Ocean Voices is a collaboration between sound artist Halsey Burgund and marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols designed to collect spoken voice recordings from people around the world responding to a few personal questions about the ocean, including:
- How does the ocean affect you on a daily basis?
- Describe a world without oceans.
- What does it feel like to be in the ocean?
The voice collection process was tackled using Roundware in addition to more traditional methods, such as in-person interviews. Roundware is used on oceanvoices.org as well as in the OV iOS and Android apps.
Roundware was vital to OV given that it allowed for the collection of voices on a global scale with a very small budget. Building the apps and the website enabled anyone on the planet with internet access to contribute their comments about the ocean. The ocean is the largest feature on this planet, effecting every human being, so giving everyone the opportunity to participate was a key philosophy behind Ocean Voices.
Ocean Voices has both artistic and conservation goals.
- to bring together a global community to emphasize how ocean conservation is a global issue
- to focus on the individual and the individual’s thoughts about the ocean, making it very personal and therefore more impactful
- to bring together the creative/musical/artistic world with the environmental world, thereby broadening the audience and increasing accessibility
- to actively solicit grassroots participation from a wide variety of geographic and demographic groups and encourage cross-pollination of ideas
You can learn more about Ocean Voices and how it uses Roundware at the OV website or by downloading the iOS or Android OV apps.
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