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Sensing the Forest - Let the Forest Speak using the Internet of Things, Acoustic Ecology and Creative AI

Lead Research Organisation: QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Department Name: School of Electronic Eng and Computer Science

Abstract

Climate change is a world problem. The effects of climate change are clear from the latest natural disasters in the world (e.g. summer droughts in Europe, Antarctica ice melting, and floods in India and Pakistan, among others). Arguably, the general public lacks accessible scientific information at a local level that can help them make informed decisions on how to adapt to everyday life and contribute to the future national adaptation to climate change. Forest loss or deforestation is one of the causes of contemporary climate change. Similar to weather observatories, there exist forest observatories that produce vast amounts of environmental data that require analysis and interpretation by expert scientists, usually in a way not easily digestible by the general public. Much of the scientific research on the impact of climate change on forests focuses on a limited number of intensively monitored areas. This lacks wide geographical variability, increasing the uncertainty when upscaling to a regional or national level for policy-making. We believe that offering artistic and simplified graphical/sonic interpretation of complex data and the ability to monitor nearby trees can help raise awareness of relevant issues caused by climate change to our forest ecosystem and contribute to a wider geographic data variability. The project will bring the attention of the general public to the forest changes caused by climate change. This project contributes to community building of artists, scientists and forest aficionados by debating the potentially devastating effects of climate change on forests. We hope to make a positive impact on people's opinions that can turn into policy change.

The overarching research question is, how can the use of artistic and community science research methods help to inform and educate people about climate change? In particular, what can we learn from using artistic and community science research methods employing the Internet of Things (IoT), Acoustic Ecology and Creative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in relation to monitoring forest behaviour and raising awareness about climate change?

The project aims to raise awareness among forest visitors/aficionados, artists, scientists, and the general public about the connection between forests and climate change. Community building will centre on looking at a better understanding of forest behaviour using complex scientific data in creative and artistic ways. The project has three key objectives: (1) To make a one-year on-site and online artistic intervention in a UK-based forest using live scientific data and fostering acoustic ecology experiences. (2) To develop an in-house Internet of Things (IoT) prototype to measure variables related to tree stress, such as sap flow, air temperature, humidity and soil moisture to be piloted using community/citizen science methodologies connected to web applications for data analysis, visualisation and sonification. (3) To provide and disseminate tools, online resources, and pedagogic activities as well as to promote a discussion environment to foster awareness and engagement among the general public.

We envision the combination of artistic and techno-scientific research methods to accomplish the project's objectives. Our methodologies are interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on finding new artistic, acoustic and audiovisual methods to understand environmental forest data. The project is novel because it brings an interdisciplinary team of artists and scientists together to work on a timely issue using an original approach to gaining knowledge about the connection between forests and climate change that can have a local, national and global impact. Both academics and non-specialists can benefit from this research. Academic fields include SMC/musicology, Human-Computer Interaction, Sonic Arts and Ecology.

Related Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Award Value
AH/X011585/1 31/08/2023 07/01/2024 £207,480
AH/X011585/2 Transfer AH/X011585/1 29/01/2024 29/04/2026 £186,254
 
Title Sensing the Alice Holt Forest (live performance) 
Description A live coding session performed by Anna Xambó Sedó at the 9th International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC2025), Sala Beckett, 29 May 2025, Barcelona, Spain. This data-driven live coding performance explores natural soundscape recordings from the Alice Holt Forest, UK, captured continuously over the course of a year via a custom-built audio streamer and uploaded to the Freesound database. The central enquiry is whether patterns in forest soundscapes can be linked to climate change, using acoustic ecology and live coding to highlight their interconnection. Are species' sounds diminishing? Do environmental noises dominate? Are there other acoustic markers tied to climate shifts? The performance uses MIRLCa, a self-developed SuperCollider extension that combines AI and music information retrieval (MIR) techniques to retrieve and manipulate sounds from Freesound in real time. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2025 
Impact Anna Xambó Sedó had the opportunity to present this concert later on at the Web Audio Conference 2025 in Paris on November 19, 2025. Nico García-Peguinho was invited to perform a similar setup at the Multispecies concert, Creative Coding Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands, on November 22, 2025. Anna Xambó Sedó has been commissioned to create a version of "Sensing the Alice Holt Forest" using local sounds from Serra de Llaberia in Catalonia, Spain, and present it at BotCamp 2026 (2-5 July 2026) as a side event of the Festival Eufònic, Tivissa, Catalonia, Spain (16-18 July 2026). 
URL https://iclc.toplap.org/2025/catalogue/performance/sensing-the-alice-holt-forest.html
 
Title Sensing the Alice Holt Forest (live performance) 
Description A live coding session performed by Anna Xambó Sedó at the Web Audio Conference 2025, Ircam, Espace de projection (Paris), 19 November 2025, Paris, France. This data-driven live coding performance explores natural soundscape recordings from the Alice Holt Forest, UK, captured continuously over the course of a year via a custom-built audio streamer and uploaded to the Freesound database. The central enquiry is whether patterns in forest soundscapes can be linked to climate change, using acoustic ecology and live coding to highlight their interconnection. Are species' sounds diminishing? Do environmental noises dominate? Are there other acoustic markers tied to climate shifts? The performance uses MIRLCa, a self-developed SuperCollider extension that combines AI and music information retrieval (MIR) techniques to retrieve and manipulate sounds from Freesound in real time. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2025 
Impact Nico García-Peguinho was invited to perform a similar setup at the Multispecies concert, Creative Coding Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands, on November 22, 2025. Anna Xambó Sedó has been commissioned to create a version of "Sensing the Alice Holt Forest" using local sounds from Serra de Llaberia in Catalonia, Spain, and present it at BotCamp 2026 (2-5 July 2026) as a side event of the Festival Eufònic, Tivissa, Catalonia, Spain (16-18 July 2026). 
URL https://medias.ircam.fr/fr/media/7e0777e073adecc86766
 
Title Your Sonic Forest - Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations in Alice Holt Forest (exhibition) 
Description This art event is part of the Sensing the Forest project and has been a follow-up of the Sensing the Forest Summer School. This exhibition has been curated by Hazel Stone (Forestry England) and Peter Batchelor (De Montfort University) in cooperation with the Sensing the Forest Summer School Team and the Sensing the Forest Summer School Participants. The exhibition has two exhibition modes: onsite and online. The opening of the onsite exhibition was a free event presented on Thursday, 20th of June, 11am-3pm, 2024, at the Alice Holt Forest. There was an exhibition of 13 installations. We had good weather and a good turnout of visitors. The online art event can be enjoyed since August 2024, where you can experience the presented artworks and see how they progress. Dendrophone is a permanent multichannel sound installation by Peter Batchelor that is located in Alice Holt Forest and is permanent for one year (August 2024 - August 2025). 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2024 
Impact We announced the event on Eventbrite as well as on several mailing lists, obtaining 39 registered visitors, yet several visitors came without registering. There were a hundred printed leaflets available for the visitors, and at the closing, only a few were left. We estimate a total of 40-60 visitors. At the end of the exhibition, there was a small chalkboard with a poster inviting visitors to fill out a short, anonymous survey. We received 13 responses to the online survey on the day. This aligns with the common low participation in surveys at the Alice Holt Forest reported by the site managers. The general comments were encouraging about doing more artistic interventions in the forest or relating to forests in collaboration with scientists. The overall feedback about the exhibition was positive, but the challenges of raising awareness of climate change through the artworks also emerged in the visitors' survey. After the onsite exhibition, we developed six themes across the artworks to help the online viewers make the connection between the artworks and climate change when navigating the online exhibition. We also created written prompts next to the Dendrophone exhibit to help the onsite visitors connect the artwork with climate change. The online survey remains open even after the closing of the Dendrophone at the end of August 2025, so that we can continue capturing opinions on the online exhibition. At the time of this writing, we have received additional 25 responses. The comments are positive about how inspiring and thought-provoking the exhibition is and the relevance of the themes. We estimate that 20% of the total views of the project website have explored the online exhibition (9,100 views at the time of this writing). 
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/exhibition/
 
Description Achievements

1. The project delivered a one-year on-site and online artistic intervention at Alice Holt Forest, in collaboration with Forest Research and Forestry England. This included curated artworks, a multichannel sound installation (Dendrophone) using live environmental data, and two solar-powered audio streamers. Public engagement was supported through guided tours, written prompts, leaflets, podcasts, a video documentary, blog posts, and performances.
2. We co-designed a low-cost, take-home tree-talker prototype using participatory design methods, capable of measuring tree stress (tree stem diameter, temperature, humidity, soil moisture) and supporting data visualisation and sonification (Dendrostream). Piloting these devices sparked interest in community/citizen science.
3. Original interdisciplinary materials (seminars, workshops, a summer school, a hackathon, videos, tutorials, and podcasts) fostered debate, public engagement, and the formation of a new artistic-scientific community exploring environmental data through creative methods.

Significant New Knowledge Generated

The project advanced understanding of how forests and climate change can be communicated through sound-based art. Six themes or metaphors were identified to help audiences understand the connection of forests with climate change. The tree-talker study demonstrated that sonification and visualisation of tree stress data can support public understanding, yielding for making complex indicators of climate-change-related tree stress understandable, engaging, and actionable for the public.

New or Improved Methods and Skills

A workflow was developed for creating and monitoring autonomous on-site devices with minimal maintenance, supporting continuous live streaming and automatic sound recording. New datasets were produced, reusable by other researchers. The low-cost IoT dendrometer sensor reduced hardware costs by ~50% while maintaining functionality. Interdisciplinary collaboration strengthened the team's capacity in forest science, sonic arts, computing, engineering, and participatory design.

Important New Research Questions

The project raised questions about methods for exploring soundscape data in relation to climate change, including how AI could support creative data exploration. Future work will combine audio and weather datasets to investigate interactions and scale the approach to other forests, urban environments, and international contexts.

Significant Negative Results / Research Paths Closed Off

Findings suggest that one year or less of observational data is insufficient to communicate climate change effectively through sound-based artworks or devices alone. This highlights the need for complementary strategies, such as guided tours, written prompts, conceptual themes, and focus groups.

New Collaborations and Partnerships

Early-stage discussions were initiated with researchers, artists, and organisations working at the intersection of renewable energy, sound art, and climate action. These emerging connections provide a foundation for future interdisciplinary collaborations and public engagement activities.

Increased Research Capability

The project strengthened interdisciplinary research skills across forest science, installation art, environmental design, sonic arts, sound and music computing, community/citizen science, and participatory design. Team members gained specialist skills in sound recording, environmental listening, forest science, creative communication, prototype development and public engagement.

Summary

This project demonstrated that artistic and scientific methods can be combined to raise public awareness of forests and climate change through sound. By integrating live environmental data, DIY ethos, community/citizen science tools, acoustic ecology, and sound and music computing techniques, the research created a unique space for engagement unattainable by either discipline alone. The project also revealed a thriving area at the intersection of soundscape-based music and creative AI, where arts and humanities provide the critical context needed to engage meaningfully with this fast-evolving technology. Outcomes, including the Dendrophone installation, audio streamers, tree-talker prototype, the Dendrostream software, datasets, guidelines, and community networks, lay the foundation for scaling these approaches to new forests, urban areas, and international contexts, advancing both scientific understanding and innovative climate communication.
Exploitation Route The outcomes of this project can be taken forward in several ways, through both academic and non-academic routes.

Academically, the publications, datasets, and interdisciplinary methods developed can support future research in acoustic ecology, environmental monitoring, citizen science, and climate communication. Researchers in sound and music computing, sonic arts, human-computer interaction, forest science, environmental design, and AI-enhanced creative methods could build on these approaches to study not only forests but urban soundscapes and human-environment interactions more broadly.

The project also provides non-academic tools and approaches suitable for artists, environmental educators, and conservation organisations to engage the public with climate change through sound-based, artistic and DIY experiences. The DIY tree-talker prototype and guidelines for sonification and visualisation can be adopted in schools, community projects, and citizen science initiatives, inspiring audiences to explore environmental data creatively. The DIY audio streamers can be developed by anyone interested in soundscapes. Installations, artworks, online resources, and the conceptual themes developed during the project can also inform exhibitions, workshops, and public engagement programmes, both in the UK and internationally. The creative AI findings also open doors for technology developers and digital artists interested in AI-enhanced soundscape tools.

By combining artistic and scientific methods, the project establishes a transferable model for interdisciplinary collaboration that can be adapted across forested and urban environments for broader societal engagement with climate change.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Education

Electronics

Energy

Environment

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/outputs/
 
Description This project contributed to public engagement with climate change through creative and participatory means, reaching diverse audiences including forest visitors, students, artists, and online communities. The artworks, audio streamers, tree-talker prototype and related custom-made hardware and software offered accessible, non-specialist entry points into understanding environmental data, supporting broader societal awareness of climate change. Public-facing outputs, including podcasts, videos, and online resources, extend this reach nationally and internationally, supporting environmental education and creative learning. Feedback from participants has been strongly positive. Visitors described the experiences as "unique and innovative," noting they were prompted to rethink their interaction with the environment, and found the installations both calming and enlightening. Guided walks and tours proved especially effective for contextualising the artworks and deepening audience engagement. The project also created meaningful opportunities to link research with education, supporting undergraduate and Master's students across computing, AI, and sonic arts disciplines. Students contributed to solar-powered installation design, affordable environmental monitoring, AI-based passive acoustic monitoring, soundscape analysis for climate pattern detection, and creative sonification tools. One student-led outcome, Dendrostream, was presented at the Web Audio Conference 2025. The project also reached Chinese-speaking international audiences through student-authored publications on WeChat accounts. The project's interdisciplinary reach has been formally recognised: it was selected as a Queen Mary EECS AI Research Impact Case Study, acknowledging its contribution at the intersection of AI, environmental science, and public engagement. By combining art, science, and technology, the project has demonstrated a transferable model for interdisciplinary public engagement that enriches the UK's creative and cultural output. Early-stage collaborations are informing future funding bids and partnerships, contributing to the UK's growing reputation at the intersection of arts, sciences, and technology. The project lays the groundwork for greater public understanding of climate change, stimulate artistic creativity, and advance evidence-based, interdisciplinary approaches to environmental education.
First Year Of Impact 2025
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal
 
Title Sensing the Forest - Installation Soundscape Dataset - Part 1/2 
Description Reference: Marino, L., Batchelor, P., & Xambó Sedó, A. (2025). Sensing the Forest - Installation Soundscape Dataset - Part 1/2 [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911584 This dataset contains sounds by the following user: - sensingtheforest ( https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/ ) This is the Zenodo archival version of the Freesound pack available at: https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/packs/43504/ This dataset is published in two parts on Zenodo due to file size constraints. 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. The sounds are generated from an automatic recording from a wood near Alice Holt Lodge Pond, Surrey, UK, using a DIY Raspberry Pi audio streamer designed by Luigi Marino. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2025 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The pack of 1.6K sounds (137:25 hours) has received 45 downloads so far. We were invited by the Freesound team to write a guest blog post published at the Freesound blog: https://blog.freesound.org/?p=2248 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18911584
 
Title Sensing the Forest - Installation Soundscape Dataset - Part 2/2 
Description Reference: Marino, L., Batchelor, P., & Xambó Sedó, A. (2025). Sensing the Forest - Installation Soundscape Dataset - Part 2/2 [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911592 This dataset contains sounds by the following user: - sensingtheforest ( https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/ ) This is the Zenodo archival version of the Freesound pack available at: https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/packs/43504/ This dataset is published in two parts on Zenodo due to file size constraints. 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. The sounds are generated from an automatic recording from a wood near Alice Holt Lodge Pond, Surrey, UK, using a DIY Raspberry Pi audio streamer designed by Luigi Marino. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2025 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The pack of 1.6K sounds (137:25 hours) has received 45 downloads so far. We were invited by the Freesound team to write a guest blog post published at the Freesound blog: https://blog.freesound.org/?p=2248 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18911592
 
Title Sensing the Forest - Natural Soundscape Dataset - Part 1/2 
Description Reference: Marino, L., Batchelor, P., & Xambó Sedó, A. (2025). Sensing the Forest - Natural Soundscape Dataset - Part 1/2 [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18909809 This dataset contains sounds by the following user: - sensingtheforest ( https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/ ) This is the Zenodo archival version of the Freesound pack available at: https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/packs/42937/ This dataset is published in two parts on Zenodo due to file size constraints. The sounds are generated from an automatic recording from a wood near Alice Holt Lodge Pond, Surrey, UK, using a DIY Raspberry Pi audio streamer designed by Luigi Marino. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2025 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The pack of 1.5K sounds (123:45 hours) has received 76 downloads so far. We were invited by the Freesound team to write a guest blog post published at the Freesound blog: https://blog.freesound.org/?p=2248 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18909809
 
Title Sensing the Forest - Natural Soundscape Dataset - Part 2/2 
Description Reference: Marino, L., Batchelor, P., & Xambó Sedó, A. (2025). Sensing the Forest - Natural Soundscape Dataset - Part 2/2 [Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911328 This dataset contains sounds by the following user: - sensingtheforest ( https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/ ) This is the Zenodo archival version of the Freesound pack available at: https://freesound.org/people/sensingtheforest/packs/42937/ This dataset is published in two parts on Zenodo due to file size constraints. The sounds are generated from an automatic recording from a wood near Alice Holt Lodge Pond, Surrey, UK, using a DIY Raspberry Pi audio streamer designed by Luigi Marino. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2025 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The pack of 1.5K sounds (123:45 hours) has received 76 downloads so far. We were invited by the Freesound team to write a guest blog post published at the Freesound blog: https://blog.freesound.org/?p=2248 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18911328
 
Title Dendrostream API: v1.0.0 by Tug O'Flaherty 
Description This code is for the Dendrostream backend API, used to transmit the tree and climate data received from the prototype tree talker unit developed as part of Sensing the Forest, to a requesting client. This system in turn calls upon the custom-web-server-backend to attempt to return the latest data received from the hardware units, where possible, else returning historical data. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2025 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The software was applied to analyse live data from six custom-made tree-talker units used in two three-month participatory design user studies, each involving six and five participants, respectively. The Dendrostream project has been featured in reports included in: Web Audio Conference 2025 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17642479); Queen Mary University of London EECS Research Impact Case Study (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/eecs/research/research-impact/case-study-sensing-the-forest/); and Sensing the Forest Blog (https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2025/12/23/dendrostream/). 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18972499
 
Title Dendrostream: v1.0.0 by Tug O'Flaherty 
Description This code is for the Dendrostream frontend web application, used to present the tree and climate data received from the prototype tree talker unit developed as part of Sensing the Forest. This system offers basic and complex mappings of the data received from the hardware units (via the associated Dendrostream API), using sonification (created using the Web Audio API) and visualisation (using d3.js or p5.js) techniques. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2025 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The software was applied to analyse live data from six custom-made tree-talker units used in two three-month participatory design user studies, each involving six and five participants, respectively. The Dendrostream project has been featured in reports included in: Web Audio Conference 2025 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17642479); Queen Mary University of London EECS Research Impact Case Study (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/eecs/research/research-impact/case-study-sensing-the-forest/); and Sensing the Forest Blog (https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2025/12/23/dendrostream/). 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18972673
 
Title Raspberry Pi Online Audio Streamer: v1.0.0 by Luigi Marino 
Description This code turns a Raspberry Pi into an online audio streamer. Some of its features include automated recording or other tasks based on solar times and remote code updates or shell command execution using an internet dongle in remote. The installer is designed to work with Raspberry Pi OS and uses up-to-date libraries as of this release. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2025 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The code has been just released after 17 months of development (October 2023-present). We have requests from several practitioners who are interested in setting up a streamer. This version is in a beta-tester phase with the plan to incorporate the feedback of the early adopters for the software release. 
URL https://zenodo.org/records/18971299
 
Title Sensing Unit System Code: v1.0.0-beta1 by Mahmoud Elmokadem 
Description The Sensing Unit is a custom-built system that measures temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and tree trunk shrinkage/expansion. It uses sensors connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. This repository includes the code and required software to operate the unit. This is the first public beta release of the Sensing Unit code. The system is developed to monitor key environmental and biological parameters, including: temperature and humidity; soil moisture; and tree trunk shrinkage and expansion (via a dendrometer). 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2025 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact The software has been implemented in six custom-made tree-talker units that have been used in a three-month participatory design user study. 
URL https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.18971722
 
Description AHRC Sensing the Forest Summer School (Feb-Jun 2024) with presentations by Nick Wardlaw, Mike Bell, Peter Batchelor, Hazel Stone, Johanna Knowles, Luigi Marino and the summer school participants 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 1st Sensing the Forest Summer School, was held online on February-May, 2024, and on-site on June 19-20, 2024, in Alice Holt, UK. The Sensing the Forest Summer School provided an inclusive educational environment that served state-of-the-art climate science, installation art, acoustic ecology, and environmental design. Ten practitioners/students were exposed to a curriculum that combines theory and hands-on sessions with an expert team of lecturers who guided them through 6 online 1h sessions, each dedicated to a different topic: forest research, installation art, environmental design, and project development. The summer school concluded with a 2-day intensive summit, in which the students/artists projects were exhibited in the wild and open to the public. This helps building a new artistic-scientific community interested in understanding environmental data based on group discussion and using creative and artistic ways of representation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/summer-school/
 
Description AHRC Sensing the Forest Understanding Data and Place video presentations by Matt Wilkinson and George Xenakis 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A series of video presentations related to Forest Research approaches to data and place that can inform the Sensing the Forest project. The presentations were video recorded during team meetings and shared on the project's YouTube channel to reach a broader audience. This helps building a new artistic-scientific community interested in understanding environmental data based on group discussion and using creative and artistic ways of representation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023,2024
URL https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoMU4dVZn5UNSBLWp3VCcga0vkpNqPu-x
 
Description AHRC Sensing the Forest interviews with speakers from the AHRC Sensing the Forest seminar series: Peter Sinclair, Saloni Shah, Jones/Bulley, Liz O'Brien and Alice Eldridge - Interviews by Anna Xamb贸 and Luigi Marino 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Follow-up five written interviews with the seminar speakers of the AHRC Sensing the Forest Seminar Series published on the project's blog. This helps building a new artistic-scientific community interested in understanding environmental data based on group discussion and using creative and artistic ways of representation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023,2024
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/tags/seminar-series/
 
Description AHRC Sensing the Forest seminar series with talks by Semiconductor, Peter Sinclair, Saloni Shah, Jones/Bulley, Liz O'Brien and Alice Eldridge (Oct-Nov 2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The AHRC Sensing the Forest project organised a series of three fortnightly online seminar talks with experts related to artistic, social and scientific interventions in the forest or other natural landscapes with a special focus on acoustic phenomena. The seminar series included talks by Semiconductor, Peter Sinclair, Saloni Shah, Jones/Bulley, Liz O'Brien and Alice Eldridge. We had a total of 275 registered attendees. This helps building a new artistic-scientific community interested in understanding environmental data based on group discussion and using creative and artistic ways of representation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/seminars/
 
Description How to listen to a forest 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact A Conversation article "How to Listen to a Forest" written by Lianganzi Wang and published on December 31, 2025, that has over 5,000 reads now.
The article talks about how a forest soundscape installation aims to help people make sense of forests and climate through listening, not screens.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-a-forest-268225
 
Description Interviews with AHRC StF Summer School Artists: Bardia Hafizi, Ed Chivers, Qianyi Rose Sun, Gabrielle Cerberville, Austin Blanton, Miles Scharff, Kate Anderson, Jordan Juras, Rosa Sungjoo Park, Beccy Abraham - Interviews by Hazel Stone 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Ten written interviews with the summer school participants/artists of the AHRC Sensing the Forest Summer School published in May 2024 on the project's blog before the launch of the public exhibition in the Alice Holt Forest in June 2024. This helps building a new artistic-scientific community interested in understanding environmental data based on group discussion and using creative and artistic ways of representation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/tags/meet-the-artists/
 
Description Podcast - EP1 - Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations, A Podcast with Sensing the Forest Artists - at Alice Holt Forest, Hampshire (24:57) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact During the Sensing the Forest Summer School, we had ten artists working on bringing their sound installation to the Willows Green trail at Alice Holt. The forest became an exhibition for visitors to walk, listen, and experience these artistic responses to climate change.

We created a two-episode podcast as an epilogue to share our stories along the journey of the summer school, and the sound installations presented in the Your Sonic Forest exhibition.

The first episode presents an interview with Anna Xambó Sedó (Principal Investigator of Sensing the Forest, Queen Mary University of London) conducted by Hazel Stone (National Curator of Contemporary Art, Forestry England), and six pieces of voice commentary recorded by summer school artists Ed Chivers, Kate Anderson, Gabrielle Cerberville, Austin Blanton, Miles Scharff, and Luigi Marino.

The production of the podcast is carried out by Shuoyang Zheng, with the help and feedback from Hazel Stone, Dominic Head, Peter Batchelor, and Anna Xambó Sedó.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://soundcloud.com/sensingtheforest/podcast-ep1
 
Description Podcast - EP2 - Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations, with Peter Batchelor and Chris Meigh-Andrews - at Alice Holt Forest, Hampshire (14:00) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact During the Sensing the Forest Summer School, we had ten artists working on bringing their sound installation to the Willows Green trail at Alice Holt. The forest became an exhibition for visitors to walk, listen, and experience these artistic responses to climate change.

We created a two-episode podcast as an epilogue to share our stories along the journey of the summer school, and the sound installations presented in the Your Sonic Forest exhibition: sensingtheforest.github.io/exhibition/

The second episode continues the journey with an interview with the project co-investigator and composer Peter Batchelor, conducted by the artist and writer Chris Meigh-Andrews, to reflect on Dendrophone, a sound installation created by Peter Batchelor at the Alice Holt Forest.

The production of the podcast is carried out by Shuoyang Zheng, with the help and feedback from Hazel Stone, Dominic Head, Peter Batchelor, and Anna Xambó Sedó.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://soundcloud.com/sensingtheforest/podcast-ep2
 
Description The Sensing the Forest website and blog 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The project website and blog was set up early on (September 2023-present) and publishes regular blog posts to strengthen the online presence of the project. The blog has 87 blog posts published so far. At the time of this writing, about 13K users have visited the website from 106 countries. The top ten countries are China, UK, United States, Netherlands, Singapore, Ireland, Finland, France, Germany and Canada. The countries are from Europe, Asia, Oceania, North America, South America and Africa. This helps building a new artistic-scientific community interested in understanding environmental data based on group discussion and using creative and artistic ways of representation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023,2024,2025,2026
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io
 
Description Video - Your Sonic Forest | The Exhibition (10:58) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact This video summarises the art exhibition Your Sonic Forest - Hear Nature Speak through Sound Installations in Alice Holt Forest that took place on Thursday, 20th of June, 11am-3pm, 2024, at the Alice Holt Forest. Your Sonic Forest is a groundbreaking event that merges art, science, and nature to raise awareness of forest ecologies. Set against the picturesque backdrop of Alice Holt Forest, this immersive experience created by international artists is designed to engage families, art enthusiasts, environmentalists, and curious minds alike. The video walks you through a guided walk through the forest, where you will encounter a series of thought-provoking sound installations. These installations are not just art; they are a dialogue with the environment, using data collected from the forest itself to convey powerful messages about climate change, and contributing to its acoustic ecology.
Video recorded and edited by Shuoyang Zheng.
The video has received 416 views and 10 likes to date. It serves as a valuable record of the ephemeral exhibition Your Sonic Forest, documenting the artworks as they were experienced on site. By making the exhibition accessible online, the video extends the reach of the project beyond its temporary physical presentation and enables audiences who were unable to attend in person to engage with the work and gain exposure to the Alice Holt Forest site.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://youtu.be/VmutJeu9INE
 
Description Xamb贸, A (December 10, 2025) - "Sensing the Forest: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Sound Data", Turing Seminars, Wills Memorial Building, Jean Golding Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact This was an opportunity to present the latest updates of the Sensing the Forest project at the Jean Golding Institute, University of Bristol, as part of their Turing Seminars. The event included a Q&A session. The event promoted one-to-one conversations to discover that there was a diverse group of students and academics from different backgrounds, from digital anthropology to climate change communication, to geography, to cognitive science, to computer science, to HCI, to creative AI. The questions and conversations were helpful in a stage of reflection about the project while we are completing the documentation and are focusing our efforts on data analysis and academic writing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2025/12/10/presentation-at-jean-golding-institute-december-10-202...
 
Description Xamb贸, A (February 28, 2025) - Invited Talk (Online) - "Intersecting Sonic Arts & Computing: A Portfolio Journey", Music Engineering Forum, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact 20 undergraduate students and 10 postgraduate students attended the talk and asked questions at the end about the audio streamers of the project and reported interest in following up the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
 
Description Xamb贸, A (October 15, 2025) - Invited Talk (Online) - "Sensing the Forest", Aix-Marseille University - Master in Acoustics and Musicology, Marseille, France 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Master's degree in Acoustics and Musicology from Aix-Marseille University prepares students for careers in sound, engineering and sound design, perceptual acoustics, sound design, and music, creation, cultural action, musicological and ethnomusicological research. About 10 master students attended the talk and asked questions at the end. This was the second edition of this talk.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2025/10/15/presentation-at-aix-marseille-university-october-15-20...
 
Description Xamb贸, A (October 25, 2023) - Invited Talk (Online) - "In the search for epistemological cross-pollination between forest research, HCI and SMC", CHIME network 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 20-30 professional practitioners attended the 10th CHIME Seminar, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards about the Sensing the Forest research project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2023/11/01/presentation-at-chime-october-25-2023/
 
Description Xamb贸, A (October 28, 2025) - Invited Talk (Online) - "Sensing the Forest: Exploring Climate Change Through Soundscape Datasets from DIY Streamers at Alice Holt Forest", Freesound Day, 28 October 2025, Online/Barcelona 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Freesound Day brought together members of the Freesound community for a full day of talks, listening, and exchange around sound practices connected to Freesound. Our contribution was a presentation about the two streamers and the datasets of automatic recordings. The event was hybrid: hosted at the Campus Poblenou of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and online. The event was well attended (between on-site and remote, there were about 100 attendees) and the videos of the presentations have also been featured on the Freesound blog, which increases the visibility of the project.
As a follow-up opportunity, Freesound has interviewed Anna Xambó Sedó to find out more about her story with the use of Freesound related to the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2026/03/10/presentation-at-freesound-day-october-28-2025/
 
Description Xamb贸, A and Batchelor, P (May 14, 2025) - Guest Lecture: "Sensing the Forest - UAL workshop", Computer and Data Science and AI, UAL Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London, London, UK 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Computer and Data Science and AI is a Master's programme hosted at UAL Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London, London, UK.
About 5-6 master students attended the talk, participated in the activities, and asked questions at the end.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2025/05/17/presentation-at-ual-may-14-2025/
 
Description Xamb贸, A and Marino, L (October 23, 2024) - Invited Talk (Online) - "Sensing the Forest: Lessons Learned from our Artistic-Acoustic Intervention at the Alice Holt Forest", Aix-Marseille University - Master in Acoustics and Musicology, Marseille, France 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Master's degree in Acoustics and Musicology from Aix-Marseille University prepares students for careers in sound, engineering and sound design, perceptual acoustics, sound design, and music, creation, cultural action, musicological and ethnomusicological research. About 10 master students attended the talk and asked questions at the end.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://sensingtheforest.github.io/2024/10/23/presentation-at-aix-marseille-university-october-23-20...