This document proposes an interactive art installation called "Streaming Nature" that connects audiences to live natural soundscapes from around the world through internet audio streaming. Participants will be able to select physical objects representing different nature sounds, like a seashell for the ocean, and hear the corresponding live audio stream. The installation aims to bring nature experiences to urban audiences and highlight how telecommunication technology can transcend barriers of time and space. It discusses precedents in telematic art and outlines plans to source live audio from nature microphones set up internationally.

1. Streaming Nature
A proposal submi3ed to
UCLA Nano BioTech + Art Class
by Miu Ling Lam

2. John Muir (1838 – 1914),
Naturalist
“Most people are on the world, not in
it ‐ having no conscious sympathy or
relaDonship to anything about them ‐
undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone
like marbles of polished stone,
touching but separate.”
“The water in music the oar forsakes.
The air in music the wing forsakes. All
things in move in music and write it.
The mouse, lizard, and grasshopper
sing together on the Turlock sands,
sing with the morning stars.”

3. IntroducDon
Streaming Nature is an interacDve installaDon that connects
audiences to nature environments in real‐Dme by sound.
How does the sound of rain, the ocean and crickets at night
make you feel?
World PopulaDon Database 2010
USA Urban 82.3% Rural 17.7%
Hong Kong Urban 100% Rural 0% (Source: United NaDons PopulaDon Division)
Keywords: live audio streaming, nature, sound

4. Precedents
Bill Fontana
Sound Sculptures (1976): relocaDon of ambient sound link
Landscape Sculpture with Fog Horns (1982): live acousDc map of San
Francisco Bay, mulDple acousDc delays from the fog horns on the Golden
Gate Bridge link
Kunstradio
Weekly radio art program on the cultural channel of Austrian NaDonal
Radio link
Locus Sonus
Locustream (2006‐2009): live audio streams from urban sites, open
microphones which upload a given soundscape or sound environment
conDnuously to a server (web‐based) link

5. Nature Sounds
Weather
wind, rain, thunder, hurricane
Water bodies
beach, ocean, river, waterfall
Animal acDviDes
birds, cicada, crickets, frogs, dolphins
Silence

6. Nature but TelemaDc Art?
Internet as tool not aestheDc
Streaming Nature is a live audio streaming project, however, the
concepts of the use of computers, internet, telecommunicaDon
technology are suppressed and diminished.
TelecommunicaDon technology facilitates arDsts the capability of
breaking the barriers of Dme and space. “… one day, (telemaDc
art) will set one free of the limits of individual, naDonal, and
cultural intelligence.” E. Shanken

7. Why audio only while video
streaming is available?
Vision is opDcal percepDon, audio is mechanical.
Sound is basically air vibraDons – mechanical waves. Thus,
instantly listening to the sound from a distant environment is a
process of experiencing the "simultaneous mechanical acDviDes”
in that distant environment.

8. InstallaDon
The installaDon is supported by a number of internaDonal
contributors who are working or living close to the nature
environments. In each site, an outdoor microphone is set up and
streams the soundscape through the internet to the computer
located in the exhibiDon hall.
In the installaDon, there are a number of physical objects, and
each of them represents a sound in the nature. The parDcipant
will be asked to select and pick up an object to trigger the sound
represented by it.

9. Metaphorical Objects of
Nature Sounds
Tree branchlet: Wind
Vine: Jungle
Seashell: Ocean
Stone: Rain Nest: Birds

10. Sound Contributors
Africam.com
12 sites located in South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt and North America
real‐Dme video streaming to display wildlife to encourage eco tourism
The Owl Box (birdcam) project
San Marcos, CA
15 feet off the ground

11. Sound Contributors
Vinehill Ct, Fremont, CA
Household
300 k from Mission Peak Regional Preserve
Shengsi isles, China
50 miles from Shanghai

12. References
- Eduardo Kac, "Aspects of the AestheDcs of TelecommunicaDons," in ACM Siggraph
92 Art Show Catalogue, pp. 47‐57.
- Edward A. Shanken, “TelemaDc Embrace: A Love Story? Roy Asco3's Theories of
TelemaDc Art”
- Edmond Couchot, Images, pp. 187.
- h3p://telemaDc.walkerart.org
- h3p://www.africam.com/
- h3p://theowlbox.blogspot.com/
- h3p://www.birdcam.it/
- h3p://nujus.net/~locusonus/site/streams/map/