I was walking in Alice Holt Forest on England\u2019s Surrey-Hampshire border when I stopped to listen. Despite there being nobody nearby, a slow \u201cbreathing\u201d sound filled my ears. This was not a trick. An artwork was turning live forest data into sound, making the air feel like it was gently rising and falling. In that moment, \u201cclimate change\u201d stopped being abstract and became something I could hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The piece I could hear is called Dendrophone by composer Peter Batchelor. It maps sunlight, humidity and carbon dioxide readings into a multichannel sound field in real time. Wetter air sounds \u201cstickier\u201d, drier air \u201ccrisper\u201d, bright light introduces a fine hiss. When CO\u2082 uptake is high, you can hear longer, steadier \u201cbreaths\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is part of a soundscape installation called Sensing the Forest<\/a> that has been produced by a cross\u2011disciplinary team at Queen Mary University of London, De Montfort University and the public agencies, Forest Research and Forestry England. The aim is straightforward: to help people make sense of forests and climate through listening, not screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dendrophone captures three easy\u2011to\u2011tell textures from live data. Humidity is heard as a \u201cdry\/wet\u201d sound; sunlight energy as a subtle hiss (more juddery when activity is high, smoother when calm); and carbon dioxide uptake as \u201cbreathing\u201d that becomes longer and steadier when uptake is higher, shorter and more uneven when uptake is lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Played over several speakers around the site in the woods, these sounds blend with birds, wind and visitors\u2019 footsteps so people can hear the forest\u2019s state as it unfolds in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team also installed two DIY, solar\u2011powered off\u2011grid audio streamers (essentially tiny radio stations) that broadcast the forest online and auto\u2011record at sunrise, midday, sunset and the midpoint between sunset and the next sunrise. Recordings are uploaded and stored online, building a long\u2011term installation soundscape dataset<\/a>.