Art Projects
with Ocean Sounds
“Ocean Sounds promotes continuous awareness, understanding, and commitment, to build a bridge between nature and people”
Sea of Sounds
A PartArt4OW accelerator
Listening to whales to understand the invisible threat
of ocean noise pollution.
PartArt4OW (Part Art for Ocean Water) is a new grant funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program. As 1 of 6 projects selected across Europe we represent Norway in this exciting opportunity in collaboration with Seanergy and Wevr.
Sea of Sounds (SoS) is a participatory, immersive experience that builds on the success of our 2024 pilot project in collaboration with Seanergy “Us: The Sea of Sounds”. It places participants in the acoustic world of whales, exploring how man-made ocean noise – an invisible yet pervasive form of pollution – disrupts their communication and navigation. Through a co-created group-based virtual reality (VR) experience, combined with educational workshops and a whale exhibition, the project aims to raise awareness about ocean noise pollution while deepening emotional connection, and scientific understanding of marine life. All elements are grounded in whale vocalizations and marine research. We invite the public to engage as active contributors, shaping the experience through collaborative workshops and contributing insights. As a Participatory Art Initiative, SoS blends science, storytelling, and public engagement to inspire connection, reflection, and action for ocean conservation.
The project was finalized and showcased in Bodø and Barcelona in February 2026.
Re.flex.ion: Orca
is an audio-visual experience that mimics the acoustic experience Orcas undergo when held in captivity; in contrast with their rich and beautiful communication possibilities in the endless Ocean.
The project aims to bring awareness to a side of captivity, often overlooked and difficult to comprehend without experiencing it.
An immersive journey built on 4DSOUND technology (at Spatial Sound Institute), the audience will be shown how deeply the glass walls of a tank can disturb the health of sound-community-building species.
During the same experience, a representation of the rich sonic bonding and communicating structures of those amazing beings in the wild, will be presented, for the audience to enjoy a taste of what acoustic freedom means for Orcas.
By constructing a sonic space based on the tanks’ proportions (to human scale) and adjusting the acoustic experience of Orcas to the human sensory range, the project makes possible to get a glimpse of their living conditions in captivity.
The audience will feel the big contrast between the freedom and range of communication in their wild natural environment versus life in captivity, subjected to the endless sound distortions created by the reflection over glass and concrete, the high conductivity of water and background noise sources.
Something that can be challenging to conceive in regular human circumstances.
Re.flex.ion : Orca is opening to audience on the 27th of February at the Spatial Sound Institute in Budapest.
Striving to bring underwater acoustic insight and deeper understanding of the circumstances Orcas and other species have to endure in captivity.
Allowing humans to hear what they feel.
Alba Facebook: Alba Vega Mulet
Instagram: @bringthesun
Re.flex.ion https://www.facebook.com/re.flex.ion.orca
Gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/reflexion-orca-hear-what-they-feel
Contact us: re.flex.ion.orca@gmail.com
‘Animal Music – Sound & Song in the Natural World’
Release – Tobias Fischer & Lara Cory
DO ANIMALS SPEAK TO EACH OTHER?
WHAT DO THEIR SONGS MEAN?
WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THEM AND TALK BACK?
Ever since the accidental discovery of whale song in 1967, the idea of complex animal sentience has been gaining strength within the scientific community. A growing number of researchers and academics are exploring the idea that animals enjoy music on a similar level to human beings.
Animal Music is the first anthology to present an overview of the current state of this vital debate. Its authors have spoken to the leading scientists, researchers and musicians in the field to uncover hidden meanings and new perspectives. They visit the world’s largest library of animal sounds, hack into the mysterious sonic world of shrimps, travel back in time to the point where animal and human songs diverged, and decode the latest neuroscientific findings about animal music and communication.
The book includes exclusive interviews with Chris Watson, Jana Winderen, Yannick Dauby, Slavek Kwi and Geoff Sample as well as features on Bernie Krause, David Rothenberg and Olivier Messiaen and many more.
Includes specially-compiled 60 minute CD of field recordings from the Gruenrekorder label.
Heike Vester contributed Pilot Whale recordings.
Sonic Blue
Angélica Castelló sonic blue at klingt.org. 7 Notate, presented 6.10.2013 in Graz at the Musikprotokoll.
Record release at Interstellar records 2015!
Gentle Actions
KUNSTNERNES HUS from 23. OCTOBER – 14. NOVEMBER 2010
Heike Vester participated and presented her research about whale communication and discuss it with other participants in the habitat: a matter of survival. Whale biology, communication, sounds, music and the aspect of whaling will be discusses.
See videos here
Magical Whales & Seascapes of Lofoten – Multimediashow
Project of Gabi Reichert and Heike Vester – we put together a 30 minutes presentation of magnificent photos of whales, underwater creatures, seascapes and northern lights. Here’s a teaser on you tube, so you can get an idea.
2009 Listening to Orcinus orca
documentary 20 min. Lofoten, Norway
by Karin Pennanen MA, film maker, born 30.May 1977 Helsinki, Finland lives in Helsinki.
Studies:
2007-2009 studies film in Nordland College of Art and Film,Norway, graduates in 2009
2005-2006 general studies in philosophy, Helsinki Open University
2005 Master of Arts, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
…many more..sorry for not showing all the projects, if I have forgotten you and you want to be listed with your project, please contact us: info@ocean-sounds
Speed drawing with Chris Studer and Ocean Sounds
Here is a gallery of Chris Studer’s speed drawings of Marine Mammals we encountered in Raja Ampat, he uses pencil and ink to draw these beautiful whales, dolphins and the dugong.
