Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

This imaginative, multi-gallery exhibit is unlike anything you've ever experienced in an aquarium. Incorporating many live animal tanks, filled with the most appropriately fanciful creatures, the exhibit is not designed primarily to educate in the scientifically traditional sense, but rather to inspire the imagination of young and old alike, while sharing scientifically accurate information about the animals that live here.

The world inhabited by the exhibit is a fictional one, representing the remains of a wrecked submarine, the HMS Argonaut, stranded on the ocean floor sometime in the late 19th century.  The sub's captain and sole survivor, Professor Phineas Brinker, has devised a collection of devices, techniques, and spaces to keep himself alive and sane.

A stunning multimedia experience full of interactivity, the exhibit called for a variety of sounds, some filling gallery spaces, and others emanating directly from exhibit pieces.  I was responsible for imagining opportunities for sound, creating the sounds, and tackling the challenges of playing and amplifying them over long periods of time in a reliable and visually unobtrusive way.  The main aural ingredients I chose combined the natural sounds of the submarine environment with sounds appropriate to the Jules-Verne-esque world being created - a Victorian-era vision of future technology, dominated by iron, steam, and electricity. 

In creating the sounds, I chose wherever possible to create the source material from scratch, rather than to merely acquire existing samples of submarine sounds, whale sounds, etc.  Additionally, the root sounds used in building the final mixes were often not in any way directly related to the sounds I was emulating.  For instance, a battery-operated automatic trash can lid was one of the components incorporated into the sound of the steamship's passing engine, as heard from the undersea area outside the Argonaut's Parlour in "Passive Sonar".

I have created this playlist to share the sounds with those who might enjoy listening to them directly, out of the context of walking through the exhibit.  Perhaps you've experienced the exhibit and were intrigued enough with its audio component to dig deeper into the sounds here.  Or perhaps you are unable to visit the exhibit and are still interested, or better yet, I might hereby intrigue and entice you to go.

This is a traveling exhibit. While currently at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR until the end of 2020 and under the title of "Seapunk", it is expected to visit other aquariums around the U.S. in the coming years.  I hope you have an opportunity to experience it in person.  I also hope you'll enjoy taking some time now to listen to the sounds of the Argonaut.

Thanks!

The Argonaut: An Undersea Odyssey

Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

In the sub's Victorian Parlour, a directional speaker is used so that these sounds of garbled communications can only be heard when standing directly at the comm desk.

Communications

Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

The ROV (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle) in Gallery 3 of the exhibit emits an active sonar "ping".

Sonar Ping

Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

In the observation dome of the sub's Workshop, (converted from the shuttlecraft-style "mini-sub"), one can hear the sounds of the sub's sole-survivor at work: welding, hammering, etc.

Workshop

Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

The sub's Water Rejuvinator in Gallery 2 uses electricity to convert sea water to drinking water.

Water Rejuvinator

Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

In Gallery 1, the Helmetoid is the computer center of the stranded sub, in the form of a giant dive helmet with a brain coral inside.  It emits an EKG-style beep and various retro computing sounds.

Helmetoid

Designed for a steampunk-inspired aquarium exhibit, in the form of a stranded Victorian-era submarine.  Currently located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.

In the entryway of the exhibit, which takes the form of a giant open hatch, one experiences the metallic compression sounds typical of submerging in a submarine.  This helps set the scene and the vibe of the entire exhibit.

Submersion

Music & Sound

Custom songwriting, underscore, arranging, sound design, production audio, mixing, etc.  Specializing in 3D audio for immersive experiences in Xtended Reality.

Santa Monica, CA
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ

Communications

Eric Hemion