This Thursday at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, a one-of-a-kind live performance will blend marine science, original music, and custom-built instruments into an immersive experience.
For the past year, Chet Udell has served as the center's Artist-in-Residence. Over the course of his residency, Udell has developed several projects that use music and sound to invite listeners to engage with environmental data and the natural world through curiosity and play.
'Newport Sonic Tidepools'
One of those projects is called “Newport Sonic Tidepools.” (Like much of Udell’s work, it is best experienced with headphones.)
To create the piece, Udell ran 8 miles through Newport carrying a boom microphone, wearing headphones, and following a flashing metronome set to 156 beats per minute. The steady rhythm of his footsteps helps listeners orient themselves as he moves through the town and shorelines.
His route took him along the historic bayfront, the estuary on the south side of Yaquina Bay, the south jetty and marina, and around Yaquina Head, allowing the changing sounds of each location to shape the listening experience.
As he worked, Udell asked himself: “How do I reconstruct this in a way that folks from Newport could be like, ‘oh yeah like that's the Rogue Brewery silo’, or ‘oh he must be running on the fishing pier in the marina’ or the hearing the rain stick kind of sound as the cobbled stones at Yaquina Head.”
Little did he know that he was also capturing some places that had been part of the community for decades — such as the Rogue Brewery silo — that have since disappeared. The recordings have become a kind of historical artifact, preserving the sounds and spaces of Newport at a particular moment in time.
Instruments and instrumentation
As an Associate Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University in the Openly Published Environmental Sensing Lab, or OPEnS Lab, a central element of Udell’s work is “instrumentation,” a term with a unique double meaning in his practice. It encompasses both the scientific instruments he develops to measure the environment and the musical instruments he uses to transform those measurements into sound. At times, the two are one and the same.
“I think ‘instrumentation’ is a really great word for all the sensors and hardware that's out there in the environment,” Udell explained. “There's a great degree of craftsmanship that goes into making these devices and how they function, but also you can't just hand somebody who's never done this stuff before these instruments and say ‘now go perform a symphony out there’. It takes a lot of practice.”
Udell has developed devices like the Pied Piper, a device that lures an insect called treehoppers away from grapevines in the Willamette Valley, and a “Spider Harp,” which helps scientists understand how spiders interpret vibrations in their own webs.
He also builds devices simply for the joy of exploration, such as the Optron.
“The Optron is what you would get if you got a lightsaber and an electric guitar together and they had a baby,” Udell said. “You can swing it around, you can play it like a guitar, and there’s some hand-motion tracking and some light tracking.”
Udell will perform with this unique instrument during Thursday’s performance, debuting a new composition centered on water. The piece continues the theme of his residency at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, drawing inspiration from a year spent surrounded by marine scientists and the research happening around him.
Hello, Shellephone
Another project Udell developed during his time at Hatfield is something he calls the Shellephone. The piece is inspired by the familiar childhood experience of holding a shell to your ear and imagining you can hear the ocean.
For Udell, that idea comes from a personal memory: as a child, his grandmother invited him to listen to the ocean through a conch shell she kept in her home.
“I put [the shell] up to my ear expecting to actually hear the ocean and I was a little underwhelmed,” Udell admitted with a laugh. “It’s sort of just always been in the back of my mind and now during the residency I was like, what if you could actually pick up this shell, put it to your ear and actually hear what the ocean has to say to you?”
To take the idea of listening for the sea in a seashell a step further, Udell created a device that allows users to select a marine animal from a touchscreen, speak into the Shellephone, and hear their words transformed into what they might sound like if “translated” into, for example, sea lion-speak.
When asked what the intention is for the Shellephone, Udell explained the importance of play as a way for people to engage with science: “What I've seen that has been successful is using sound and music as a catalyst for play, especially when it comes to an intro to data science for high schoolers, or for folks that don't really identify as someone that loves looking at graphs and numbers and interpretation. By using play and sound like this, it can disarm the defensiveness people get or the anxiety that people get. Now, you put them in this whole headspace where experimentation and exploration is encouraged.”
World premiere of 'What Sings Beyond the Dark'
At Udell’s performance on Thursday, Udell will be showcasing several pieces, including a world premiere of a 13-minute composition called “What Sings Beyond the Dark.”
To compose “What Sings Beyond the Dark,” Udell interviewed five bioacoustics researchers at Hatfield. They all talked about what inspired them to pursue what they do, their relationship with sound, and how we understand the ocean through listening.
“In the ocean, because light doesn't penetrate the ocean surface very far, for many marine animals, hearing is seeing,” Udell said. “These researchers are kind of these guides, bringing you through this narrative arc of wonder how sound becomes information and insight.”
The bioacousticians featured in the piece, along with other scientists, will be present at Udell’s performance to answer questions from the audience between pieces. The goal is to create as much engagement as possible, giving attendees an opportunity to learn more about the science behind the work and ask Udell about his creative process. Through this exchange, Udell hopes to blur the lines between artist, scientist, and audience member, creating a shared experience rooted in curiosity and discovery.
Doors will open for coffee and cookies at 3:30 p.m. this Thursday at the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, located on the Hatfield Marine Science Center campus, 2030 SE Marine Science Dr. in Newport.
Udell’s performance will begin at 4:00 p.m. and last until 6:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
