July 15–December 11, 2022
The sound artist Yuri Suzuki created the piece Sound of the Earth: Chapter 3 specifically for the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition Unknown Unknowns. From July 15 through December 11, 2022, An Introduction to Mysteries will be presented. The piece, one of the manifestation’s unique commissions, will inaugurate the thematic exhibition organized by astrophysicist and European Space Agency Chief Diversity Officer Ersilia Vaudo (ESA).
In Chapter 3 of Sound of the Earth, the concept of a local and global community that is interconnected through sound is presented. By employing machine learning to connect several locales to produce a communal soundscape with no discernible land masses or borders, the artwork aims to question how we see other cultures. The artwork, which combines an interactive website created as part of the Artists + Machine Intelligence Grants at Google Arts & Culture with an accompanying physical installation within Triennale Milano, serves as a reminder that everyone can find common ground and connection when we listen to each other.
Users are invited to upload and listen to sounds from all around the world from the comfort of their own homes on the website soundoftheearth.org, which digitally depicts the Earth as a geodesic sphere. You are welcome to contribute sounds online and become a part of the project’s worldwide sound collection. The project links user-submitted sounds to their closest audio neighbors using machine learning, creating a singular journey through a shifting soundscape that crosses geographical boundaries.
At the entrance to the conceptual show Unknown Unknowns, a black, 4-meter-diameter geodesic sphere will serve as the physical installation. Visitors can hear various noises that have been submitted via the website soundoftheearth.org from various positions around the sphere.
In order to explain his travel experiences without utilizing a standard map, Yuri Suzuki created the Sound of the Earth series in 2005. He originally intended for The Sound of the Earth to be a spherical record with grooves that represented the contours of the earth’s surface. As the needle went around the record, field recordings were played, each country on the disc having its own unique sound engraved on it. Over the course of four years, Yuri Suzuki gathered all the recordings. The 30-minute album took listeners on a musical tour throughout the globe through mainstream music, national anthems, traditional folk music, and spoken word broadcasts.
Following Sound of the Earth: Chapter 1, the series resumed in 2019 with Sound of the Earth: Chapter 2, an interactive large-scale artwork made for the Dallas Museum of Art using noises supplied by the public. After that, the Pandemic Chapter (2020) was created. Users could record an audio clip and map it to a virtual globe on the user-friendly website The Pandemic Chapter. Over 500 audio samples, ranging from various ambulance sirens to waterfalls to the weekly Clap for Carers, were uploaded to the website in just the first month.
The third chapter of Sound of the Earth will be the most ambitious one thus far. Chapter 3 of the project, “Evolving for the Post-Covid World,” will integrate a physical and digital experience. An sonic portrait of the planet offered both online and offline, Sound of The Earth: Chapter 3 highlights the changing ways audiences are now engaging with artwork in a post-pandemic world. The distinction between audience and artist is blurred by active engagement in the creative process, making both parties co-authors of the work.
Sound of the Earth: Chapter 3 is one of the special commissions of the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition. The project is supported by Arts Council England and developed in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture.
Submit sounds online and join the global sound archive on soundoftheearth.org.
Discover more on the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition on triennale.org.