Our Chemical Past, Present and Future

The story of our chemical past, present and future made into a sonification piece that demonstrates the immense scale of the chemical problem, exemplified with DDT and PFAS, based on the figure created by Dagny Aurich as part of “Avoiding the Next Silent Spring: Our Chemical Past, Present, and Future” by Hans Peter H. Arp, Dagny Aurich, Emma L. Schymanski, Kerry Sims and Sarah Hale (2023) Environmental Science and Technology, 57, 16, 6355–6359. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c01735. The heartbeat tracks time, the clicking noise represents the growth in chemical numbers (right axis), the chords the patent numbers (stripes), while key events (blue/purple) have their own distinct sound.

Composition and Animation: Jamie Perera. Conceptualization: Jamie Perera and Emma Schymanski, with inputs from Dagny Aurich and Paul Thiessen.