120W solar panels and a standard 50Ah flooded lead-acid car battery. It looked reasonable on paper — but as the graph shows, it wasn’t even close to enough for mid-winter conditions.

Note: If you’re wondering why you still see data in the red / dead zone, it’s because the Pi will technically stay on down to around 11.5V, but below 11.6V, you should consider the system effectively dead. Why? Because things start to go offline — the modem is usually the first to fail, which means no stream, even if the Pi keeps logging battery status or recording audio for a little while longer.

The next attempt was to switch to an autocarvan battery 120Ah flooded lead-acid battery.

This setup definitely improved the situation — and we were relatively lucky with the weather compared to the previous 10 days. Still, the linear regression was heading in the wrong direction. It might have just barely lasted until sunnier days, but I had already lost some recordings, so I decided to double the solar panel capacity:

No more power issues from the solar system.

It might seem like overkill to use 480W of solar panels and a 120Ah 12V battery to power a Raspberry Pi that draws just 0.2A — but UK winters offer very limited sunlight, and unless you’re in a perfectly open space, even trees or buildings 50 meters away can drastically reduce charging efficiency. For non-critical setups in semi-open spaces, you could try 240W panels and a 120Ah battery and probably get away with it. But if 24/7 operation is critical in December and January, this is the configuration I’d recommend: 4 × 120W solar panels + 120Ah lead-acid battery.

Summary of Lessons:

In winter, you need a really open space, facing south, and ideally no obstacles around.
In a partially open site (like in our photos) during the shortest days of the year, 480W worth of panels was needed to stay online reliably.
Adjusting the solar panels angle according to the season makes a big difference.
Under the canopy in winter? Forget it.
You’re better off running on a battery and replacing it every few weeks. We used a 120Ah caravan battery — it lasted about a month before needing a swap.
You’ll need two batteries to rotate, a car battery charger at home, and a strong back — those things weigh 20kg each and are not much fun to drag through the woods.

Best of Nature-Induced Tech Failure

The forest: beautiful, wild, and completely uninterested in helping your tech project succeed. Here’s a curated selection of everything that went gloriously wrong — a blooper reel of our outdoor audio adventures.

“No Bars in the Wild”
Entire stretches of forest had absolutely no network coverage. Some spots looked like they had signal — just enough to give you false hope before dropping out mid-stream once we left the forest. The hunt went on…

“From Hi-Fi to Harsh Noise”
The -initially uncoated- MEMS microphone breakout corroded within weeks. What once captured birdsong now sounded like Merzbow doing a live set in a tin shed during a hailstorm.

“Radio Interference Bonanza”
Turns out, placing a modem too close to a Raspberry Pi creates enough RMI noise to disrupt everything. This problem was extreme with MEMS mics, definitely less with audio interfece and electrect mics (lavalier GO).

“Gone with the Wind”
Storms had a field day with our solar panels. Some were flipped, and a few spent quality time face-down in the mud. Our lesson? Tie everything to something heavier than air.

“Modem Freeze: The Ancient Wisdom of Unplug and Replug”
On rare occasions, the modem I used with the 4m power-cable streamer froze in a way that a simple Raspberry Pi reboot couldn’t fix, since rebooting keeps the modem powered. In those cases, the only cure was the classic, time-honored ritual: unplugging it and plugging it back in.

“A Bug’s New Home”
Large enough holes in a case often became a charming new apartment for insects. The 3D-printed microphone enclosures had an opening wide enough for the capsule to slide through — and before I thought about sealing it, a spider had already moved in! Actually the sounds were cool but the project had other requirements…

The contrast was stark. At home, everything worked perfectly on a cozy LAN. In the forest? It was survival of the fittest. Every single safety mechanism I coded felt like an overreaction… until it either solved a problem or wasn’t enough.

Now, thanks to all that trial-by-error, the stream runs continuously with virtually zero intervention.

Presentation at Aix-Marseille University - October 15, 2025

2025-10-15T10:00:00Z

For a second time after one year, today I presented the latest updates of the Sensing the Forest project at the Master’s degree in Acoustics and Musicology from Aix-Marseille University. The first presentation was scheduled on October 23, 2024. It was reported in our blog here.

The students are in their 1st year of a 2-year Master’s, and from two streams, 13 from the engineering stream and 9 from the musicology & humanities stream.

Similar to last year, the session consisted of two parts. In the first part, I presented the project in the format of a research seminar. In the second part, we continued with an interview/discussion to provide students with a comprehensive and practical understanding of an academic career that involves both research and lecturing.

About the talk

The outline of the talk included talking about the project. Then, I presented work packages 1 and 2: Artistic audio ecology intervention concerning forests and climate data; and Community science intervention with forests and climate data, respectively. Finally, I shared some reflections and future work.

Q&A

The students had several questions throughout the talk. Some of the questions were practical, such as what microphones have we used in the streamers, who pays for this type of project, and how does a project like this co-exist with your academic and personal life. This led to a discussion of the role of the funding body and research projects in academia. Another question was about the metrics from the funder: how do they know that it went well? How is it measured? This brought the discussion to making sure to deliver the planning presented in the accepted proposal. Other questions related to the more-than-human perspective of whether Pete’s installation has had a positive impact on animals, a valid point with no easy answer that is worth considering in the future. It was also asked what the sound was like in the breathing representing CO2 intake in Pete’s installation.

Research careers

For the second part of the session, Mathieu asked questions about the job role and activities related to teaching and doing research, and how to combine it with artistic practice. Another set of questions related to skills and preparation to be a lecturer and researcher.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Mathieu Barthet for the invitation and to the students of the Master’s in Acoustics and Musicology, Aix-Marseille University, for their inspiring questions.

Launch of Podcast - Episode 1

2025-11-08T00:00:00Z

During the Sensing the Forest Summer School, we had ten artists working on bringing their sound installation to the Willows Green trail at Alice Holt. The forest became an exhibition for visitors to walk, listen, and experience these artistic responses to climate change.

As the Sensing the Forest project is approaching an end, we created a two-episode podcast as an epilogue to share our stories along the journey of the summer school, and the sound installations presented in the Your Sonic Forest exhibition.

As the Sensing the Forest project is coming to an end, it is our delight to share the first of a two-episode podcast as an epilogue of the Sensing the Forest project.

In Episode 1 we invited the participants from the 2024 summer school to talk about their installations:

sensingtheforest · Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations, with Sensing the Forest Artists

The first episode presents an interview with Anna Xambó Sedó (Principal Investigator of Sensing the Forest, Queen Mary University of London) conducted by Hazel Stone (National Curator of Contemporary Art, Forestry England), and six pieces of voice commentary recorded by summer school artists Ed Chivers, Kate Anderson, Gabrielle Cerberville, Austin Blanton, Miles Scharff, and Luigi Marino.

Thanks to all the artists for their invaluable and inspiring contributions!

The production of the podcast is carried out by Shuoyang Zheng, with the help and feedback from Hazel Stone, Dominic Head, Peter Batchelor, and Anna Xambó Sedó.

The second episode can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/sensingtheforest/podcast-ep2

Presentation at Jean Golding Institute - December 10, 2025

2025-12-10T10:00:00Z

Today I presented the latest updates of the Sensing the Forest project at the Jean Golding Institute, University of Bristol, as part of their Turing Seminars.

About the talk

This talk presents the AHRC-funded research project “Sensing the Forest: Let the Forest Speak using the Internet of Things, Acoustic Ecology and Creative AI” through the lens of sound data as a primary material for exploring relationships between acoustic patterns, forest environmental conditions, and the longer-term indicators of climate change. Three complementary approaches to working with sound data will be introduced as we are now in the phase of analysis: acoustic ecology, sonification, and live coding. Together, these perspectives highlight how science, engineering, and art intersect through sound to foster new ways of understanding environmental systems.

Q&A

The event included a Q&A session and was followed by mince pies, tea, and coffee. I met many of the attendees in one-to-one conversations to discover that there was a diverse group of students and academics from different backgrounds, from digital anthropology to climate change communication, to geography, to cognitive science, to computer science, to HCI, to creative AI. The questions included: how does designing more than human inform this project?, do the generated soundscapes benefit the species and how could this be proved?, what were the reactions of the online listeners when connecting to the 24/7 streamer radio station?, what is live coding?, are we considering expanding the project to other forests?, and what is next?, among others.

These questions and conversations are very helpful in a stage of reflection about the project while we are completing the documentation and are focusing our efforts on data analysis and academic writing.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Jim Evans, Pete Bennett, Conor Houghton and Emmanouil Tranos for the invitation and event organisation, to the attendees for excellent questions, and special thanks to Trisha Khallaghi for the inspiring follow-up conversation.

Launch of Podcast - Episode 2

2025-12-17T00:00:00Z

As the Sensing the Forest project is coming to an end, it is our delight to share the second of a two-episode podcast as an epilogue of the Sensing the Forest project.

The second episode continues the journey with an interview with the project co-investigator and composer Peter Batchelor, conducted by the artist and writer Chris Meigh-Andrews, to reflect on Dendrophone, a sound installation created by Peter Batchelor at the Alice Holt Forest.

Thanks to Peter and Chris for their invaluable and inspiring contributions!

sensingtheforest · [EP2] Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations, with Peter Batchelor and Chris Meigh-Andrews

The production of the podcast is carried out by Shuoyang Zheng, with the help and feedback from Hazel Stone, Dominic Head, Peter Batchelor, and Anna Xambó Sedó.

The first episode can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/sensingtheforest/podcast-ep1

Sensing the Forest for Ground @ Creative Coding Utrecht - November 22, 2025

2025-12-17T00:00:00Z

In November, Creative Coding Utrecht dedicated a month to engaging with a central question:

How might technology and the living world coexist?

The Zoöperation, based in Utrecht and operating as a Zoöp, spent the month exploring how their organisation, and the technologies they use, participate within and impact living ecosystems. Through a series of interventions and workshops, they explored this understanding: an electric clay workshop where participants created PCB boards with the earth itself, an arcade featuring electronic waste transformed into instruments, and installations that positioned technology as one voice within a much larger living system.

I was there for the closing events, presenting and performing with Sensing the Forest through a Sound Ecologies Meetup, Walkshop and a MultiSpecies concert.

Ground Finissage

The Sound Ecologies Meetup and Walkshop revolved around the idea that attunement begins in the effort to actively listen and consider our role in our environment. The event kicked off with a reflective sound walk, hosted by Werner de Valk, asking us to consider ecological listening and the relationship source and causality has in sound. Matthias Hurtl presented Listening to the Cracks which is a long term sound based citizen science project which seeks to use sound recording and composition to identify the multi species life in the gaps and edges of the city. I presented Sensing the Forest’s artistic interventions, exploring how acoustic ecology and ecological listening offer ways of engaging more deeply with the forest soundscape. Friso Wiersum and Bart Witte presented their project Nightwalkers, wherein they practice collective night walking through urban spaces in search of the relations between participants and the land around them, attuned to what the urban landscape obscures and controls through its lights, surveillance systems, closed storefronts, and curtained windows.

Multispecies Concert

Later on, there was the Multispecies Concert, a trio of multimedia performances that continued the day’s themes. The concert kicked off with Niels Gräber and Isaac van der Aker’s Mudcell Composition, using Sunjoo Lee’s Electric Garden. The fluctuating voltages of the fermenting bacteria in each mud cell shaped elements of the live piece, showing how humans might co-create with electrogenic bacteria. This was followed by Sunjoo Lee and Kohran Erel’s Sonified Garden, an audio-visual piece built from recordings of the Electronic Garden captured through electromagnetic mics, hydrophones and a Pocket Scíon—devices that reveal a sonic world inaccessible to human perception. The sound extended and developed alongside a nature-inspired visual accompaniment. Finally, I presented a Live Coding SuperCollider piece using the rich dataset recorded as part of Sensing the Forest project. Machine Listening techniques were used to shift between the forest’s own voices and the hidden patterns that emerge when technology interprets them.

Takeaway

Not only did the entire Ground programme highlight how technology might be thoughtfully integrated into living ecosystems through community science, artistic and scientific interventions, but also how they might come together to reveal the multidimensional forces which act on our relationship with the living world. From the Zoöperation’s organisational model to the sonic investigations of the closing events, each project offered a different lens — ecological, acoustic, participatory — through which to perceive and engage with this coexistence. What emerged was not a single answer but a deeper understanding of the complexity at stake: that meaningful change requires listening across disciplines, species and technologies alike.

For more info on Zoöp’s: https://zoop.earth/en/
Thanks to @fadeddream for pictures
Thanks to Fabian, Martina and the rest of the CCU crew for their hospitality and the amazing work that you do!

Phase 2 - A DIY Solar-Powered Home LAN Audio Streamer that Can Record Samples at Solar Times

2025-12-18T10:00:00Z

About this Tutorial

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the minimal steps to build a solar-powered home LAN streamer that can also automate recordings based on solar time. We’ll be using the code from our repository, but if you’d like to modify it for your own projects (and you’re absolutely encouraged to!), check out this more advanced tutorial for more details — including standalone solutions to some of the most annoying problems we ran into when deploying our streamers in the forest.

Shopping List

[ ] Raspberry Pi Zero 2W
[ ] Micro SD card (any size, we used 256GB but calculate storage needs based on recording time)
[ ] Stereo Audio Input Options we tested:
- [ ] 2 × MEMS microphones with breakout (no audio interface needed, extremely cheap but low quality)
  OR
- [ ] RØDE AI-Micro + 2 × Lavalier GO (most usb audio devices and lavalier mics will work)

Solar Power Setup (optional)

[ ] 1 × 120W solar panel
[ ] Battery Charge Controller with 5V USB Output
[ ] Any standard 12V car battery

Hardware setup

This part is mostly up to you! If you’re feeling adventurous and want to 3d-print the movable mic cases shown in the pictures, the RPi case, understanting the solar power requirements, or add a battery sensor, check out the more advanced tutorial.

Here, I’ll skip the solar power wiring details. If you use a solar panel from brands like EcoWorthy or similar, it usually comes with a controller. All you need to do is connect the 12V battery and the solar panel to the controller, then use the stepped-down 5V USB output to power the Raspberry Pi. Just keep in mind that solar panels should face south, and if you don’t need perfect optimization according to the season, an incline of about 45° or a little more should do the job.

Microphones

The USB audio devices are plug-and-play. Simply connect the micro-USB and run:

arecord -l

If you see something like USB Audio or the name of your device, you’re ready to move on to the software setup.

For the MEMS microphones, below a quick diagram illustrating the connections in a stereo configuration. (And yes… the wires aren’t exactly drowing contest material…)

Connect the MEMS microphones and proceed with the software setup — they aren’t plug-and-play, so we’ll need the linux kernel headers and the drivers.

For a deeper explanation and tips on improving audio quality with the MEMS, or considerations about solar power requirements during winter refer again to the advanced tutorial. If your Raspberry Pi only powers itself and the two MEMS microphones, a single 120 W solar panel paired with a standard flooded lead-acid car battery should be sufficient even in winter. However, the seasonal difference is huge, and during months with limited sunlight (December and January), you may still experience periods offline.

Case

Below are models for two case designs with suction cups (about 5 cm in diameter) for window mounting.

Design Option 1

The first is ultra-compact and fits only the RPi Zero, with just enough room for the header connections.

RPi0-Case1_FreeCAD-Project

Meshes

Design Option 2

The second also includes space for an ADS1115 battery sensor — very handy when running on solar power!

And should you ask the following research question: “Why does it look like a throwback to 90s hip-hop???”

We can only hope that future research and the advancement of cutting-edge technologies, will one day shed light on this most essential inquiry.

RPi0-Case2_FreeCAD-Project

Meshes

Software setup

Just a slightly more commented version of the steps described in our README.md file in the repo.

Prerequisites

If using MEMS microphones, enable I2S by editing the config file:

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Add the following line at the end:

dtparam=i2s=on

Setup

Download the project folder to your Raspberry Pi’s home directory. From the home folder:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/sensingtheforest/audio-streamer.git

Install all the necessary libraries.
- Grant execute permission to the scripts in the project folder:
```
cd audio-streamer
find . -type f $ -name "*.sh" -o -name "*.py" $ -exec chmod +x {} \;
```
- Now run the install script:
```
./install.sh
```
- When prompted, say yes to configure Icecast2. After that, you can just use the default settings. If you change the default passwords, make sure to remember them — you’ll need them later for the Icecast2 config file. When prompted to configure msmtp (email app), and asked that confusing question, just go with the default no.
- Say yes to reboot — this is the final step of the installer. If you changed the kernel headers setting in installer.sh, the installer will finish without rebooting.
- Note: The script should install all required packages from the repositories. All the packages are listed in the script. There are some parameters at the beginning of install.sh you can set to spare some time, otherwise it will do a full OS upgrade and compile the latest darkice version. This may take a while - get a cup of tea… or two…
For MEMS microphones, install drivers:
```
./mems-drivers.sh
```
- Reboot when prompted (type y).
- Note: If not using MEMS microphones, skip to step 4.
Set up the microphone:
- Open the setup script:
```
sudo nano mic-setup___o.sh
```
- Set DEVICE and FORMAT to match your microphone. You can find your device name running:
```
arecord -l
```
- Save the file as mic-setup.sh (remove “___o”) and run it:
```
sudo mv mic-setup___o.sh mic-setup.sh 
./mic-setup.sh
```
- A 10-second recording test should start. You should see volume meters (or a vague memory of them) moving. Check for mic-test.wav in the project folder.
- You can adjust the microphone capture volume in alsamixer. Run:
```
alsamixer
```
To see the fader, click on F6: Select your soundcard, and then show all volume controls with F5: All.

If you want to repeat the test and observe the signal levels, run:
```
arecord -d 10 -D mic_out_shared -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -t wav -V stereo -v mic-test.wav
```
Configure settings:
- Edit all remaining files ending in "___o" with your settings. Settings are commented inside each file (msmtprc___o.txt is optional, see step 7).
- Save them without "___o" (e.g., edit common___o.sh and save as common.sh).
- Note: You can keep the originals using cp instead of renaming them with mv, only those without "___o" will be used. I use mv to see right away which ones I’ve already edited.
Test the stream:
```
./stream.sh
```
- If everything is set up correctly, you should be able to access the stream through your Icecast2 server address, which typically looks something like 192.168.0.172:8000.
  If you’re unsure about the address, check which IP has been assigned to your Raspberry Pi from your home modem’s admin page.
- Note: This assumes that darkice.cfg has been set up correctly, there are no errors in the terminal, and the last line ends with SCHED_FIFO.
(optional) Enable email operations:
- Obtain an App Password from your email account (we used Gmail). Don’t use your Google account password! The app password is a special password created just for this purpose.
- Update the ‘from’, ‘user’, and ‘password’ fields with your own credentials.
- Save this file as a hidden configuration in your home folder and set the appropriate permissions.
```
sudo mv msmtprc___o.txt ~/.msmtprc
chmod 600 ~/.msmtprc
```
- Enable IMAP on your email account to allow the Raspberry Pi to download attachments from your emails and receive remote updates.

(optional) Set up cronjobs for automatic problem solving and sending the logs:

Open the crontab editor

crontab -e

Copy and paste this content in the crontab and save.

# The environment for cron jobs is more limited than your normal shell environment.
# Setting the PATH variable here ensures proper path resolution for all cron-executed commands and scripts.
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

# By default, if a cron job generates output (stdout or stderr), 
# it's emailed to the user who owns the crontab.
# Setting MAILTO to an empty string suppresses these emails.
MAILTO=""

# Health check every hour. Append states on uptime.log
30 * * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/monitor.sh

# At 3AM: check if darkice is streaming, if not reboot. 
# Rebooting sends the log email so too often can be annoying... 
0 3 * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/nuclear-option.sh

### (optional email operations, for this you need step 7)
# At 9PM: send the log file and limit the lines to the last 50000.
0 9 * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/rotate-log.sh; sleep 5; $HOME/audio-streamer/send-email.sh
# Every 4 hours: look for an email with a specific subject, copy its attachments to the main folder, then run blank.sh.
0 */4 * * * $HOME/audio-streamer/venv/bin/python $HOME/audio-streamer/update-code.py; sleep 10; $HOME/audio-streamer/blank.sh

(optional) Create boot service to start the streamer when you turn it on. Don’t use the @reboot line in crontab! That is going to be trouble…
- Open boot.service.txt
```
sudo nano boot.service.txt
```
- Replace the placeholder values in the ‘ExecStart’, ‘User’, and ‘WorkingDirectory’ fields with your actual username. Save and exit the editor.
- Remove the extension and move the file to the correct systemd directory:
```
sudo mv boot.service.txt /etc/systemd/system/boot.service
```
- Reload systemd, enable the service to run at boot, and reboot the system:
```
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable boot.service
sudo reboot
```
- After rebooting, you can check if the service is running properly with:
```
sudo systemctl status boot.service
```
ENJOY!

Our code automatically records 5-minute samples at sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and once during the night (between sunset and sunrise). You’ll find the wav files inside audio-streamer/audio.

You can adjust the solar times in solar-crontab.py, and change the recording duration in common.sh, where you’ll also find several other system parameters. Using these parameters, you can deactivate the recording feature by changing RECORD=1 to RECORD=0 (you’ll need to reboot, or manually kill the active record screen session). For more details, refer again to the advanced tutorial.

And yes, after more than 800 hours of uninterrupted, solar-powered streaming and recording, I’d say it’s safe to call it reliable 🎉

Dendrostream - Exploring Audio-Visual Approaches to Enhance Tree Stress and Climate Data Understanding

2025-12-23T00:00:00Z

📷 Top photo: Screenshot of the Dendrostream Derived Data Preset 1 line graph sensor data using D3.js with temperature (blue), humidity (orange), soil moisture (green), displacement (red), and VPD (purple).

Introduction

Tree and climate data is often presented in scientific ways, such as complex charts, or with sensor measurements that are hard to understand without specialist knowledge. However, climate change, tree growth and stress, and the links between both, are important to all, and more non-experts are becoming interested in learning about the wider effects of a changing environment.

Dendrostream aims to bridge this gap, discovering suitable means of data presentation and analysis, to allow the public to interpret this traditionally complex data. Displacement (tree trunk expansion), soil moisture, air temperature, and humidity, captured from a DIY tree talker device is presented in charts, dials, and animations, with accompanying drone, frequency modulation (FM) synthesis, and musical data-to-sound mappings.

Screenshot of the Dendrostream homepage, displaying a user-friendly icon-based dashboard, with buttons providing links to all core functionality.

Design and Development

To develop a tool for data understandability by the broad demographics of the general public, five participants from diverse backgrounds were consulted throughout the project. A combination of surveys and interviews were used to identify the participants’ existing understanding of the data, views on features they would like to use within a created tool, and to validate the initial sketched designs. This feedback influenced the final developed web-based tool, produced using React and Bootstrap (frontend), Express.js (backend), p5.js (animations), d3.js (charts), and the Web Audio API (audio), subsequently evaluated by the participants.

Medium-fidelity wireframe depicting the proposed design of the Personalised Data function.

Audio-Visual Presentations

Dendrosteam offers two main routes of audio-visual presentation: presets and custom/personalised. Presets offer simple ways of interacting with the data, to easily understand key concepts, whereas personalisation allows users to delve deeper into the data, and tailor their presentation to their interests or learning preferences. The main presentations are listed below:

Primary Data → Below presets presenting raw sensor values: displacement, soil moisture, air temperature, humidity.
Derived Data → Below presets presenting raw sensor values alongside additional calculated/inferred data: vapour pressure deficit (VPD), tree mean growth.
Preset 1 → Audio: drone sounds; Visuals: line graph.
Preset 2 → Audio: drone sounds; Visuals: tiled line graphs (data comparison).
Preset 3 → Audio: FM synthesis tones; Visuals: daily averaged bar chart.
Preset 4 → Audio: musical instrument ensemble; Visuals: data dials.
Preset 5 → Audio: music with ambient sounds; Visuals: forest animation scene.
Personalised Data → Any combination of audio/visuals listed above, with additional customisation options.
Custom Audio → Any combination of audio per data variable listed above, with additional customisation options.
Source Data → Raw sensor data (JSON REST API or file download).

Screenshot of the Dendrostream Personalised Data forest scene animation data visualisation using p5.js, with playback, sound, and visuals customisation option panels visible.

Findings

Feedback from participants after using the tool was very positive, with findings from a subsequent survey showing that some users reported an increase in their perceived data knowledge on climate change and tree stress, compared to the start of the study. Additionally, with participants reporting preferences for different or personalised audio-visual presentations, the benefits and need for multiple, or customisable data presentation approaches to facilitate data interpretation, was identified.

Screenshot of a participant’s preferred Dendrostream data presentation: the Personalised Data functionality with tiled line graphs, displaying data from the two available tree-talker devices.

Conclusion

The Dendrostream project highlights a necessity to ensure data, particularly with respect to trees and the climate, is presented in accessible ways, to aid understanding. This work presents an initial exploration into the field, with future work, namely involving a more comprehensive evaluation user study, needed, to fully validate the findings.

On a personal level, this project was thoroughly enjoyable, particularly due to the importance of the research areas, and offered significant insights into climate change, tree data, and the challenges of successful data presentation.

Screenshot of the Dendrostream Custom Audio pitch options selection, displaying key signature options for the piece, and pitch configuration options for each instrument presented within the sonification.

Further Resources

🌐 Explore the Dendrostream web-based tool: https://stf-sv-tool.pages.dev
🎓 Read the accompanying dissertation: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17924731
📄 Read the 2025 Web Audio Conference initial exploration paper: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17642480
💻 View the frontend source code: https://github.com/sensingtheforest/dendrostream
⚙️ View the backend source code: https://github.com/sensingtheforest/dendrostream-api

Note: to comply with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Devolved School Research Ethics Committee (DSREC) (reference: QMERC20.565.DSEECS25.032) ethical approval, individual participant responses are unavailable to third-parties. All responses reported in the thesis are aggregated. Please contact the paper’s authors for any enquiries.

Presentation at WAC - November 19-21, 2025 in Paris

2025-12-24T00:00:00Z

📷 Top photo: from left to right: Anna Xambó and Tug O’Flaherty with the poster. Photo Credit: Victor Paredes.

Conference Overview

From 19th to 21st November 2025, Anna Xambó and I (Tug O’Flaherty) had the privilege of presenting some of the Sensing the Forest project work at the Web Audio Conference (WAC 2025), held at IRCAM in Paris, France.

Anna Xambó performing “Sensing the Alice Holt Forest” at the live coding concert in IRCAM's Espace de Projection on 19th November 2025. Photo Credit: Tug O’Flaherty.

On the first day (19th November 2025), Anna chaired the first session of the conference, on Applications and Live Coding, before delivering an excellent performance in that evening’s first concert on live coding, entitled “Sensing the Alice Holt Forest”. The audience were treated to an impressive soundscape, focused around the sounds recorded from the streamers (developed by Dr Luigi Marino) located within the forest, accompanied by corresponding video footage of the streamers’ surroundings.

The second day (20th November 2025) saw Anna and I present a poster discussing our short paper, entitled “Sonification Mappings for Sensing Tree Stress: A DIY Approach” [1], at the Poster Session 2, over lunch. The poster attracted attention and interest from many attendees, prompting some interesting discussion, and providing us with the opportunity to explain more about the project, and our work.

Tug O’Flaherty demonstrating the Dendrostream at the demos session in IRCAM’s Studio 3 on 21st November 2025. Photo Credit: Anna Xambó.

During the final day (21st November 2025), we took part in the first Demos Session. Here, we provided greater insights into the work presented within our paper, alongside live demonstrations of the original chart.js-based sonification and visualisations, and the varied, complex mappings within the Dendrostream tool.

Feedback and Suggestions

Throughout all of our interactions and discussions with attendees, we captured any feedback and suggestions we received. We were grateful to have many suggestions of related work to investigate, including that of Hans Lindetorp’s WebAudioXML Sonification Toolkit [2], and sound artist Mileece. Comments also related to the benefits of a generalisable framework, to ensure the tool could be repurposed for different datasets or environments, and the creation of a p5.js library, to improve students’ use.

Moreover, some suggestions related to a lack of information on what a “sad tree” is, within the metaphorical happy/sad tree concept, the need to add more forest research information as appendices, and the ideal tree species to use, presented within the Dendrostream tool. In relation to the tree talker hardware units, it was suggested that a switch from using Raspberry Pi to the ESP32 platform, could assist in a reduction of unit cost, size, and power consumption.

Final Words

Web Audio Conference group photo taken at IRCAM on 20th November 2025. Photo Credit: Louise Grebel.

Attending the Web Audio Conference was an amazing experience, for which I am very grateful to have had the opportunity. As my first in-person conference, it was rewarding to be able to present the incredible outputs of the Sensing the Forest team, and receive such useful feedback, to assist in the developing the project further, in the future. Furthermore, seeing all the extraordinary work being accomplished in this field was inspiring, and has given me lots of interesting ideas for the future!

Presentation at Freesound Day - October 28, 2025

2026-03-10T10:00:00Z

The Freesound Day brought together members of the Freesound community for a full day of talks, listening, and exchange around sound practices connected to Freesound. The event was hybrid: hosted at the Campus Poblenou of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and online.

It was great to see all the different projects around Freeound, which is outlined in the links below (programme and video recordings of the presentations):

Our contribution was a presentation about the two streamers and datasets of automatic recordings. You can find below the abstract of the talk as well as the video.

Sensing the Forest: Exploring Climate Change Through Soundscape Datasets from DIY Streamers at Alice Holt Forest

In this talk, I will present the Sensing the Forest (StF) project, funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council, which aims to raise awareness among forest visitors, artists, scientists, and the general public about the vital connection between forests and climate change. Specifically, I will discuss the deployment of two DIY, solar-powered, off-grid audio streamers in Alice Holt Forest, which captured year-long soundscapes as part of an effort to document environmental change. Although the streamers have now completed their mission, their legacy continues through two archived datasets on Freesound—the Natural Soundscape Dataset (12 months) and the Installation Dataset (6 months). These recordings prompt important questions: What can we learn about climate change from a year of forest soundscapes? Is this timespan sufficient to detect long-term environmental shifts? By exploring these questions, the project opens up new avenues for interdisciplinary research and public engagement.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Frederic Font and the Freesound Team for their constant support to the project, and for the opportunity to give a talk about the streamers. Thanks to the Sensing the Forest Team, especially Luigi Marino (lead of the streamers design and development), Peter Batchelor (lead of the Dendrostream), Mike Bell (lead of the data logger) and the Alice Holt Forest local team for their amazing contributions to the realisation of the two streamers and related datasets.