THE HERDS | Sounds of the Unseen

An artistic contribution to THE HERDS – a public art and climate initiative
Sounds of the Unseen is a generative soundscape created in collaboration with KLING KLANG KLONG. It forms our artistic contribution to THE HERDS, an international public art project addressing the global climate and biodiversity crisis.

From April to August 2025, life-sized animal puppets will traverse a 20,000-kilometer route from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle.

Moving through major cities and diverse ecosystems, the herds represent wildlife in motion—symbolizing species on the move as a result of habitat loss, ecological disruption, and climate catastrophe. Along this route, artists respond with performances and interventions that weave together science, storytelling, and civic imagination.

Sounds of the Unseen is an artistic contribution, a site-responsive and continuously evolving soundscape that accompanies the migration of THE HERDS.

More than an ambient backdrop, it is a dynamic composition shaped by the entangled rhythms of the natural world. The soundscape is powered by over 6.5 billion data points on animal migration, sourced from Movebank (Max Planck Institute of animal behavior), and translated into sound through a custom-built SuperCollider audio engine.

This engine sonifies parameters such as species-specific speed, direction, and activity levels. A year of animal movement data is compressed into a three-day sonic cycle. These patterns are layered with local weather conditions—rainfall, wind, temperature—and interwoven with field recordings and archival voices of endangered and extinct species. The result is a sound environment that shifts in density, timbre, and rhythm as the herds move from tropical forests and wetlands to deserts, urban zones, and tundra.

The soundscape becomes both an artistic expression and a listening practice—a way of attuning to the often unheard voices of the more-than-human world.

As the migration progresses northward, Sounds of the Unseen gradually evolves, responding to new geographic, climatic, and ecological contexts.
At its final destination in Tromsø, it gathers the accumulated resonance of the entire journey, forming a sonic archive of planetary movement, ecological memory, and interspecies presence.

By merging large-scale data, generative composition, and environmental storytelling, Sounds of the Unseen offers a poetic response to the climate crisis—one that invites audiences to listen differently, feel deeply, and imagine a shared future beyond human-centered perspectives.

Listen live as the soundscape unfolds—becoming a living archive of movement, place, and memory.

https://www.theherds.org/