VoxAura makes the river sing during August

VoxAura; the River Sings is an environmental and social sound sculpture that consists of two boats moored either side of Turku's Theatre Bridge. They are equipped with speakers which broadcast a soundscape that evokes the maritime traditions and marine environment of the Baltic.

"Our blood has the same salinity as the Ocean, a reminder of the origin of all life on the planet and a warning that we share our well being with our vast and indifferent mother." says Dr Nigel Helyer, Anglo-Australian sculptor and director of SonicObjects launches his most recent work VoxAura at Turku2011.

The sculpture alerts us to the essential role that the oceans play in the ultimate control of our globe's destiny. The health of the Baltic Sea is the focus during August 2011 of countries whose histories are linked to the Baltic.

VoxAura consists of two life boats from S/S Bore, moored either side of Turku's Theatre Bridge, equipped with speakers which broadcast a soundscape that evokes the maritime traditions and marine environment of the Baltic.

Songs, stories and environmental data creates the soundscape

The artist has designed a computer system that takes variables from the water quality data, such as position, depth, temperature, salinity, turbidity and pH, and uses them as musical parameters to transform the source audio. This ethereal 'datamusic' is a metaphor for the chemical composition of the sea.

The soundscape is composed from songs and stories of the people who have lived and worked by the River Aura combined with the water quality data of alg@line project that is being constantly collected by two trans-Baltic ships, M/S Finnmaid & M/S TransPaper.

New water quality data is continually uploaded to the VoxAura project allowing us to hear variations as the composition of the Baltic changes.

The marine world's depths accounting for 99% of the BioSphere and it's surface accounting for 70% of the planets area. The ocean forms the principal interface for chemical exchange with the atmosphere, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen - it is the pump that drives climate and regulates the air we breath.

"Rivers carry with them a mixture of chemical nutrients and effluents that simultaneously drive the annual algal bloom and degrade the complexity and fecundity of marine ecosystems. The Baltic has lost it's clarity and it's fish but has gained the reputation as the most polluted sea in the world.", says Helyer.

The River Aura flows through the port city of Turku, past the maze of low granite islands that form the Finnish archipelago and into the Baltic. The citizens of Turku have watched carefully over the quality of their river which has improved over the past decades.

VoxAura is part of the attempt to encourage increased appreciation and action relating to the complex aspects of our rivers and oceans.