AKQA

Uncertain
Four
Seasons

Sustainability & Environment / Nominee

AKQA

Sustainability & Environment

Nominee

"The support from global climate leaders, community and government groups has been a great testament to how Uncertain Four Seasons provides education, starts conversations and is an ongoing way for people to talk about the impact of climate change." AKQA

Q: Can you describe your project and the concept behind it?

A: The [uncertain] Four Seasons reimagines Vivaldi’s masterpiece, The Four Seasons, to change as the science for 2050 changes. By using geospatial data each variation is unique to a community on the earth. It’s a living composition of our local and present futures. It’s been performed across 6 continents, at TED and COP26, with performances booked to 2023. It is our hope that one day the composition returns to Vivaldi’s pre-industrial masterpiece.

Q: Tell us about your initial moodboard, wireframe, or prototype. How did things change throughout the process?

A: This was a hugely complex transposition between art and science, and a truly global example of collective action. Transposing the stories in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the stories in the latest IPCC report on the climate, and rallying thousands of artists at the same time, we had to hold everything in the air at once and hope that it all connected.

Q: What influenced your chosen technical approach, and how did it go beyond past methods?

A: We just wanted to get it done at the scale we wanted it to be. We’d never made anything like it so all the software was new and approached in multiple ways. We also needed to have the facts right, so there was a lot of getting to know the science and extracting the stories to tie it back to the original narrative in the Four Seasons.

When did you experience a breakthrough or an "a-ha" moment during this project?

The reality of our ecological threats has been approached through a rational, scientific lens. A barrage of graphs, data and lifeless statistics have been used as frontline soldiers in the climate wars. But our species has evolved to tell stories — to be stirred into action by music, by art and by the liminal. Our scientists desperately need the help of artists because art disseminates the complexity and translates it into a language of the soul.

Watch

Q: What web technologies, tools, and resources did you use to develop this?

A: Using global climate data, we recomposed a local score of Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ for every orchestra in the world as if it were 2050. The algorithmic scores are continuously generated using the latest climate modeling data from the IPCC report's 'RCP 8.5' future scenario. We mapped geospatial variations from the IPCC's modeling into the original score, generating different versions for specific locations.

Q: How did you balance your own creative ideas and technical capabilities with a fair representation of the client’s brand?

A: Working with the UN and the ActNow Campaign to develop The [uncertain] Four Seasons was hugely collaborative, and although the project was very technical and complex, in the end it was always about bringing people together in their communities around global warming — giving everyone a path toward collective action.

Q: How did the final product meet or exceed your expectations?

A: The global, ongoing interest has exceeded expectations. To have 14 orchestras from 6 countries, during a pandemic, perform their local score and send us footage to share globally at COP26 is incredible. The support from global climate leaders, community and government groups has been a great testament to how Uncertain Four Seasons provides education, starts conversations and is an ongoing way for people to talk about the impact of climate change.

Q: Why is this an exciting time to create new digital experiences? How does your team fit into this?

A: We need to act now, and a digital experience is the fastest and deepest way to create a community, educate and share our commitment to climate action through collaboration, innovative design and a concerted desire to make a difference. The partnership between design and creative agencies AKQA and Jung Von Matt and composer Hugh Crosthwaite being supported by global climate experts is testament to how we work together to create change.