How do we define Aurora Musicalis? It is partly a soundscape drawn from our most mysterious continent, partly a response to the exquisite ‘sounds’ derived from the Very Low Frequency receiver at Halley Research Station. It is partly an imagining of what it would be like to stay at the Halley station with a grand piano, in this case to listen to a day of the ‘sounds’ recorded in meticulous time lapse at the Halley station. It is more than this though. Aurora Musicalis expresses the yearning for all of us who will never get to Antarctica who still want to have a direct experience of this place. We may not have the money to go to Antarctica; we may feel that unless we have something to offer in a scientific sense that we should not go; we might fear for the future of this continent which is at the front line of climate change; we might remember the stories of incredible courage by the early explorers of the 20th Century. Somewhat amazingly the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) drill the ice cores that measure CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere over time, giving this work an even greater significance when we contemplate climate change in our own lives. It may be more than this as well. Read more about this project and listen here. 

View Kim Cunio's Researcher page.