From 2018-2019 I worked with my colleague Colin Zyskowski on a series of design proposals for permanent architectural activations at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, in San Diego. The following shows the process of ideation, mockups, audio realizations of three project proposals, and the final temporary installation enacted for the Whale Festival in February of 2019.

This project was submitted for the semi-enclosed outdoor education courtyard area of the aquarium. It was proposed to provide a novel and surprising encounter with oceanic and atmospheric data in the form of a three-dimensional grid of multicolored LED lighting strips. These strips are mounted in regular intervals at no less than seven feet from the floor and can be adapted by adding or subtracting LED strips to a desired resolution. This allows it to occupy an otherwise nondescript open area, and provide an opportunity for patrons to encounter meaningful data in a way that is visually and spatially compelling.

This project generates pleasing audio content from the motions of the ocean waves on a macroscopic and microscopic level. In doing so, it makes an aesthetic connection between streaming audio content and the state of the global oceans. Three sensors are installed on buoys moored at the Scripps pier or other location. The sensors used are acutely sensitive, and register wave movement at an extremely high resolution. These very small changes in the ocean state are used to add subtle variation to the frequency of three sine waves generated by a central computer.
In the aquarium, the project take the form of a temporary or permanent structure to be erected in the current tide pool area that is projected to be specifically linked to the Scripps Pier. The proposed domed structure would take the shape of an ocean buoy used by the Scripps institute to measure wave activity.

Mockup of Wave Garden dome interior

Mockup of Wave Garden dome exterior

Illustration of wave reader functionality and transmission

Illustration of digital signal processing involved in the project

This project is designed specifically to activate the whale sculpture and courtyard in the entryway area of the aquarium. It does this by means of hyperdirectional audio to excite and surprise patrons immediately as they enter the grounds of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Hyperdirectional speakers use frequencies that are above the range of human hearing to project sound in a way that can only be heard in a specific area by a specific person. The effect can be uncanny and unexpected, and the sound experienced feels as if it is physically originating from the listener’s own body. Because of this, hyperdirectional sound has a unique ability to make listeners pay attention to sound they might ordinarily tend to ignore. In this instance, hyperdirectional sound will be used to create a sense of virtual space in the whale sculpture area that relates to the nature of the statues themselves. The speakers will be mounted on durable metal poles and installed around the perimeter of the sculpture area (figure 1). The arrangements are strategically placed so that patrons will pass by individual speakers and encounter snippets of whale songs or other undersea sounds as they pass. As they proceed through the courtyard area, the collection of sounds will guide the listeners to a central location where they will be able to experience all of the speakers simultaneously in an immersive audio environment.