Sensing the Forest: Two Ongoing Datasets from DIY Streamers at Alice Holt Forest, UK

[Guest blog post by Anna Xambó on behalf of the Sensing the Forest Team]

Sensing the Forest (StF) is a project funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council. Our goal is to raise awareness among forest visitors, artists, scientists, and the general public about the vital connection between forests and climate change. Our central research question is:

How can the use of artistic and community science research methods help to inform and educate people about climate change?

Specifically, we are exploring what we can learn by combining artistic approaches and community science with technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Acoustic Ecology, and Creative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor forest behaviour and raise climate awareness. Listening, understood as a way of exploring and perceiving the world, is a key research method in this project. We promote listening through artistic interventions designed to harmonise with nature.

As part of StF, we have developed two DIY, solar-powered, off-grid audio streamers led by Luigi Marino, which are installed in Alice Holt Forest (see pictures below). These streamers act as listening and recording stations, capturing the sounds of the forest. Because they are placed in public outdoor spaces, occasional human voices may be recorded.

We are building two ongoing datasets from these automatic recordings, which will span between 6 and 12 months (depending on the device) and are being uploaded to Freesound:

• natural soundscape dataset (https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/packs/42937/): Automatic recording from a wood near Alice Holt Lodge Pond, Surrey, UK. 
• installation dataset (https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/packs/43504/): Dendrophone is a site-specific sound installation by Peter Batchelor located in Alice Holt Forest, Surrey, UK, that transforms local environmental data into immersive sound textures. These recordings are made directly from the installation’s multichannel output and capture both its generative soundscape and the ambient natural environment. 

Recordings are captured at least four times a day, timed to solar events (sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the midpoint between sunset and sunrise). We hope these recordings will also be valuable resources for the Freesound community.

Below are some selected sound examples from the natural soundscape dataset…

Quiet, bird singing, road, airplane, early morning at about 5:30 am (4 August 2024)

Heavy rain at about 1pm (5 September 2024)

Light (granular) rain at about 1am (30 September 2024)

(Early) bird singing at about 5am (31 May 2025)

…and now some selected examples from the installation dataset.

Nice blend with nature at around 3pm (17 March 2025)

Crackles blended with light rain/wind at around 3pm (18 March 2025)

Tubular bells at around 3pm (27 March 2025)

Forest breathing with planes in the background at about 1pm (19 May 2025)

Tubular bells blended with bird songs and a plane in the background at noon (28 May 2025)

– Anna Xambó on behalf of the Sensing the Forest Team

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Anna Xambó is a researcher and an experimental electronic music producer. Her research and practice focus on sound and music computing looking at novel approaches to collaborative, participatory, and live coding experiences. She is a Senior Lecturer in Sound and Music Computing at the Centre for Digital Music (School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London) and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project “Sensing the Forest: Let the Forest Speak using the Internet of Things, Acoustic Ecology and Creative AI” (2023-2025).