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Witness Engines

@witnessengines.bsky.social

32 followers 45 following 18 posts

Witness Engines chart and perform as music the condition of the planet in realtime. This is the sound of solastalgia. Developed by @michaelbegg.studio https://youtube.com/@witnessengines

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Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 12

Hello BSKY.
Witness Engines is a sound art and data composition project by Scottish composer @michaelbegg.studio, focusing on climate, earth observation, air inequality and environmental fragility.

New musical approaches to inform solastalgia.

An ensemble instrument within Black Glass Ensemble

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · 15d

The audio engine on the weather/AQ engine is now binaural so listen with headphones if you can.

Here, we have a grim night in Dhaka. Rain, clouds, haze and grim particulate levels:

youtu.be/Qd4rXNth9MY

Air Quality and Weather: Dhaka 300925

YouTube video by Witness Engines

youtu.be

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Sep 5

Not good.

www.nationalobserver.com/2025/09/04/i...

Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website

Five years ago, Google’s climate action ambitions were the gold standard for Big Tech. Then, with power demand spikes from AI data centres, in July it scrubbed its sustainability website of its 2030 n...

www.nationalobserver.com

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Aug 28

Behind The Beat podcast - extensive interview about Michael Berg's Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute musician residency in Antarctica: youtu.be/ztq0BVuyG08

Behind the Beat Podcast #47 with Michael Begg – Horror & Beauty

YouTube video by Beat Magazin

youtu.be

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Aug 12

Fifteen Questions. Interview with @michaelbegg.studio about Antarctica, data composition and what the unity of science with art can offer: 15questions.net/interview/mi...

15 questions | Interview | Michael Begg | "We’re absurdly lucky to be here. So why do we flirt continually with the end?"

15 questions.net

15questions.net

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Aug 11

Meanwhile in the BAS Rothera research base, Antarctica, there is a bit of ozone, a bit of snow and a balmy -4º today. Surprising to see that the air quality index is only 2 (fair)

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Aug 11

Live weather sonification from Amundsen-Scott station in Antarctica today -42º high humidity and full cloud cover. No AQ readings. Makes for a thin, high slightly elegiac soundscape

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 30

Going to stop the live stream now. Here is link to the #usgs page detailing the Kamchatka 8.8 quake: earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

The Earthquake Event Page application supports most recent browsers, view supported browsers. Or, try our Real-time Notifications, Feeds, and Web Services.

earthquake.usgs.gov

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 30

As of 5 minutes ago we had 13 live quakes. One higher than 5.5, and 5 higher than 4.5 - all in the wake of the recent massive Kamchatka 8.8 quake threatening tsunamis all around the Pacific

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 30

'Restless Earth' Witness Engine now live streaming: global earthquakes and US 'elevated' volcanoes.
Turn it on, leave it running, be tuned to the restless earth in your doings

www.youtube.com/live/KJtOBzf...

Witness Engines - earthquakes and volcanoes

YouTube video by Witness Engines

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Witness Engines

Eddie Martin @sonifyed.bsky.social · Nov 22

Vandalising music to inspire action on wildlife decline:
Sigur Ros’s, Hoppipolla - from BBC's Planet Earth - is damaged to show 50 years of wildlife decline, based on data.
Blog: edin.ac/4fZSIXC
Article: doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...
#SciComm #SciArt 🧪 🦤 #sonification #SoundArt
vimeo.com/1031069761

Vandalising Sigur Ròs’s Hoppípolla to Inspire Action on Wildlife Decline

Music is often used to move and inspire us – whether it’s played at a political rally or a football game. But could it also help us to understand the…

vimeo.com

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Reposted by Witness Engines

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · Jul 21

The monitoring station on Mauna Loa provides the longest direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Trump wants to shut it down, which is like taking the batteries out of your screaming smoke alarm and pretending the house isn't on fire. #climatechange

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Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 19

It is a beautiful morning in Manhattan - clean air, clear sky. So listen in to the Witness Engine streaming live...

www.youtube.com/live/LiJ_-FS...

Manhattan in the morning

YouTube video by Witness Engines

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Witness Engines

Antarctic News @antarcticanews.bsky.social · Jul 18

Rapid sea ice loss, warming oceans, collapsing ice shelves & krill overfishing threaten Southern Ocean ecosystems—and human food chains. A proposed Marine Protected Area is stalled amid geopolitical roadblocks.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

The world can’t afford to ignore the ecological crises unfolding in Antarctica

At the bottom of the world lies a region as magnificent as it is misunderstood: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Harsh, remote and ice-bound, this vast area may seem disconnected from everyday human life. But make no mistake, what happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica. Its transformations ripple across the globe, raising sea levels, disrupting weather patterns and reshaping ocean ecosystems far from the polar latitudes.

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Witness Engines

Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · Jul 18

Friday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the 7th lowest on record (JAXA data)

• about 160,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,110,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,820,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,640,000 km² below the 1980s mean

More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Line graph time series of 2025's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2024. 2025 is shown with a thick gold line. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between May and August by looking at the decadal average line positions.

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Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 17

Checking in live on UK carbon intensity. Scotland (low) England (moderate) Wales (VERY high) Check out the percentage spread of where the nations energy is being produced/consumed. Note a 78%+ dependance on gas in Wales during the industrial working day!

Reposted by Witness Engines

Mark Hurst @markhurst.bsky.social · Jul 14

Some places will have to start rationing water - to enable AI slop.

"A data center like Meta’s, which was completed last year, typically guzzles around 500,000 gallons of water a day. New data centers [will] require millions of gallons of water a day"

Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/t...

Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door

www.nytimes.com

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Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 15

Vertical migration of plankton in the Arctic sea is changing to a lunar day timetable because of diminishing sea ice. Here, you can visually and sonically witness the rise and fall of moon and sun, moon phase, and the depth of plankton during those cycles youtu.be/VjZPuGNBD1o?...

Zooplankton Nocturne

YouTube video by Witness Engines

youtu.be

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 14

Michael Begg in Antarctica gathering field recordings for his Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute / Royal Navy musician residency. Here interviewed by the BBC...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'I travelled from Edinburgh to Antarctica to make music'

Michael Begg spent nearly three months aboard the Royal Navy's ice patrol vessel, HMS Protector.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Witness Engines

Francis Sealey @globalnet21.bsky.social · Jul 14

Air pollution linked to lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, study finds

Research finds that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-promoting mutations are present

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Air pollution linked to lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, study finds

Research finds that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-promoting mutations are present

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Witness Engines

Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · Jul 13

Recommended read: A BBC News “in depth” article explored the growing “battle” for control over the Arctic, along with the security challenges from climate change and other issues in “one of the world’s coldest places”.

📝 @gordoncorera.bsky.social

The struggle for control of the Arctic is accelerating - and riskier than ever - BBC News

It is in no one’s interest to militarise the Arctic but thanks to something of an arms race heating up between the US, Russia and China, that is precisely what looks to be happening.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 13

Today, a 5.2 mag quake 280 km SSE of Port Blair, India gives the Witness Engine a chance to exercise its 4.5+ alert.
This engine uses free API live data from USGS.GOV

youtu.be/HMYHz_76ROM

#data #sonification #composition #quake #earthquake #maxmsp

Earthquakes in last 60 minutes

YouTube video by Witness Engines

youtu.be

Reposted by Witness Engines

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · Jun 21

"I define ‘solastalgia’ as the pain or distress caused by the ongoing loss of solace and the sense of desolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory. It is the existential and lived experience of negative environmental change, manifest as an attack on one’s sense of place."

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Reposted by Witness Engines

Linda Paul @rangewriterlp.bsky.social · Jul 6

Solastalgia - the pain & distress caused by the loss of one’s environment. Coined in 2007 by Glenn Albrecht. #WordOfTheDay

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Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 12

You can see/hear the complete short piece "Sea and Brittle Stars" here: youtu.be/6f1lql8owUM?...

Sea And Brittle Stars (last refuge)

YouTube video by Witness Engines

youtu.be

Witness Engines @witnessengines.bsky.social · Jul 12

Tracing benthic invertebrate density in the Weddell Sea last November for Submersive Atmospheres. Funded by the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg, AWI, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research & The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg