In the above waterside installation of SEAP, a hydrophone dropped into San Francisco Bay picks up dolphins, seals, the sloshing of water against the pier, tiny sounds of air bubbles and distant whirs of passing ferry boat propellers. The underwater world overlaps the above-water world and mixes the two together. Sounds heard have the potential to be confused with emanating from one realm or the other. As an apparatus, SEAP calls attention to and consequently blurs environmental boundaries.
SEAP (Sonorous Environment Amplification Panel) is an interface to decipher landscapes in flux. Sounds which remain otherwise inaudible are made audible through the acrylic panel, effectively serving as a landscape loudspeaker.
The panel forms a feedback loop between listener and environment.
Through live amplification of sounds picked up by a variety of microphones (contact, omnidirectional, shotgun, and hydrophone) we are able to reveal elements of the landscape which may otherwise go unnoticed. The sounds of birds, waves, pebbles, electricity, and wind through a security fence travel through the wires and merge digitally before being projected through the acrylic sound panel.
Location: Former Alameda Naval Air Station
Year Installed: 2019-2020
Project Team
Architect: Nicolas Sowers
Steel fabrication: Ryon Gesink
Special thanks to Bryan Finoki and Javier Arbona for their continued collaboration, critique, and play with the SEAP panel.