Erasure features Jacob Sundstrom (Ph.D. student in Computer Music) and Anthony Vine (Ph.D. student in Music Composition). The concept for this immersive visual and sonic installation grew out of a seminar course taught by Music professor Lei Liang, QI’s former Composer in Residence, on the sonification of coral reefs. Graduate students from computer science, engineering and music teamed on a plan to build a large-scale, multimedia installation to highlight the fragility of coral reef ecosystems and human impact on these critical underwater environments.

Through an interconnected network of 3D photomosaic models of coral reefs and spatially and/or electronically processed percussion sounds, a metaphorical ecosystem forms and responds directly to human presence and the temporal history of that presence throughout the work’s existence. As more and more people enter the space, the installation begins to break down: the sonic tapestry of percussion sounds contort and particulate, the synthetic biome of coral visualizations begin to morph into unnatural forms, and the entire system mutates with the presence of the audience. Stepping into this simulacrum of environmental decline, audience members are aesthetically confronted with their impact on these remote and fragile ecosystems.