Decoding the Natural World

Decoding the Natural World (also known as In Conversation with the Natural World) is an interactive installation through which users can engage in the experience of interspecies communication, specifically with humpback whales.

Using a combination of text and speech to audio and back, participants can hold a brief yet inspiring conversation with the humpback whales pictured.

Users can then begin to contemplate and question what a world in which humans communicating with other species would feel like.

Finding a big enough dataset of humpback whale audio.
Pivoting away from using OpenAI’s API and a Raspberry Pi, and instead simplifying to mapping text to audio and back in Python.
Producing an experience (even if not the real thing) is a good way of opening the mind up to a wildly new possibility.

Role: Creative Technologist; Experience Designer

Tools: Code; Projection Mapping; After Effects

Year: 2023