Sonic Cartography, 2021

Collaboration with Jen Vaughn

An audio installation and listening session based on extending our perception of place to include the atmosphere and its corresponding data. Installed at Braddock Farms in Pittsburgh, PA, the work includes radio transmissions collected from NOAA satellites passing above the farm, local field recordings, analog listening sculptures, and prompts for the public to listen, speak, and make noise. The audio installation is transmitted via short range radio and played on radios throughout the farm.

The constant hum of the nearby Edgar Thompson Steelworks Mill dominates the surrounding landscape. Sonic Cartography aimed to push back against the mill's deafening drum by refocusing the listener’s attention to the larger environment and interconnectivity—of the air and invisible data, the garden, and other bodies in space.