Geophonia is a sound work that listens to the Earth as it happens. Every point on the map is a real event, published minutes ago by public scientific agencies: earthquakes from the USGS, volcanoes, fires, storms and floods from NASA and the European GDACS, solar flares from NOAA, sea ice from the NSIDC. Nothing is invented, nothing is simulated: touch any point to open its original record.
Each event becomes a sound where it happens. The north sounds higher, the south lower; the west is on the left, the east on the right. Its strength is how loud and how long it sounds, and each kind of event has its own voice, close to its physics. When the Earth is quiet, so is the work.
Geophonia: a live sonification of the Earth
Geophonia (in Italian, geofonia) is a real-time sound work and earthquake sonification by sound artist and electroacoustic composer Francesco Giannico. It turns open data on earthquakes, volcanic activity, wildfires, storms, floods, sea ice and solar flares into sound, placing each event on a world map exactly where it happens.
Where the data comes from
The work gathers public scientific feeds every few minutes: earthquakes from the USGS, natural events from NASA EONET, disasters from GDACS, space weather from NOAA SWPC, sea ice from the NSIDC and news signals from GDELT. Nothing is simulated: every point links back to its original record.
Sound art, acoustic ecology and listening as practice
Geophonia belongs to Francesco Giannico’s research on acoustic ecology and soundscape, where geophony, the sound of non-biological natural sources such as earthquakes, wind and water, meets live data. Explore more in the soundscape works, discover the live proposal The Acoustics of Power, or return to the latest sound art news.