AMBIENT STATE OF EMERGENCY

Ambient State of Emergency is a multidisciplinary sound art project exploring the role of alarms in modern life. Through sonic interventions and visual elements, the project examines urgency, perception, and public response to crisis.

SOUND                                  PRINTS                                 ABOUT                                                                 AMBIENT STATE OF EMERGENCY


With the world cascading in ever more frantic and uncontrolled directions,

The threats both caused by and faced by human ways of life—from weather to war—are increasingly undeniable. Collective inertia and denial are no longer options.

AMBIENT STATE OF EMERGENCY is an investigation into methods of communicating the necessity of urgent action. It asks questions such as: What does an alarm sound like? Would we know if one were going off?

To answer these questions, this multidisciplinary project draws on research from the fields of sound design and circuit building, the neuroscience of attention, and critical media studies.

This project also responds to the Western-centric narrative that emerged after global conflicts in the 20th Century: the belief in perpetual peace, the “end of history”, and the idea socially responsible capitalism would continue indefinitely. That solid ground has become sticky and gulping mud. Liberal democracies now struggle to find balance, while nimble techno-entrepreneurs exploit social division for their own ends.

Warnings ignored, crises mounting

Scientific communication has largely failed to motivate nations to adequately prepare for the climate crisis, despite clear warnings from scientists and increasingly erratic and dangerous weather patterns clear for all to see. Climate targets are further and further out of reach, with messaging failing to spark the necessary action.

The COVID-19 pandemic further exemplifies the failure to prepare, even in the face of clear and repeated scientific warnings.

The signs are there—some governments are beginning to act. Sweden, Finland, and Germany, for instance, have recently produced emergency handbooks for citizens, detailing what to do in a crisis. But these efforts remain the exception, not the rule.

This project challenges that failure. What makes people feel urgency? Can an alarm cut through complacency?

Using sound installations, warning sirens, and experimental media, AMBIENT STATE OF EMERGENCY seeks to provoke attention, action, and understanding in a world that urgently needs it.

“Ambient State of Emergency” is a registered trade mark. ®