Rock Your Research – Music for Territories Lab – Sierra Nevada Lagoons: Soundscapes and Site-Specific Music (05/09/2026)

Music for Territories Lab – Sierra Nevada Lagoons: Soundscapes and Site-Specific Music

This document presents the first activity of the Music and Territories Lab, established in July 2026 within the Rock Your Research project, an Erasmus+ initiative funded by the European Union. Coordinated at the University of Granada by Daniel Torres-Salinas (MediaLab UGR), the lab was developed in collaboration with Italian sound artist and researcher Ilaria Degradi, whose practice combines field recordings, environmental sounds, experimental electronic music and light-based elements to create site-specific listening experiences.

Context

• The activity was carried out with the Lagunas de Sierra Nevada citizen-science project, part of the campaign "74 Glacial Oases of High Mountain," coordinated by the University of Granada and the Sierra Nevada Natural Area.
• Held on 4–6 September 2026, the VII Jornadas Lagunas de Sierra Nevada brought together researchers, volunteers and environmental officers, who surveyed over 40 high-mountain glacial lagoons and collected water-quality and biodiversity data.

Artistic process

• Degradi conducted interviews with the scientific team and field recordings of snowfields, melting ice and water, which became source material for an electronic composition performed live.
• The piece was developed in collaboration with researchers from the Department of Ecology (UGR), integrating scientific knowledge and situated listening into a shared artistic outcome.
• MediaLab UGR facilitated the artist–scientist contact and coordinated the performance's technical adaptation to the mountain setting.

Outcome

• The concert translated scientific and environmental concerns into an accessible, collective listening experience for citizen-science participants.
• The document includes photographic and audiovisual documentation, with photography by Pilar Soto (@pilarsoto.art) and sound/lighting by Gabriel Sedano (@gabrielsedano).
• This output reflects Rock Your Research's mission to foster curiosity-driven collaboration between artists, researchers and citizens.

Funding: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the EACEA, which cannot be held responsible for them