Here are displayed three "Listen to the Earth" devices: the "G-Player," "G-Pod," and "g-turns.com." These devices generate sound based on data collected by artificial satellites orbiting the Earth. One method of visualizing sound is to express the sound in waveform depending on its loudness and duration. Based on altitude data obtained from artificial satellites, these players read waveforms like landform cross-sections and convert them into sound.

For example, the "G-Player" is a device that can enable us to listen to the Earth as if it were a record, like a record player that generates sound when the phonograph needle traces the grooves carved into a record disk. We can select from the orbits of over 1,000 different artificial satellites orbiting the Earth and listen to sounds that change depending on the height (altitude) of the spots below the orbit of satellite as if tracing the Earth. Over mountainous areas sounds change dramatically, while over oceans there is no sound produced at all because there is no altitude information here. The "G-Pod" is the mobile version of the "G-Player" and at the website "g-turns.com" it is possible to listen to the sounds of points selected arbitrarily from Web. The artist presents these works as products that are being sold, displaying the three players in the "showroom" of the fictitious BRAND Corporation in a play on the artist's name, and each player can be operated freely to listen to sounds of the Earth.

Jens BRAND Profile

Jens BRAND was born in 1968. After studying art, he moved into the fields of experimental music and sound art. Since then he has created numerous installation, music performance, and inter-media works, undertaking projects that traverse the borders between established genres. Characteristic of his work are pieces created through an inter-media approach that includes turning data into sound and sound into images, and pieces that do not adhere to a specific form or media, such as music or art.