SOS OUTCOME SESSION
Wednesday, 7 October, 14:30–16:00
Sea Our Sound: Embodied Interfaces for Baltic Sea Monitoring Data with X-Modal
X-Modal (xmodal.robertofusco.net) is an open-source, browser-native platform for real-time cross-modal signal routing, built for interactive and participatory art. Its GeoData Player module — developed in collaboration with Åbo Akademi — loads live and archival Baltic Sea data (the Utö monitoring station’s temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, pCO2, and wave dynamics, alongside Copernicus Marine Service biogeochemical rasters) and routes it directly into sound, image, and physical output. Rather than reading a variable as a line on a graph, participants map it to a synth parameter or a brushstroke and feel it change in real time, with scientific annotation embedded in the data itself grounding each mapping in what the numbers mean.
During this session, participants explore the GeoData Player hands-on, building live mappings from Baltic Sea variables to sound and image, and discuss where this kind of embodied, felt interaction with monitoring data can extend how scientific communication and citizen science engage with the same data.
SESSION LEADS:
Jaana Okulov
Lecturer in Art and Technology, Academy of Fine Arts
