When Mitch Prostebby set out to translate brain rhythms into music for the inaugural Sounds of Research competition, he expected the experiment might produce little more than noise. Instead, it produced something extraordinary.
“I really approached that task with the idea that I would go with whatever music the brain activity revealed, whether there were distinct patterns or completely random, whether it sounded good or bad,” he says. “When the music turned out to express identifiable patterns, harmonies and melodies, that blew my mind — and it has deeply changed how I view rhythmic brain activity artistically as well as scientifically.”
Autumn Kirk’s project, Sonifying Bats' Response to Disturbance, builds on her master’s research investigating bat activity in response to wildfire and salvage logging.
"I work with bat acoustics as part of my scientific research, but presenting those sounds as an audio piece was a new experience,” she says. “It changed how I relate to my data and reminded me that research can be communicated creatively, complementing traditional scientific approaches."
For all of the participants, including the 12 students and postdoctoral scholars who made it to the semifinal round, Sounds of Research has been a transformative experience. By design, the competition provided a rigorous framework for discovery, with entries reflecting a broad disciplinary spectrum from neuroscience to Indigenous ancestral recordings, alongside research areas, such as classical music, that are already rooted in sound.
Providing that opportunity to shift perspective just enough to offer fresh insight through the application of sound was a key goal of the competition — a conceptual shift realized by semifinalist Martin Hinojosa, a master’s student studying ecology, with his project, Searching for Silence.
“Presenting my research through an outreach format pushed me to frame noise and sound not just as variables to measure, but as everyday experiences that shape how both wildlife and people experience urban environments,” says Martin, adding that his project was inspired by his research on urban noise in Edmonton.
Framing research through sound
The Sounds of Research grew out of a discussion Sean Luyk, digital curation librarian for University of Alberta Libraries and Museums, had with Lucinda Johnston, faculty engagement librarian, about developing a research competition modelled on the highly successful Images of Research, but for sound. Both are connected to the Sound Studies Institute (SSI) through various projects, so they brought in SSI director Scott Smallwood and programming and technical coordinator Tom Merklinger to apply for a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) Innovation Grant, along with Oliver Rossier, director of the Office of Research in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities.
The TLEF grant fosters unique, high-impact learning experiences, including initiatives such as the Sounds of Research competition that boost awareness of student research projects. In this instance, the TLEF provided funding for the resources and student training that made the competition possible.
“I had already worked closely with the SSI and the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) for Sounds of Research on podcasting bootcamps, alongside colleagues in the library's Digital Scholarship Centre,” says Sean. “So it felt natural to partner with CSSH.”
Scott says when they were initially approached about SSI collaborating with the libraries on the initiative, he immediately agreed because it aligned so closely with their mission. SSI provided an on-site gallery to feature the winning works, as well as workshops, guidance, studio time and equipment for the students.
It was Scott who connected them with his doctoral music composition student Rana Joudaki, who was the graduate research assistant on the project.
Key partners on the project include Dr. Temitope Oriola, CSSH associate dean research, who was a strong advocate of this initiative, and the “great support and advice” they received from the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies staff members Dr. Jay Friesen, Rob Desjardins and Erin Sanderman, along with Hanne Pearce and Junelle Mah in the Digital Scholarship Centre who supported the sonic skills workshops offered to graduate students.
“Sounds of Research is an excellent example of the power of interdisciplinary collaboration,” says Sean. “This is also reflected in the 12 semifinalists in the inaugural competition who come from all three colleges."
The finalists’ work will be permanently archived within the U of A Library’s Aviary repository as part of a permanent digital sound collection.
A finely tuned jury
“The competition was fortunate in their first year to have had a multidisciplinary jury of scholars who incorporate sonic methods in their research and creative work,” says Sean, listing jurors Scott Smallwood; Dr. Marilene Oliver, associate professor, Department of Art & Design; Dr. Michael O'Driscoll, professor, Department of English and Film Studies; Dr. Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell, dean and vice-provost, College of Natural and Applied Sciences; and Dr. Arlene Oak, professor, Department of Human Ecology. Additionally, he says, Dr. Cheryl Poth, professor, in the Faculty of Education connected the team with five excellent students in her EDPY 615: Program Evaluation course to produce a program evaluation design for the competition.
Jurist Michael O’Driscoll, who is also a researcher with the SpokenWeb project, is well acquainted with the development of sound archives and sonic methodologies for the study of literature — an area of research, he notes, that has historically been focused almost exclusively on text and image.
“It was thrilling, then, to serve as a judge for the Sounds of Research competition, where we had a chance to see the many ways in which students right across campus are either studying sound directly or using sound to communicate the results of their research,” he says. “The submissions were brilliant, and I learned so much!”
Oliver says it was a delight to help facilitate the Sounds of Research competition. “It is a great example of how projects can scale up and out. In this case, the collaboration started with a set of podcasting capacity-building workshops, helping boost awareness of research projects, and grew into a completely new initiative.”
“The competition was exciting in its own right, but it also provided an opportunity to demonstrate to the broader research community the many compelling ways sound can be used to disseminate research,” says Scott. “I learned a great deal from the submissions, and ultimately felt the initiative was a major success.”
Prostebby agrees.
“It was a really fun project," he says. “I hope the Sounds of Research competition continues to grow!”