Imminence

Imminence was created in collaboration with visual artists NOVAK and textile designer  Hazel Dunn.

Imminence is a 50 metre long immersive installation and multi-channel sound-piece highlighting the impact of human-led climate change on our planet.

In creating the musical elements, data was sourced from 1880 to the present day covering changes in arctic sea ice, global temperature, sea level, seasonal monthly temperature, global forest cover, CO2 emissions, and the decline in UK pollinating insects. These were used to create each element of a central chronological score, the first half of which sonifies the observed changes from 1880 to 2019, with the second half acting as a mirror image of the first – representing the need to act now in order to reverse current environmental trends.

Additional melodies for specific scenes within the piece were also created in this manner, scaling each dataset to a compressed timeline, and translating the numerical data into the ranges of the violin, viola, and cello. The resulting music subsequently reflects the alarming rates of change observed across the scientific research.

Produced by Artichoke and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Presented from the 5th December 2019 to the 10th January 2020 at Bloomberg Arcade in the City of London.

Credits
Design and animation by NOVAK and Hazel Dunn with additional illustrations by Laura Sheldon
Original score written and produced by Ed Carter.

Performed by Ed Cross (violin), Josephine Montgomery (violin), Chrissie Slater (viola) and Ele Leckie (cello).
Commissioned  by Bloomberg Philanthropies
Produced by Artichoke
Projection  by QED
Structures and PA by IPS

Developed from an original concept by Phil Supple and NOVAK

Event video (and main image) by NOVAK, soundtrack by Ed Carter
Event photography by Bloomberg /  Dom Martin / Matt Crossick