Trigger// is a digital music composition project, exploring the application of data sonification in the realm of free composition. The boundary between data sonification and composition can become blurred depending on ones' perspective, and it is this potential that I exploit within Trigger, exploring means of revealing a data's story through music.
Trigger// takes data from the 'big five' mass extinctions, and the Holocene extinction we presently find ourselves caught within. The project explores means of revealing data, iconographic to symbolic auditory representation, direct and metaphorical mapping and aesthetic strategies.
The mapping of data to sound is not always clear, however the goal of Trigger// was the convey the underlying story of each extinction in turn, identifying and sonifying key environmental events, and shedding light on the triggers for each extinction themselves.
Trigger's aesthetic inspirations come from a range of musical fields, notably dub, noise music and the 'aesthetics of failure', as dubbed by Kim Cascone. Many of the works explore experimental use of time based delay effects, delays and reverbs, with a particular focus upon the grain or surface of the overall aesthetic, with vinyl crackle, artifacts and audible imperfections becoming sonic focal points in a number of the pieces.
A full script of my Masters thesis 'From Data Sonification to Composition and Back: The role of Data Verite, Aesthetic Perspectives and Semiotics at the Boundary of Auditory Design and Music Composition', can be found at the following link https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9livp3ml1v6x94/Final_Project%20TRIGGER___Thesis_Document.pdf?dl=0
End Ordovician Data derived score
Late Devonian Data derived score
Permian Triassic Data derived score
Triassic Jurassic Data derived score
Cretaceous Paleogene Data derived score
