# The Music of Water

Benjamin Renard, Chloé Le Bescond

► To cite this version:

Benjamin Renard, Chloé Le Bescond. The Music of Water. EGU General Assembly 2022, May 2022, Vienna, Austria. 10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9759. hal-03710340

HAL Id: hal-03710340

https://hal.science/hal-03710340

Submitted on 30 Jun 2022

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
The Music of Water

B. Renard<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" /> Chloé Le Bescond<fnref n="2" />

EGU General Assembly, 25 May 2022

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INRAE

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<footnote n="1">¹INRAE, RiverLy Research Unit, Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²INRAE, RECOVER Research Unit, Aix-en-Provence, France</footnote>
# Making music from hydrological data

## Step 1: data sonification

* Data values → note properties (pitch, volume)

* Very similar to data visualization

## Step 2: musical arrangement

* Move from sound to music

* Play with tempo, rhythm, harmony, etc.

## Step 3: music video

* Data animation

## Objective: science communication

* Engaging starting point to present scientific concepts or results

* Add emotional content to the story told by the data

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Major food events in 2019
Taken from the Dartmouth Flood Observatory</figcaption></figure>

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G.R. Brakenridge, "Global Active Archive of Large Flood Events," Dartmouth Flood Observatory, University of Colorado
http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/ActiveIndex.html, accessed 16 June 2020
# 1. The Basics of Hydrology

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Vibraphone (percussive sound)</figcaption></figure>

<caption>Electric guitar</caption>

<caption>Electric organ</caption>
2. Antarctica

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February 2002
3. El Niño Oz

The effect of El Nino on Eastern Australian Rainfall
2018 Dec

-SOI

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Seasonal -SOI

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Rainfall

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La Niña: loud drum and bass

Electric guitar

Data: Bureau of Meteorology
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vimeo

More videos at:

https://globxblog.inrae.fr/

https://vimeo.com/user113807574

Interactive apps:

https://hydrosoundscapes.recover.inrae.fr

https://hydroapps.recover.inrae.fr/au-son-des-rivieres

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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 835496