Beneath the Surface

Sperm whales have something like language, but we can’t yet hear what it means. Beneath the Surface is an interactive artwork that translates ongoing scientific work on cetacean communication into a perceivable, sonic, and visual experience — letting visitors notice, listen to, and recognize the structure of conversations that ordinarily live below the surface.

The piece maps the EC1 vocal clan in Dominica’s sperm whale reserve (established 2022): family units identified by matriline (Atwood, Drop, Sally, Rip, and others), positioned at their working depths from the surface to four hundred meters. Active codas appear as expanding rings; signals exchanged between units render as paths across the lineage map.

Four modes guide the viewer through increasing literacy: Ambient (the whole acoustic field), Notice (active signals foreground), Listen (codas play through connected audio), and Recognize (translation key revealing structural patterns — cross-generational exchange, elder-to-calf vocal learning, and signature features that identify a speaker).