The USA has reneged on the Kyoto treaty and denies that global warming is a reality. Any education and advancement of prudent practice in this country will have to come from other sectors than the federal government. Our music illustrates some of the threads of a very complicated web.
After many hours of gathering field recordings from some of the most polluted areas on the Great Lakes, we are constructing a piece of music to confront these issues. The three tracks on this CD could be used alone, or together, depending on venue and resources. 1. A sound installation of slowly shifting tones in which one pitch remains static while the other imperceptibly ascends. Some listeners could deny that the notes were changing at first, but eventually all would admit that they were rising. We seek to educate the audience in the power of empirical data to show us trends and warn us of dangers that we cannot perceive with our senses alone. 2. water/white, a room which audiences enter to see the back of two television monitors broadcasting light against the far wall. One television shows white noise, while the other a scene of rushing water. Two speakers will carry their soundtrack, but are crossed so that the pictures and sounds don't match. White noise is the combination of all different frequencies at once, and a large rush of turbulent water sounds much the same. This soothing blend of sounds will keep the viewer guessing as they circle round to see what is casting blue light on the walls. The presentation of sounds produced by man and sounds produced by nature highlight the dichotomy that we revealed as we constructed our third element, the sound collage. 3. The sound collage is an example of 'real world music' in which field recording played a key role. A detailed key and explanation of each sounds' relevance in the work can be found below. The sound collage is a short demo of a larger 60 minute piece. With the 4 months from the conference to the exhibit we will clean the sounds, formalize the structure, and gather more relevant sounds.
Source list: Captured Sound Recordings
Grocery Store, Chicago IL
Grocery fishing for food and recreation. Having good conservation practices
are good in many ways, while denigrating the environment is bad in many ways.
For instance, pollution from industry can not only contribute greenhouse gases
to trap energy from the sun in our atmosphere, but they also emit toxic mercury
which can accumulate in fish until reaching levels in expectant mothers that
cause birth defects. Global warming may be an insidiously refutable cause for
naysayers, yet is also direly relevant to the person standing at the fish counter
in their local grocery store. Global warming would also have even more direct
effects on human health under even the most minimal changes in temperature.
Waterborne organisms like e.coli, and vectors for disease like mosquitos will
multiply. In another example, heat related deaths will double in Milwaukee with
a 3 degree F increase. (www.usgcrp.gov Climate Change Impacts on the US: Great
Lakes)
Woodridge IL
Ducks in a small pond of a housing subdivision. Despite being a remote, far-flung
suburb about 30 miles from the lakes, Woodridge is nonetheless a part of the
sprawling urban waste that contiguously stretches north to Wisconsin, and south
through Indiana all the way to Michigan. A lack of habitat and earlier migration
patterns caused by global warming have been noticed by scientists, who debate
the serious implications for wildlife who once used the fertile swamps surrounding
Lake Michigan as resting places on their migration.
Oak Creek Wisconsin -coal plant
Lake shore wave sounds within sight of Oak Creek Coal Power Plant. Freshwater
consumption from coal plants is massive but compared to other pollutants they
cause, does not receive a lot of attention. ("Low water consumption: a
new goal for coal - Innovations." Environmental Health Perspectives April
2004 by Lance Frazer)
Coal plants use lake water, which some predict will be one of the world's most
valuable commodities in this century. Frequently cited greenhouse gas emissions
have attracted the most attention to global warming however. "If we burn
all the fossil fuels left underground, the globe will warm by up to 13°C,
according to an assessment which looks beyond 2100." (NewScientist) UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Milwaukee Wisconsin
A walleye fish dinner in an elegant restaurant on the lake. Waterside real estate
values, recreational use, overfishing, urbanization, and transportation all
come together in a single plate of food.
Single-Family Apartment:
These sounds represent the water consumption in a condo. This usage, in a building
of 500 in a city of 5 million is magnified as an enormous strain on the water
supply of the Great Lakes.
-Humidifier boiling water: One great danger is that the water temperature of
the Great Lakes will increase themselves. "Warmer temperatures could degrade
water quality by decreasing dissolved oxygen in the water and increasing the
growth of algae." "A recent EPA study found that a warming of 4.5
degrees F over the next 70 years could cut the habitat of brook, rainbow, cutthroat,
and brown trout by one fourth to one." (www.nps.gov Global Climate Change
and the Great Lakes)
-Bathtub faucet running: the Great Lakes have 20% of worlds freshwater. "In
the Midwest, most areas are expected to see a decline in rainwater runoff under
global warming. 'This particular kind of change would be expected to have effects
on drinking water availability, irrigation, and water levels in the Great Lakes.'"
said John Magnuson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Global Climate Change:
What Does It Mean for the Midwest and the Great Lakes? A Report on the September
10, 1997 EPA Regional Conference sponsored by the EPA Office of Policy, Planning
and Evaluation, Office of Economy and Environment.)
Beaubien Woods Calumet IL
The small, neglected wood preserve in between two landfills, next to an interstate.
Sounds recorded during a snow storm.
- Invasive species and encroachment have already produced great changes in forests
like beaubien woods. When conservationists attempt to stem the tide of incoming
species, they need to ask themselves whether sowing native plants into the soil
will be a long term solution in a changing climate. Even ignoring the effects
of transportation and industry, can our native species sustain life in a habitat
growing steadily warmer? (Jonathan Vanderbrug, Field Museum of Chicago)
Eggers Grove
This lakeside forest has more serenity than any other location in Calumet, yet
still has predominant traffic sounds, jets, high voltage lines cutting through
slag fields in its center, and a history of misuse.
Calumet River
- A bustling panorama of the steel industry. The southwest corner of Lake Michigan
is an important juncture for the coal and steel industries, transportation,
the largest railroad hub in the country, a confluence of roads, the stopping
point of naval shipping routes, and a mandatory stop for birds migrating over
the Great Lakes. Calumet gets its name from the peace pipe that Native-Americans
would make treaties with, and the name stuck because Calumet was frequently
the junction where these meetings could logically take place.
Dominion Power Company
The Dominion Power Company looms over the small recreational bay where a large
flock of birds take refuge. The CO2 Dominion's plants create aggregates in plants
which lowers their nutritional value for insects, and results in decreased life
all the way through the food chain.
For various reasons, the Midwest has not grown much warmer, but extreme peaks
and valleys of temperature and precipitation have become aggravated. (Report:
Climate change may scar Great Lakes area. Bill McAuliffe, Star tribune, Minneapolis
February 12, 2006 )
Some Concepts of the sound collage in outline:
-Confluence of nature and industry.
-Illusory domestication of water. How we can shape, reverse, thaw, melt, boil,
channel, funnel, run, pipe, water at will but water is merciless and always
finds a way to be wild. Ultimately our practices harm ourselves though.
-Water running in condo and in nature - differences.
-When you finally find that beautiful natural moment, it is tainted.
-Perception - drawing information from environment - bombarded for the audience
contradictory signals like global warming.
-Great lakes are intrinsically connected. Forces of nature are still adapting
or succumbing to industrial zones.
-Wide variety of ways that humans need and use the Great Lakes.
-Shipping and importing invasive species.
-What effect does climate change have on the lakes ?
See images of the recording sources:
click here.
Joshua Manchester and Brian Trump
Download our music here: Shifting Tones 20:00 .mp3 /// White Water 3:00 .mp3 /// Pastiche 10:00 .mp3