The Transformative Power of Sound Experiences

Sound experiences connect us to emotions and foster understanding of our world through creativity and technology.

### Exploring the Sonic Journey: Merging Sound, Emotion, and Technology
* 🌍 The world is filled with sound, which surrounds us constantly and can **evoke deep feelings** when carefully designed.
* 🎶 A team of composers, sound designers, and technologists collaborates to create **sound experiences that tell stories and convey ideas** through music.
* 📊 By using scientific data as musical scores, they translate **complex information into a more understandable auditory language**.
* 🌊 The journey begins underwater, where the **sounds of marine life**, like seals and harbor porpoises, reveal the **ocean's voice**.
* 🌱 Moving to dry land, the sounds of soil and small animals illustrate the **intricate ecosystem beneath our feet**, interpreted through **human creativity**.
* 🐦 Ascending into the sky, the mystical songs of birds like the hermit thrush remind us of our **place in the acoustic ecosystem**.
* 🌌 Finally, we venture into the **emptiness of space**, where music attempts to define the relationship between **sound and time** amidst cosmic forces.
* ✨ As the journey concludes, the **transformative power of sound** is highlighted, encouraging **deeper connections with ourselves and others** through creativity.

The world is full of sound. (Synth sounds) It's all around us all the time. (Synth sounds with beats) If it's carefully designed, we can use it to tap directly into our feelings and evoke a deeper connection to ourselves and the world. (Synths continue) As a group of composers, sound designers, creative technologists, and musicologists, my team and I combine all this knowledge to create sound experiences that convey stories and ideas. (Synth sounds continue) We use scientific data as musical scores, translating complex information into a language we can easily understand. We work with field recordings, compose linear and modal music, and use technology to understand, control, and generate melodies. (Synths continue) We are merging art, music, technology, and science into the field of sound scenography, using the auditory sense to foster an emotional understanding of our world. (Synth sounds continue) So let me take you on a sonic journey of music and code,

where ones and zeros are mixed with notes and rhythms, and poetry meets science. What you are about to hear is a combination of recordings from nature and our surroundings, data-and-AI-driven music, and a lot of human creativity. So relax, and if you feel comfortable, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and listen closely. Allow yourself to feel. (Revolving soundscapes) We begin in the water. (Sounds of surf) (Underwater sounds) Here in the deep, we hear tiny creatures, different textures, or even the contrast between the Atlantic ... (Underwater sounds continue) and the Pacific Ocean. (Quieter underwater sounds) We follow the sounds of seals and bring the elusive song of the harbor porpoise to the range of our human hearing. (Porpoise vocalizations and water sounds) The ocean is speaking to us. (Water sounds and synth music) Let’s move out of the water into dry land, and dig deep into the Earth.

(Harsh, booming sounds) (Quieter, grumbling sounds) Countless small animals, like earthworms, grubs, and ants, they interact, they communicate, and work tirelessly to maintain a perfect ecosystem. (Scratching and digging sounds) Through geophones and soil sensors, we can capture these voices and hear the soil singing to us. (Synth music and scratching sounds) But it’s our human creativity that can interpret, modulate, filter, and mix all these recordings with music, creating a tapestry of sound that gives a voice to the complex world hidden under our feet. (Synth music) From here, we take flight high into the sky. (Booming and whooshing sounds) Feel the lightness of traveling through air while enjoying the mystical messages carried by birdsongs. (Synth music and bird vocalizations) Let's focus our attention on that hermit thrush, as it sings to us. (Birdsong)

Within that song is a message that, if we slow it down, we can comprehend. (Synth music) Every bird finds his voice in this intricate orchestration. And while they all play together in perfect harmony, we need to find our place in this acoustic ecosystem. (Synth music and sounds of nature) Let’s keep moving up, into the sky ... (Synth music) through the atmosphere ... (Whooshing sound) into the vast emptiness of space. (Synth vocals) In this abstract place, where there is no sound, we reach only to the power of music to try to make sense out of the relationship between sound and time. (Low warbling and synth vocals) As the sound of a voice, we travel to the center of a black hole and wonder what will happen to us in the presence of this cosmic force. (Layered synth vocals and music) We are being stretched, as our musical body just falls apart. New and old musical concepts collide into a timeless sound mass,

leaving all sense of structure behind. (Layered synth vocals and music) We are surrounded by the past, the present, and the future, all at the same time, while information and matter lose all their meaning. (Layered synth vocals and music) (Music lowers in volume) It is here, in this emptiness, that we find ourselves traveling to the human imagination, an infinitely magical place, bound only by our creativity. (Vocals, nature sounds, and music) (Shifting musical patterns) We hear artificial intelligence making music and envision the potential of new collaborations. (Synth music and synth sounds of nature) Explosions of sounds and melodies remind us of the importance of emotional communication while simultaneously giving us an idea of the creative process being enhanced by technology. (Synth music and synth sounds of nature) As we return from our journey and rejoin one another in this room, let us embrace the force of human imagination and use sound to connect deeper to ourselves and to others.

Let us open ourselves to the transformative power of sound and its contribution to a new emotional understanding of our world. (Synth music ends) Thank you. (Cheers and applause)

A Sonic Journey Through the Universe | Felipe Sánchez Luna | TED

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Sound is ever-present and can evoke deep feelings and connections.

A team of composers and technologists is using scientific data and field recordings to create immersive sound experiences that convey stories and ideas.

They are merging art, music, technology, and science to foster an emotional understanding of the world through sound scenography.

Small animals in the soil communicate and maintain a delicate ecosystem, their voices captured through geophones and soil sensors.

Human creativity interprets and mixes these recordings with music, creating a tapestry of sound that highlights the hidden world beneath us.

The journey continues into the sky and space, where birdsongs and music attempt to make sense of the relationship between sound and time, culminating in a cosmic exploration of a black hole's powerful presence.

The narrative explores the simultaneous existence of the past, present, and future, where information and matter lose meaning.

It emphasizes the human imagination as a magical place, driven by creativity, and highlights the potential of artificial intelligence in music collaboration.

The journey concludes with a call to embrace human imagination and use sound to foster deeper connections with ourselves and others.

Sound has the potential to transform our emotional understanding of the world.

The speaker encourages embracing this power.

The moment concludes with cheers and applause, highlighting the impact of the message.