“Our group has an archive of more than 400 years of continuous underwater sound recordings,” explained Jones, who has been conducting marine research for three decades. “Listening with Lei, the meaning we can find together in 30 seconds of sound has been just as thought provoking as working with years of data.”
For a composer trained in classical music, the ocean’s soundscape is both foreign and full of potential. “I feel like I have become a music student again,” said Liang, a composer of chamber and orchestral music as well as opera. “Instead of learning from Beethoven and Bach, I now can look up to bowhead and beluga whales. What a gift that we are at this point that we can hear things that are completely inaccessible to humans because of this incredible technology that engineers and oceanographers have developed.”
As an artist, Liang is eager to collaborate with scientists and engineers. In fact, it’s a primary goal for his laboratory, housed at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, a research institute dedicated to jumpstarting innovation with technology. Liang believes that the arts and sciences are complementary and that collective imagination is the key to solving some of the biggest challenges facing our world.
The May 20 concert reflects the direction of Liang’s next project, which is to investigate the ultrasonic sounds that humans make – which ironically, cannot be heard by human ears. He will partner with scientists to explore whether there is a biological function behind the inaudible sounds that humans make.
“The Inaudible Ocean” project is one of many interdisciplinary collaborations at UC San Diego that link the arts with science, technology, medicine and engineering. Students are encouraged to apply creative thinking to spark innovation across fields, expanding the number of perspectives engaged when tackling big questions about our planet and society.
