Sferics combines a soundscape with visual projections and an interactive light setup. The installation reveals the unheard sounds of the earth’s ionosphere and beyond through custom-made Very Low Frequency (VLF) receivers and antennas. The project focuses on the idea of listening landscapes with radio-enhanced senses.

 

A large variety of unusual sounds can be heard at ELF/VLF frequencies. It is at these lowest frequencies of the radio spectrum that no man-made signals are assigned. Many of the sounds we hear through a VLF receiver are the result of lightning strikes happening in different geographic locations on Earth. Receivers can pick up short bits of radiation from lightning literally halfway around the world, just about anywhere on Earth. Real-time lightning data from a specific region, located at the opposite end of a magnetic flux line from Earth, is used as a trigger for the light installation.

 

The installation promises to deliver a multi-sensory spatial experience involving sound and light. The goal is to immerse the audience in a larger-than-human sonic perspective and take them on a journey with layered and granulated recordings of radio atmospheric phenomena known as Sferics.