Scenes of Computational Transcoding – or How Technology Listens to a Fish Farm: Developing a Creative Media Installation for a Museum through the Computational Reinterpretation of Audio Data from a Periphery in South China

Developing a Creative Media Installation for a Museum through the Computational Reinterpretation of Audio Data from a Periphery in South China

Abstract

In South China’s Greater Bay Area, an idiosyncratic low-tech sound emanates, primarily from mechanical impeller aerators – air propellers used in local fish farms. The author’s creative approach integrates audio recording, soundscape mapping, computational analysis and translation across media with performative reinterpretation by singers, resulting in a museum gallery installation. This method, presented as computational transcoding, utilises technology to listen with a difference. An interdisciplinary theoretical framework is applied to demonstrate that computational and vocal transcoding of audio from a fish pond offers new perspectives yet also renders the transcoding process itself audible. The methodological scenes blend an artistic narrative with audio-visual media to offer an original perspective on urban soundscapes. This approach emphasises human vocalists’ role in contrasting computational limitations and algorithmic artefacts in interpreting these environments. Presented in scenes, the piece guides the audience through the outskirts of South China, with a video backdrop available to the reader to provide the soundtrack.