The Wave is a 32 channel speaker array installed at Disjecta Art Center. This show was the culmination of a three month residency program lead by Crystal Cortez and Francisco Botello in which 8 residents were guided in creating compositions for the High Density Loud Speaker Array using SPAT and Max MSP.
Crystal and Fransisco created a four hour generative composition for the show called “Disappearing Islands”. Disappearing Islands is a composition for 32 speakers that seeks to translate sonically the risk many of the world's islands face with rising sea levels as a direct result of climate change. The piece is generated by the sonification of sea level data and carbon emission data. The sea level data is taken from San Juan, Puerto Rico from the years 1987-2019 and decides the rate of the rainfall spatialized throughout the speakers. As the sea level rises so does the intensity of the rain. The carbon emission data is taken from across the United States from 1801-2011 and represents human impact. This data sets the pitch and rate of four industrial synthesizers. As carbon increases so does the rate of notes occurring as well as the pitch of those sounds until the industrial synth compete with The natural sound of water. As both data sets reach their peak a synthesized wave takes over the entire space, illustrating the ultimate consequence of rising sea level.