About this Challenge Team
Biodiversity has greatly changed throughout the history of the Earth, but today it is changing much faster and our soundscapes are suffering as a result. Few things move us like music, and natural scenery generally improves one’s attention, concentration, memory, and is a source of optimism and relaxation. Therefore, we aim to take the viewer on an exciting virtual reality journey that includes musical experiences. We will explore how the harmony between humans and nature, such as in urban green spaces, can bring back some of the beautiful music of the Earth.
The Virtual Reality experience is a journey through nature over space and time, featuring soundscapes and 360° photos of past eras and modern natural environments. Participants also had the opportunity to compose their own music from animal sounds and take part in fun activities like matching extinct birds and dinosaurs to their sounds.
This year we had stalls at the Great Exhibition Road Festival and the Big Bang Fair to present the VR and composition activities, and also presented six pieces which were combined into one composition at an exclusive live event and installation at the Royal College of Music. Each was well attended and the majority of participants felt it was important to preserve our natural landscapes and that they were more likely to listen to nature sounds after the event.
The composition was a collaboration with talented composers from the Royal College of Music. Building on the success of the four-movement contemporary mini-symphony from previous years, six new musical pieces of contrasting themes from prehistoric times to urban nature were created and combined into one composition. Inspiration sources and perspectives varied, the composers having had the following visions:
Deniz Dortok - pre-historic – "Blending Nayland’s (a town in Suffolk) birds with extinct species from the LNS catalogue, this piece uses reverb and pitch manipulation to evoke a primordial, eerie soundscape."
Thomas Shorthouse - mountains – “Mountains is a short electronic work that highlights the vastness of the world below. The isolation of the world at high altitudes is something I considered heavily in my piece.”
James Madrilejo - nature reserve – “I was inspired by my own experiences birding in parks; their songs are surprisingly loud in open spaces.”
Darren Xu and Jérémy Velez - river and waterfall – “This a journey through the infinite forms of water in our ecosystem and how they are disrupted and restored.”
Margarida Gonçalves - City of London – “This piece captures the experience of walking through central London, gathering the everyday sounds that shape the city.”
Sofia Kiviniemi - London park – “A sonic portrait of an urban park, blending field recordings and ambient, atmospheric sounds to reflect nature within the city.”
We would also like to extend special thanks to Professor Jonathan Cole from the Royal College of Music for his guidance. By presenting extinct bird sounds (provided by the Macaulay Library at Cornell), these pieces were intended to deepen the personal sense of urgency to preserve nature and biodiversity. In doing so, they can also serve as a source of emotional resonance in confronting some of the greatest challenges of our generation. The experience is designed for people of all ages and backgrounds and provided a means for everyone to reflect on how different sounds impact your wellbeing and perception of nature.
Team Members
Igor Pantea (cohort 11)
Meherun Nesha (cohort 11)
Mili Ostojic (cohort 10)
Natasha Granville (cohort 10)
Sam Orchard (cohort 11)
Saoirse Coveney (cohort 11)
Tiantian Cheng (cohort 11)
Xiuhan Zhang (cohort 10)
Zongtai Shen (cohort 11)