CANDID RÜTTER

Climate change and its impacts—such as glacial melting, droughts, and extreme flooding—are often conveyed through tables or graphical data representations. Yet these conventional visualizations typically remain interpretable only to scientists. This project explores alternative ways to communicate environmental data, transforming observational records and projections from climate simulations into an immersive auditory experience. Environmental variables—such as daily temperature fluctuations, river water levels, precipitation with its high variability, or snow and glacier melt—each carry their own distinctive signatures. Climate change alters these signatures in subtle and profound ways.

Climate Sounds translates these changing environmental signals into sound. By rendering the data sonically, listeners without a scientific background can perceive the natural processes of a river basin and hear the transformations caused by climate change. The shifting patterns in the sounds reflect the evolving dynamics of water, snow, and ice, making the effects of climate change on Switzerland’s hydrological cycle perceptible and experientially tangible.