Hydrophonic Dialogues: Solstice (2014)

Created for the Summer Solstice 2014 at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY and commissioned by Norte Maar. This piece involved the placement of hydrophones in the east river, and a process of improvisational auscultation of the underwater environment and transformation of the sound discovered on this longest day of the year.

This piece was described well (aside from fact these were live audio streams and not recordings!) in 2014 by Hyperallergic:

“Doug Van Nort presented an improvised performance based on audio recordings taken from the East River, on which the park is settled. The improvisation shifted between murky drones and deep earthly noise, as well as the occasional rhythmic popping. The sounds were entirely derived from signals transmitted from hydrophonic microphones placed in the river, displacing and relocating the unheard sounds of the aquatic environment above the surface.”