Sounds of Research

Gannon Storm (Remix)

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:01:01 -0000

Anna-Sofia Jylhae (she/her)

Doctoral student, Physics

Faculty of Science, Department of Physics

3rd place

Artist Statement

Space physics studies the physical phenomena in the solar system including the Sun, the solar wind and the effects these cause on the planets. One area of interest is the behaviour and effects of solar storms when they reach Earth. A series of powerful solar storms called the Gannon storm hit the Earth between 10 to 13 May 2025 resulting in the most powerful geomagnetic storm in the last 20 years and produced spectacular aurorae at far more equatorial latitudes than usual. My research involves looking at data across multiple different instruments both on the ground and on satellites. One of these is the Canadian Array for Realtime Investigations of Magnetic Activity (CARISMA) which consists of a network of magnetometers operated by my research group and funded by the Canadian Space Agency. This audio is a remix of CARISMA data that has been shifted to audible frequencies from during the Gannon storm. It sonifies the magnetic disturbances recorded during the event, allowing listeners to experience the invisible dynamics of space weather in an accessible and immersive way.

Media

Sonification of data from recording of geomagnetic storm

Creative Process

I used open access data from the CARISMA website and the free Audacity software to edit these audioclips into a remix. The remix was made by clipping the sound bites into shorter intervals and layering and reordering them to form a new composition from the original storm sounds.

Searching for Silence

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:57:48 -0000

Martin Hinojosa (he/him)

Masters student, Specialization in Ecology

Faculty of Science, Department of Biological Sciences

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

Through real sound recordings and storytelling, Searching for Silence invites listeners to reflect on how noise pollution harms both human health and biodiversity, and why conserving quiet spaces in the city is essential for the well-being of people and nature. Searching for Silence tells the story of a person walking through Edmonton in search of a peaceful place to read. Along the way, bird songs fade beneath the hum of engines and machines, mirroring how noise disrupts not only our own calm but also nearby ecosystems. In the end, a small refuge of quiet appears in Kinnaird Park, a site in the heart of the city where stillness and connection can be found. This work is inspired by my research on urban noise in Edmonton and how birds respond to it. I mapped noise levels across the city and analyzed how traffic and other sources shape where birds sing. All of the background sounds in this work are real recordings from Edmonton, including the quietness of Kinnaird Park, construction near Whitemud Ravine, and all the bird recordings.

Media

Field recordings of environmental sounds; narration generated with ElevenLabs.

Creative Process

The audio was created using original field recordings collected during noise and biodiversity monitoring across Edmonton. Ambient environmental sounds were recorded using Wildlife Acoustics Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs), and additional noise measurements were collected with Convergence Instruments NSRT_mk4 sound level meters. The narration was generated using ElevenLabs and added as a separate track. All recordings were imported and edited in Audacity. I aligned the narration with the field recordings, adjusted amplitude envelopes, applied fade-ins and fade-outs for smooth transitions, and used light EQ and normalization to balance levels across tracks. The final mix was exported as a stereo .wav file at 44.1 kHz and 16-bit depth.

Out of Bounds

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:51:53 -0000

Andrea Guarino (she/her)

Masters student, Conservation Biology

Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences, Department of Renewable Resources

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

This audio captures a direct glimpse into the challenges of collecting tree demographic data for ecological research. In the recording, two graduate students move through dense understory vegetation and deadfall at the George Lake field site, located 90 km northwest of Edmonton, Alberta. We are searching for tagged trees within a designated subplot of a 1-hectare research plot. Our dialogue reflects the difficulties of navigating through the forest and confirming that each tree is correctly located within its subplot boundary which is an important step for maintaining accurate long-term monitoring records. After locating a tagged tree in the correct subplot, we measure its diameter at breast height (DBH) and record its vitality status. These measurements, including tree size and vitality, are key indicators of how forests change over time. They support assessments of growth, mortality, and shifts in forest biomass. This field-collected data directly contributes to the objectives of my research, including quantifying the relative contribution of tree demographic rates to aboveground biomass and evaluating spatial variation of trees within the 1-hectare research plot.

Media

Field recordings of conversation in the field

Creative Process

I captured the audio in the forest while conducting fieldwork by recording a video on my cell phone, which was held securely in the pocket of my overalls as I needed both hands to navigate and climb over fallen trees. I then extracted the audio track from the video and imported it into the digital audio workstation Reaper. In Reaper, I applied noise reduction to suppress overtly loud background sounds and edited the track by removing sections of silence or pauses between dialogue, allowing the conversation to flow more smoothly. The final audio consists solely of the recorded field conversation, refined for clarity and continuity.

October 28th

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:04:21 -0000

Sydney Kennedy-Flynn (she/they)

Masters student, Soil Science

Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, Department of Renewable Resources

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

These sounds are what I hear throughout a normal day of research: an anaerobic chamber and its airlock and a gas chromatograph. My research is about reducing contamination in soil and ground water using microbes that live in the soil. In this piece, there is a focus on waiting: waiting for the machine cycles to be done, waiting for the data to be processed, waiting to get home. More broadly and over many months, I’m waiting to see changes in the data. At the beginning of my grad studies, I often felt lonely and isolated, speaking only to my cat at the start and end of the day. But eventually I began to feel comforted by these machines humming. Their loud sounds and monotony became background noise and reliability throughout the long days, and my research became varied and social. October 28th is not a special day, it’s just another day where I got out of bed, said goodbye to my cat, and got to work, like hundreds of the same. But it’s one that was necessary for me to realize that my research was important.

Media

Field recordings of activities on the U of A campus.

Creative Process

I used my phone to record sounds on campus and me walking around. I then used Audacity to pick and edit down the clips I wanted to use. I didn't cut out any background noise or enhance the audio, I just took the raw files and stitched them together in 15 or 30 second pieces.

Listen to Your Heart

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:42:31 -0000

Ishani DasGupta (she/her)

Doctoral student

Faculty of Science, Department of Computing Science

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

My work involves analyzing echocardiography images using neural networks. Echocardiography is a medical imaging technique that uses ultrasound waves to view the heart. The audio starts with the sound of a heartbeat. This represents my data, the echoes of a human heart. As the audio progresses, we hear multiple heartbeats joining in, symbolizing my dataset increasing in size, variety, and also quality. Echocardiography is a noisy technique, which is evident in the different qualities of heartbeats heard. Then, we hear the sounds of typing, mouse clicks, and day-to-day work. The typing also varies with my mood - you hear frustrated key smashes, violent backspaces, and sometimes the rapid beats of triumph or tentative keystrokes, a new idea perhaps? Background conversations depict my collaboration with doctors and meetings with my supervisors, where we discuss research ideas and next steps. The typing continues - me building my model, running it, refining it. Towards the end, we hear only one heartbeat, indicating that my model is “learning.” The audio concludes with a sigh of relief.

Media

Heartbeats from BBC Sound Effects and natural recordings; field recordings of office work environment; voices/conversation from BBC Sound Effects and vocals of creator.

Creative Process

I used heartbeat recordings from BBC Sound Effects, as well as recordings from using a stethoscope. I recorded the typing sounds at different locations, using wireless keyboards, my laptop, and mouse clicks, to maximize variety and also to indicate the different workplaces (lab, apartment, cafes). The "background conversation" was depicted in two parts: a recording of my own voice and an audio file from BBC Sound Effects (Library reading room, University of Warsaw). I used the Audacity app to combine the different tracks. I varied the sound quality, added noise, fade-ins and fade-outs, and also echo effects in the heartbeat tracks to highlight the nature of echocardiography and ultrasound imaging. By layering these tracks, I wanted to simulate the environment of working at the intersection of medicine and machine learning. Finally, I normalized the entire project to ensure consistent loudness and exported the audio as a WAV file. Ultimately, the goal was to capture a soundscape that reflected the dual nature of my research—developing deep learning models and the conversations, collaborations, and contemplation when working with medical images.

La boite à lunch

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:02:05 -0000

Naomi Kashibura (she/her)

Masters student

Campus Saint-Jean, Interdisciplinary Studies

Semifinalist

Déclaration de l'artiste

La boîte à lunch raconte, avec simplicité et émotion, ce que vit un enfant immigrant quand son repas devient un signe de différence. À travers cette histoire, on entend sa gêne, le poids des regards, mais aussi l’effort silencieux de sa mère qui cherche à nourrir son enfant dans un monde qu’elle découvre encore. Cet audio traduit ce que montre ma recherche : préparer une boîte à lunch, pour ces familles francophones immigrantes, ce n’est pas seulement choisir des aliments. C’est naviguer entre le manque, les prix, la langue, les souvenirs du pays et le désir que l’enfant se sente accepté. Le slam met en lumière ce mélange de courage, de fatigue et d’amour que les chiffres ou les analyses n’arrivent pas toujours à saisir. Il rappelle que derrière chaque lunch, il y a une histoire, une adaptation, parfois une lutte et souvent une grande fierté. Mon audio donne une voix à ces réalités pour que l’on comprenne, plus profondément, pourquoi la boîte à lunch est au cœur de mon projet.

Médias

Voix de la créatrice; musique composée par la créatrice

Processus créatif

L’élément principal de cet enregistrement est le texte que j’ai moi-même écrit et interprété, puisque je suis artiste slameuse. La piste vocale a été enregistrée à l’aide d’un micro de studio dans un environnement calme afin d’obtenir une voix nette et sans interférences. Pour l’accompagnement sonore, j’ai utilisé l’un de mes instrumentaux originaux. Plutôt que d’utiliser des sons trouvés sur Internet, je collabore avec un ingénieur de son sous contrat qui crée des instrumentaux spécialement pour mes projets artistiques. L’instrumental choisi a été conçu pour soutenir une performance de slam.Après l’enregistrement, la voix et l’instrumental ont été importés dans une station audionumérique pour être alignés et mixés. L’ingénieur a appliqué des traitements de base (réduction du bruit, égalisation, ajustement des niveaux) afin d’assurer une bonne clarté et un équilibre entre la voix et la musique. Je confirme détenir tous les droits sur l’instrumental utilisé en fond sonore.

El Capitan Quartet

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:09:38 -0000

Yaqi Wang (she/her)

Doctoral student

Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation; Sociocultural Studies of Sport and Leisure

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

El Capitan in Yosemite National Park is the mecca of modern rock climbing, where each generation’s best climbers has carved distinct routes on its granite face. As a historian of climbing culture, I created this sound piece by sonifying three of its most iconic lines: Lynn Hill’s free ascent of “The Nose” in 1993, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s first free ascent of the “Dawn Wall” in 2015, and Alex Honnold’s free solo of “Freerider” in 2017. Using AI, I mapped the elevation profiles of these routes onto musical pitch and selected synthesizer timbres in GarageBand that reflect the emotional qualities of each climb, making a trio that traces El Capitan’s modern history. Climbing is an encounter between modern technique and ancient rocks, and this piece seeks to express that tension by shaping electronic synthesizers into a chamber-like ensemble. Layered above the trio are ambient sounds I recorded in an indoor climbing gym, bringing the voices of climbing communities around us into dialogue with the legendary achievements on El Capitan. I am an amateur in sound production, but I hope this work can inspire others who share curiosity for both climbing culture and sonic experimentation.

Media

Sonification of map data; field recordings from indoor climbing gym

Creative Process

My work is a combination of two sections. First, I downloaded the route maps of these three legendary climbers. I used PhotoShop to extract the shape of these three routes, which are the basic references for the shapes of my expected sound waves. Then I asked ChatGPT to generate codes based on my prompts so that I can work in python and generate a midi document for GarageBand editing. I selected the timbres for each channel based on my interpretation of the climbers' personalities. The total time for this section was set as 3 minutes 56 seconds, as the most renowned climbing of Alex Honnold was 3 hours 56 minutes. For the second section, I recorded the ambient sound from rock climbing gyms during a regular climbing session, including people talking, cheering, and the sound of the quickdraws (climbing device) on the wall. Two sections together make my research-related sound piece.

Bach Violin Sonata No.3 - Largo

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:06:57 -0000

Clare Pellerin (she/her)

Doctoral student, Violin Performance

Faculty of Arts, Department of Music

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

This is the third movement of J.S. Bach's Solo Sonata for Violin No. 3 in C, which is part of my upcoming D.Mus. recital program. My interpretation is based on the idea of a lullaby, as suggested by my supervisor, Guillaume Tardif. However, to me, this lullaby is tragic, since by the year the Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas were written (1720), Bach had already lost three babies: two twins within one month of their birth (a boy and a girl), and one 10-month-old, Leopold Augustus, who had just died in Sept. 1719. The rising melismatic line starting at 2:18 evokes the climbing figure in "Jesu, deine Gnadenblicke," from Bach's Ascension Oratorio, where the soprano's voice represents a soul ascending to Heaven. The tender motives of this Largo encircle and swaddle right from the opening, but they lead to the loss of the small soul at 2:18, followed by a few pangs of poignant dissonance, before the bitter-sweet resolution of salvation. This movement, considered exquisitely beautiful, opens a window into an experience that was very common in Bach's time: the pain of losing small children.

Media

Violin

Creative Process

I recorded with a Sennheiser microphone onto Logic Pro, and applied a few sound design and mastering presets.

An Audio Portrait of NEUROD1 Nuclear Access

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:49:21 -0000

Theodore dos Santos (he/him)

Doctoral student

Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Pharmacology

Semifinalist

Artist Statement

This audio piece transforms my research at the Alberta Diabetes Institute on islet cell dysfunction in type 1 diabetes into an immersive sound experience. The narration guides listeners through two contrasting soundscapes derived from microscopy images of pancreatic tissue biopsies from human donors. One soundscape represents an islet from a donor with type 1 diabetes, while the other is from a donor of similar age, sex, and body mass index but without diabetes. Hearing these clips side by side highlights how subtle, often overlooked microscopic changes within islet cells can manifest as profound physiological effects, including disrupted blood glucose regulation. The goal is to make an invisible biological process feel tangible and intuitive, allowing listeners to hear the difference between a dysfunctional and a healthy islet cell. Through this piece, I hope to convey the complexity of the disease and the importance of understanding the mechanisms that drive islet cell dysfunction to inform future diabetes treatments.

Media

Sonification of imaging data

Creative Process

The audio was created using a data-sonification approach based directly on fluorescence microscopy images of human pancreatic islets that I performed on the STELLARIS imaging platform at the University of Alberta’s Cell Imaging Core. I first extracted fluorescence intensity values from each pixel of the images, focusing on the nuclear presence of the transcription factor NEUROD1. These numeric values were processed in Python (numpy, tifffile), then mapped onto sound parameters where higher pixel intensities triggered more complex harmonics, while lower intensities generated lower pitches. Stereo panning was used to preserve the spatial orientation of the image, so left to right image structure is reflected in the stereo sound field. I generated two separate soundscapes. One from a donor with type 1 diabetes and one from a similar donor without diabetes. I used the same mapping specifications for direct comparison between images. Narration was produced with a text-to-speech engine (pyttsx3). All components were assembled using the Pydub Python library, with added silence between segments and fade-in/fade-out effects applied to the clips. The final audio was exported as a high-quality stereo WAV file.

Sonifying Bats' Response to Disturbance

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:03:17 -0000

Autumn Kirk (she/her)

Masters student, Specialization in Ecology

Faculty of Science, Department of Biological Sciences

Honourable Mention

Artist Statement

This piece sonifies my research on bat activity in response to wildfire and salvage logging, transforming ecological data into a narrative of habitat change. To follow the story, listen for two key sounds: the “pass” (a bat flying by), which signals general activity, and the “feeding buzz” (a rapid burst of calls), which indicates a successful hunt. The audio begins in an undisturbed old-growth forest with steady, moderate activity. A storm interrupts this rhythm, marking the Spring 2023 wildfire in Fox Creek. Surprisingly, the post-fire landscape erupts into a rich feeding ground filled with buzzes. However, this resource is short-lived. In Winter 2023, the mechanical drone of logging takes over. Once the machinery removes the burnt timber, the soundscape becomes almost silent, with only a few lonely passes and no buzzes. This contrast exemplifies the core finding of my research: wildfire creates vital habitat for bats, whereas salvage logging reduces their activity and feeding opportunities. As wildfire activity increases across Canada’s boreal region, this piece highlights the importance of management that integrates post-disturbance recovery with wildlife conservation.

Media

Bat calls from fieldwork recordings; environmental sounds from open access FreeSound, Mixkit and Adobe Creative Cloud sound libraries.

Creative Process

I created the audio by combining recorded bat echolocation calls from my fieldwork with environmental sounds downloaded from sound libraries (FreeSound, Mixkit, and Adobe Creative Cloud). The bat calls were recorded using ultrasonic acoustic recorders that capture high-frequency signals and save them as high-sampling-rate WAV files. I processed these files in Kaleidoscope Pro using time expansion, which slows the signals and shifts their frequencies into the human-audible range for playback. I also used SonoBat to locate feeding buzz sequences and exported those segments for use in the composition. I mixed and arranged all audio layers in MixPad by NCH Software. In MixPad, I adjusted gain levels, applied EQ to reduce low-frequency rumble, used crossfades to transition between scenes, and balanced timing so that bat passes, feeding buzzes, and environmental sounds aligned with the intended structure of the soundscape.

"You sound just like your dad"

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 23:57:15 -0000

Matthew Weigel (he/him)

Doctoral student, English

Faculty of Arts, Department of English & Film Studies

2nd place

Artist Statement

This storytelling piece contains archival recordings, poetry, and music. The vocals are of my great-grandfather Jim Balsillie, narrating a film on Dene tradition (R. Fumoleau 1976). These are mixed excerpts from an interview with his brother Harold the year I was born (NWT Archives/Fort Resolution Community Education Council fonds 1985). Poetic fragments in my own voice are added, as response and conversation with my ancestors. The title comes from something my grandmother’s sister said during our last phone conversation before she passed. Accompanying the vocals is music composed by myself on an OP-1 synthesizer. My research maps correspondences between land and story. In this recording I illustrate sonically connections between place (Mackenzie River) and family. Sometimes these mappings are formal: oral tradition, interviews. And sometimes informal: family conversation, traveling together on the land. My work organizes these maps through interdisciplinary research-creation, collapsing boundaries of space, time, field, and method. Through cut-up and re-mix, my visual art, creative writing, and oral storytelling look to honour the unearthing of archives (institutional and stratigraphic), and map personal contours across the depths of the land.

Media

Archival audio extracted from I Was Born Here and Interview with Harold Balsillie; music composed by creator; vocals of creator.

Creative Process

In Ableton Live I imported a web-download of the R. Fumoleau documentary (a copy of the 16mm film is held in the University of Alberta archives), as well as the downloaded interview from Fort Resolution Community Education Council in the NWT Archives. I composed four minutes of music on an OP-1 synthesizer with multiple tracks directly into Ableton Live. For some tracks, the OP-1 was passed through a Hologram Electronics Microcosm guitar pedal (granular glitch/loop/delay/reverb). This music was processed with effects and plugins in Ableton, including crackle/vinyl warp/reverb/compression/lo-fi/vintage amplifiers. I then recorded my own vocals on a Fifine USB cardioid microphone and applied similar Ableton effects/plugins. These were applied to try to blend well with the lo-fi quality of the archival recordings, which required additional changes to enhance clarity, reduce background noise, and balance the volume levels. The archival recordings were cropped/cut up and arranged together with my own vocals. I edited my vocal pieces to suit the re-arrangement.

Credits

Fumoleau, René, et al. I Was Born Here. Produced by Marlin Motion Pictures for Dept. of Indian & Northern Affairs, 1976

https://www.isuma.tv/dehcho-land-and-love-people/i-was-born-here

https://search.library.ualberta.ca/permalink/01UOA_INST/cgo409/alma991016533229709116

Fort Resolution Community Education Council

Part 1 of 12 of an interview in Chipewyan with Harold Balsillie in April 1985 (items :0001 to :0012).

[note: interview is actually in english]

N-1993-016: 0001

https://gnwt.accesstomemory.org/n-1993-016-0001

Thunderstorms and Symphonies of the Brain

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 23:26:16 -0000

Mitch Prostebby (he/him)

Doctoral student,

Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Neuroscience

1st place

Artist Statement

Our brains are constantly producing a silent symphony of electrical waves which work together to form our thoughts, feelings, actions, and dreams. But what exactly are the patterns of activity which make up our conscious and unconscious experience? In this piece, I use an algorithm I developed here at the U of A to demonstrate that these questions can be answered if we bring these waves into the domain of sound. The process works by identifying and assigning brain waves of different frequencies to distinct musical notes, and maintaining the timing and volume of individual tones matched to the individual electrical waves we recorded. Here, I guide you through how I applied this approach to a recording I made of unconscious brain activity within the hippocampal region of a rat as part of my thesis. Overall, the resulting music yields important insight into how brain rhythms form harmonies and melodies which frequently cooperate across neural inputs to process internalized experiences.

Media

Rat brainwaves recorded by creator; vocals of creator

Creative Process

Neural recordings used for this project were gathered by me using specialized multichannel electrodes implanted into the CA1 region of the hippocampus of rats. Data preprocessing was performed to extract the signals of different neural connections in this area. The following algorithms were created and written by me in MATLAB to produce the sounds in this piece: the first algorithm resamples the activity recorded from a given neural connection to 44100Hz which was exported to Audacity to produce sounds. The second algorithm begins by identifying the timing and amplitude of individual brain waves occurring at frequencies ranging from 0.75Hz to 145Hz. Each frequency was then assigned to a tone such that every occurrence of a given brain wave (say 12Hz) is represented by a specific tone (say middle C). Tones were chosen so that 0.75Hz brainwaves corresponded to 65.406Hz tones (also known as “C2”), covering 5 equally spaced tones every octave, up to a maximum frequency of 911.028Hz. Thus, the resulting musical tones have a timing, volume, and relative tonal relationship which is completely determined by recorded data. Voiceover written and recorded by me.