When Science Meets Music: Florida’s Oyster Falling is Through Jazz | Florida

A college professor has led her team to study the dilemma of music with a declining population of oysters in Florida, aiming to inform new audiences “Catross” Scale crisis.

Heather O’Leary, professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida (USF) in St. Petersburg, and student composer and faculty in his music department Oysters are not safea soft jazz alternative to crafting data into “boring” technical reports.

She said the arrangement “using the common language of music” to express overharvest, habitat loss, climate crisis and the spread of perpetual chemicals on Florida’s fragile oyster reefs.

“You may not spend digging in some of these government databases on Saturday mornings or Friday nights, but you already have the tools of the hearing person in your body, or look at or create art as a visual person to perceive some of them.”

“If you’re watching someone sing or dancing, a part of your brain lights up like you’re dancing or singing yourself, and by that, deeper forms of connection are created. These coastal threats are something we can all connect with. This makes it more approachable, more fun, and more involved in creation and increasingly understand living in anxiety.”

O’Leary said no intention Florida Oyster Reefwhich led to fish and wildlife officials Stop oyster harvesting In 2020 at least five years.

“My reaction to this is that we do need a sense of so-called radical optimism because when things get too dark, people are just humans — they need to turn around, they need to rest,” she said.

The creative process features graduate students working with their conservatory colleagues under the guidance of music professor Matt McCutchen, a graduate student in marine science who interprets the data as a performance-friendly article, which will be broadcast live in January at the next USF concert.

“Music graduates are familiar with global warming, climate change, climate chaos, and so on, but they never really delve into science. It’s not the flavor of the intellectual interests they have,” O’Leary said.

“When they were sitting there chatting with marine scientists, they were diving and feeling it with their fingers and feeling it when you know the tissue is peeling off the coral, which is exciting.”

In addition to the upcoming live performances, the project will also feature music, artworks and music videos created by students. The oyster composition follows an early stage of Florida’s red tide and harmful algae blooms, which O’Leary says is “a happy aspect project,” but she quickly realizes that it can be a powerful medium.

“Students are thinking about the scale of time and change, clicks and debris about corals, and the saxophone type sound you think of when you think of dead fish washing, the saxophone type sound you think of goes farther.”

“Like this basic and very experiencing physical knowledge. It can feel very scary when you stare at the most terrifying numbers, the black and white figures in front of you.

“But if you are trying ‘What color is that number?’ or: “When I see that statistic, what kind of instrument will feel how I feel? ”This is what we need.

O’Leary said the music of the Florida Oyster Crisis resonates in response to global climate emergencies.

“All around the world, we have our concerns and have the right amount of healthy, safe water for ourselves, our families and our neighbors,” she said.

“So, do it in a way that I’m not a bossy scientist, but ‘play with me’, and that’s how we make progress on these things. It invites more people into the tent that is a good listener.”