The Coexistence of Seawater: A Sonic Exploration of Nature and Human Rhythm
This project uses Ambisonics sound to explore the connection between nature and human routines. In Hong Kong, a fast-paced and densely packed city, the sea symbolizes freedom and nature, quietly dwelling in people’s subconscious, evoking a longing to escape urban pressures and return to the natural world. Through contrasting and blending the sounds of the city and the ocean, the project reveals how nature permeates human daily rhythms and how our habits resonate with the cycles of the natural world.
The soundscape is divided into three phases—morning, noon, and evening—each representing the synchronization of human and natural rhythms. In the morning, the sound of sheets rustling symbolizes the first stirrings of human activity. This is paired with the gentle breeze and soft waves lapping the shore. Through gradual audio blending, the piece reflects the shared serenity between humans and nature at the start of the day, as if reminding us that the stillness of dawn belongs to both people and the natural world. Here, the ocean represents potential freedom, quietly present, signaling nature’s call to us.
At noon, the tempo quickens. The sounds of crowded streets and the bustling subway capture the intensity of city life. Meanwhile, the ocean’s sounds grow more dynamic, with waves crashing more forcefully. At this point, the city and the sea reach their respective peaks, and through layered rhythms and spatial contrasts, these sounds both clash and resonate. While the urban environment constrains human life, the relentless sound of the waves echoes the unyielding human yearning for freedom.
By evening, the city’s sounds begin to subside, and the streets grow quieter. As I record the dwindling urban noise, the ocean’s waves also become deeper and more resonant. Through reverb and delay effects, the ocean appears to seep into the city’s cracks, symbolizing nature’s enduring influence. This phase captures the human instinct to slow down with the setting sun, evoking both weariness and ongoing fantasies of freedom. The ocean remains a metaphor for this freedom, always present in the subconscious, even as daily pressures push it further away.
The piece uses spatial sound design and layered audio not only to highlight the suffocating nature of urban life but also to reveal nature’s constant, unyielding presence. Human routines and natural cycles intertwine, showing how, even in a highly urbanized environment, nature continues to influence us in unseen ways. Nature and human society are inseparable, reflecting that no matter how removed from nature we seem, its rhythms and power are always part of us.