The ocean has never been silent. Beneath the surface, it's alive with sound: the calls of whales, the crackle of crustaceans, and the pulse of distant waves. For marine life, these sounds are essential. Whales use them to find each other, navigate vast distances, and thrive.
But in recent decades, a new kind of sound has flooded the sea.
Ship engines, sonar, seismic surveys, and industrial activity now fill the underwater world with persistent noise. This manmade noise interferes with the very systems whales and other marine animals rely on to survive.
Sea of Sounds is an invitation to listen differently.
Created by Ocean Sounds in collaboration with Seanergy and supported by PartArt for Ocean Water, this participatory art and science project allows people to experience the underwater soundscape firsthand through virtual reality, authentic whale and noise recordings, and emotional storytelling. It explores how human noise affects marine life and how art can reconnect us to the living ocean.
What Is Sea of Sounds?
Sea of Sounds is a participatory project that blends research, immersive technology, and art to raise awareness about how manmade noise is reshaping the ocean’s soundscape.
Through shared Virtual Reality, interactive Educational Workshops, and a compelling Whale Exhibition, participants are invited to step into the underwater world, hear how whales communicate, and feel the impact of noise on their lives.
It’s not just something you experience; it’s something that draws you closer to the whales and inspires a desire to protect them.
Where Science Meets Art
Ocean Sounds is a nonprofit organization based in Norway, committed to research, education, art, and the protection of marine mammals and their habitats. Their long term acoustic work has revealed the rich layers of communication beneath the waves and how manmade noise is steadily disrupting those connections.
Seanergy, our creative partner, designs immersive experiences that bridge science and emotion. Their virtual reality storytelling brings the ocean’s unseen world to life, helping people feel connected to whales in a way that words alone cannot.
Together, we are transforming data into empathy and science into art.
The Virtual Reality (VR) Experience
In the shared VR experience, developed by Seanergy and co-created with Ocean Sounds, participants dive beneath the surface and take on the perspective of an orca. They explore how orcas communicate, hunt, and navigate their world, until that world is disrupted by noise from boats and other sources.
The experience is based on real whale and ocean sound recordings from Ocean Sounds’ research, blending scientific data and emotional storytelling in a way that is both immersive and impactful.
Educational Workshops
Our educational workshops for students and the public bring the ocean’s soundscape to life in fun, accessible, and meaningful ways.
Led by biologists from Ocean Sounds, each session introduces participants to the local marine mammals of northern Norway and what they actually sound like underwater. Using whale recordings, we explore how these animals rely on sound, and how increasing manmade noise is altering their world.
Every workshop includes a group reflection on the VR experience: what it felt like to become an orca, how the noise impacted them, and what that reveals about life in the sea. This opens the door to discussion about real world solutions to reduce ocean noise.
Through interactive activities, participants explore the sources of ocean noise pollution, and student groups are encouraged to create their own awareness projects to share with their communities.
These workshops invite a deeper kind of listening. By tuning into the soundscape of the sea, participants begin to reflect on their own role in the noise and consider how small shifts in awareness can lead to more thoughtful choices for the ocean.
The Whale Exhibition
The Whale Exhibition offers a vivid, multi-sensory journey into the lives of northern Norway’s marine mammals and the challenges they face beneath the surface.
At its center is a 5 meter display box housing the skeleton of a Sowerby’s beaked whale, a rarely seen deep-diving species that stranded near Bodø following nearby seismic activity. Its presence offers both scientific insight and emotional resonance.
Photographic prints of local marine mammals are paired with QR codes that allow visitors to learn about each species and listen to their vocalizations, along with recordings of ocean noise pollution. Heard side by side, these sounds illustrate the stark contrast marine animals must navigate daily.
Through sound, sight, and skeletal presence, the exhibition helps visitors connect with the beauty, vulnerability, and resilience of whales and the fragile balance of their world.
Join Us in February 2026
In February 2026, we will host free public events designed to engage students and local communities with the Sea of Sounds experience:
Bodø, Norway - mid-February: featuring the VR experience, Whale Exhibition, and Educational Workshops
- Two days of student classes
- One open day for the public
Barcelona, Spain - Épica Headquarters, Badalona Port, February 19- 20
- Featuring the shared virtual reality experience, interactive workshops, and a curated digital version of the Whale Exhibition
In both locations, visitors will have the opportunity to explore whale sounds, how human noise is reshaping the ocean, and how listening differently can change what we understand and what we value.
A Call to Listen
For ages, whales have been the storytellers of the sea. Their voices carry across vast distances, connecting life underwater in ways science is only beginning to understand. These songs are not just beautiful; they are essential.
But today, those voices are growing harder to hear.
Sea of Sounds is our response. It’s a project about listening deeply, sensing what can’t be seen, and remembering our place in the ocean’s living symphony.
Join us. Step into the Sea of Sounds and let the whales be heard again.
Sea of Sounds is a collaboration between Ocean Sounds, Seanergy, Nord University, and UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Together, we unite research, technology, and art to help give the ocean its voice back.
Follow the journey:
www.ocean-sounds.org
Instagram: @oceansounds_org
