Julia Nishizaki – Project 12 – Proposal

For my final project, I want to create an instrument of sorts that is based on the sounds around us, both sounds of nature as well as sounds related to machinery, technology, or man-made systems. I was thinking about Greta Thunberg’s speech at the French Parliament in July, and I realized that I’m really not familiar with the IPCC’s reports or the fact that in just 11 years we’ll reach some tipping points that we likely won’t be able to recover from. Through this project, I want to help visualize and create a more concrete image of what the future could look and sound like if we don’t change, in terms of animal and plant life, water levels, weather, and technology. Similar to patatap.com, I want my instrument to have different sounds and visuals for each letter, so that as you type and your words appear on the screen, the landscape starts to scroll past, and forms like plants, animals, buildings, and cars start to populate it. However, when you press a key such as shift or the space bar, the landscape changes to a future where we didn’t actively try to combat climate change, and all the images and sounds your words create in this possible future reflect that.