Klima|Anlage—Performing Climate Data

Abstract

The urgent need to inform the general public about climate change is evident. Typically, this is done with the aid of visual and textual interpretations of findings of climate research. Other modes of perception might attract more attention. Sonification is a relatively new means of perceptualizing data by translating it into sound. This paper describes the Klima|Anlage, a walk-in sound installation “performing climate data”. The climate data for this purpose were obtained from a global climate modeling experiment providing climate projections for the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate data from 1950 to 2100 can be chosen interactively by the listener for twelve selected regions of the world. The installation is based on four sound generators: a drip device with controlled drip rate for precipitation data, a record player with marble disks for wind data, a tetrachord instrument that is excited by radiation data, and three thunder sheets that play air temperature data. In addition, purely electronic sounds convey data of the global greenhouse gas concentrations. The Klima|Anlage has been exhibited at several locations since 2015, and excerpts of the sound recordings have been broadcast on Deutschlandradio, a German radio station. Sound and video examples may be accessed at http://klima-anlage.org/ and as supplementary material to this paper (http://doi.org/10.4119/unibi/2914786). This paper contributes to a greater understanding of how to communicate complex scientific data to the public, using innovative communication channels. Conclusions on the design of the Klima|Anlage can be generalized to other sound installations at the border of science and media arts.