A Data-Driven Requiem.
In collaboration with Miiqo Studios, we developed Sounds of the Unseen—our artistic contribution to THE HERDS, a public art project that traces a 20,000 km journey from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle.
To accompany this epic migration, we created a generative soundscape that draws on over 6.5 billion animal movement data points, provided by Movebank and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Shaped by real-time weather and local ecology, the soundscape evolves continuously. It gives voice to endangered and extinct species, creating a sonic memory of biodiversity on the move.
It’s more than an ambient score—it’s a living composition, a data-driven requiem, and an invitation to tune in to the more-than-human world.
Special thanks to the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior for granting access to this remarkable dataset.
HOW WE CREATED SOUNDS OF THE UNSEEN
SOUNDS OF THE UNSEEN is guided by real movement data from animals on epic journeys—birds crossing continents, whales navigating oceans, land mammals roaming vast terrains. Rather than following individuals, we hear an entire ecosystem in motion. Each sonic layer reveals a different part of the story.
Behind the scenes, a custom-built sound engine interprets each data point in real time, translating patterns of movement into musical gestures. Instead of fixed melodies, it produces evolving textures—shaped by movement data, local conditions, and the rhythm of the seasons.
At the foundation lies a deep, continuous drone—like the Earth’s heartbeat—shaped by the activity of land-dwelling species. The more movement is detected, the more the harmonies shift and evolve.
Above this base, higher-pitched tones respond to animals in the air, while a third, fluid voice traces movements in the sea. Here, pitch glides reflect the distance traveled since the last signal—longer journeys stretch the tone, shorter ones keep it close and tight.
Every GPS ping—every sign of life—nudges the composition forward, subtly altering mood, pitch, and texture. The soundscape mirrors not only individual movement but also the larger, cyclical rhythm of seasonal migration. These patterns form the dramaturgical backbone of the piece, dividing the composition into four chapters, each representing a season. Each chapter carries its own chord progressions and tonal center, reflecting the shifting emotional and environmental conditions that accompany migration across the year.
For the composition, we worked with a cleaned and curated dataset of around 2 million animal movement points, representing a full year of migrations across land, sea, and air. This data is sonified in real time over a three-day journey, with seasons unfolding in fast-forward. After three days, the cycle begins anew—yet the piece never repeats itself. The engine processes each moment live, so the composition remains fluid, nuanced, and always slightly different.
As the piece travels along an imagined path from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, it adapts to its virtual surroundings. The calls of animals over tropical forests sound different from those in polar landscapes. The system reacts to changes in species, direction, and even weather. You might hear rising wind, distant rain, or sudden stillness.
Like the animals it follows, the soundscape is never fixed. It is responsive, ephemeral, and deeply attuned to the living rhythms of the planet. SOUNDS OF THE UNSEEN forms a sonic memory of migration—a requiem for vanishing patterns, and an invitation to tune in to the more-than-human world.
PHOTO CREDITS
1) Kinshasa - Congo Basin (c) Berclaire for The Walk Productions // 2) Manchester City Centre (c) David Levene // 3) Medina. Marrakesh, Morocco. (c) Oussama Oulhiq // 4) HM King Charles meets THE HERDS at Lancaster House (c) Jaber Ahmed (DEFRA) // 5) Makoko River, Lagos. Photograph by Kashope Faje, for 88 Life Studios // 6) Venice, Italy. Photography by Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia // 7) Paris, France. Photography by David Levene
Which emotions lie behind political speeches?
Throughout history, spoken words have moved our emotions. Despite today’s technological advances, they remain just as powerful—now amplified by the mass media. Words do more than share information; they shape how we see the world, reinforce beliefs, and influence our emotions.
Nowhere is this more evident than in political speeches. These are not just statements of policy but carefully crafted narratives designed to resonate on a deep emotional level. A political speech is an attempt to construct a shared worldview, to define what is true, what is urgent, and what must be done. It is language at its most persuasive, applied at the highest level of influence.
BEHIND THE WORDS translates the emotional layer of political rhetoric—from across the spectrum—into an immersive audiovisual experience, allowing visitors to explore the power of language beyond the words themselves.
EXPLORE THE AI-ANALYSED SPEECHES
Find out more about our method: Project Site
Focusing on the last five years of presidential campaign speeches in the Western Hemisphere, the installation presents the political spectrum in three distinct rooms—left, center, and right. Each room immerses visitors in the emotional landscapes that define these social spheres, revealing the persuasive power of language.
To do so, the installation draws on an AI-driven analysis of sentiment and five key emotions—joy, anger, sadness, disgust, and fear—alongside indicators such as hate speech, race-related stress, truth benchmarks, and automated fact-checking.
The data output is then translated into a musical and visual score, allowing visitors to both hear and see how the speech unfolds paragraph by paragraph. Rather than passing judgment, the installation invites reflection—showing how easily emotions can overshadow facts and prompting us to question when persuasion crosses the line into manipulation.
Through shifting light and sound, visitors physically experience the emotional contours of each speech. This sensory immersion highlights the unseen forces that influence our political realities. Only by recognizing the role of emotions in shaping our views can we begin to look beyond them.
BEHIND THE WORDS premiered in 2025 at Dark Rooms Hotel
Turning Brain Activity Into Music.
GEFÜHLSRAUSCHEN, a collaboration between Studio TISH (Yves Peitzner) and KLING KLANG KLONG, is an interactive installation that transforms neural activity into a shared experience of sound and light. Using EEG sensors, the system interprets brainwave patterns associated with emotional states and translates them in real time into a continuously evolving musical composition and responsive lighting.
Up to three visitors sit in a circular setting, each connected to a sensor system that detects their neural activity. These signals are mapped to musical motifs distributed across three instruments: piano, bass, and strings. Emotional states such as joy may generate bright, lyrical phrases; melancholy leads to sparse and fragile textures; discomfort introduces low, tense, dissonant layers. As the neural patterns shift and converge, the composition reshapes itself — not into one dominant mood, but into a complex, collective emotional expression.
What unfolds is a living musical dialogue that evolves with the presence, perception, and emotional interplay of those within it.
EXCERPT 1
EXCERPT 2
The piece premiered at the opening of Nürnberg Digital Festival NUEDIGITAL 2025
Virtual Tour Through The Austrian Pavilion.
Since spring 2025, the Austrian Pavilion at Expo in Osaka has welcomed international visitors into a multisensory experience shaped by architecture, narrative – and sound.
For Composing the Future, we created an immersive sound scenography that guides visitors on a musical* journey from Austria’s classical heritage to contemporary innovation. The spatial sound layers move fluidly with the exhibition, shaping atmosphere, dramaturgy, and emotion.
A glimpse of this experience is now available online:
Supporting Emerging Artists.
This year at the Lost Art Festival in Berlin, the CX Collective premieres its first collaborative work: CHAMAECHORIE – an immersive installation featuring artificial tumbleweeds, laser-defined borders, and shifting air currents. The piece explores the delicate tension between movement and restriction, drawing poetic connections between natural forces and human-made boundaries.
The CX Collective was formed by five students from Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF through the interdisciplinary course “CX Project,” hosted by the university’s Creative Exchange Studio. Throughout the process, KLING KLANG KLONG supported the team with conceptual and technical mentorship – helping shape the experience from early sketches to immersive execution.
Our involvement is part of our ongoing commitment to supporting emerging artists through academic collaborations – as we do, for example, with students from HDM.
We’re proud to accompany new voices on their creative journeys and look forward to seeing Chamaechorie come to life at Lost Art Festival.
