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Displaying items by tag: Siobhan McDonald

An Irish artist is part of an international expedition that’s dropping hydrophones into the waters off Greenland to record the sounds of melting icebergs.

According to the Guardian, Siobhán McDonald will use the recordings from the underwater microphones in a mixed-media installation to explore human impact on the world’s oceans.

Over the next two years, the hydrophones will capture the sounds of melting Arctic sea ice and under subaquatic audio every hour — with the results being used both in scientific research and as part of a musical score McDonald will create with a composer.

“I’m interested in hearing the acoustic pollution,” the artist says. “The sea levels are rising and that will have an impact I’d imagine on the sound range and on all the biodiversity.

“Sound is fundamental in the ocean and Arctic animals. Hearing is fundamental to communication, breeding, feeding and ultimately survival. It speaks of the necessity of paying attention to the pollution we are causing to the ecosystems around us.”

The Guardian has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Environment

About the Endurance II Replica Project

An Irish project has been launched on the 150th anniversary of explorer Ernest Shackleton's birth, to build a replica of his ship, Endurance II, in County Kildare.

The project has high-profile patrons such as the Prince Albert II of Monaco, Alexandra Shackleton (Shackleton's granddaughter), and Richard Garriott, the President of the Explorer's Club.

The project is still at the concept stage, so the estimated cost of construction, which is expected to be around €14m, and the annual operational budget of €1.5m are not yet confirmed.

The project organisers are seeking $600,000 (€556,350) from 12 "founders," who will each contribute $50,000. The chairman of private investment firm Kilcullen Kapital Partners, Galway-born O’Coineen, bought the Business Post newspaper in 2018.