With an interest in raising a consciousness towards the surrounding Alpine and acoustic environment in the Alps, the Foundation invited sound artist Philip Samartzis to develop a sound walk utilising the practice of Eco Acoustics to consider the importance of listening to WATER.

Eco Acoustics is an emerging interdisciplinary science that investigates natural and anthropogenic sounds and their relationship with the environment over a wide range of study scales, both spatial and temporal, including populations, communities, and landscapes. As technology advances and becomes less costly, Eco Acoustics is becoming an important remote-sensing tool with which it is possible to analyze massive acoustic data sets and quickly predict and/or evaluate the effects of climate change on the environment.

From the cracking of frozen glacial landscapes to the whisper of melting permafrost, the artist has drawn on his archive of sound recordings from Antarctica, the Southern Ocean and the Bernese Oberland to produce a composition solely of the sounds of water within our changing environment.

During the sound walk different qualities and behaviours of water will reveal themselves, inviting audiences to consider the implications of changes occurring in places seldom seen or heard, yet central to the health and wellbeing of our planet.

Philip Samartzis’ recordings were paired with his on-site photography which examined the impact of global warming and mass tourism demonstrated through increasing anthropogenic activity, the contraction of the Great Aletsch Glacier, and erosion caused by the loss of permafrost which together are affecting the region’s fragile ecology.

The sound composition is ninety minutes in duration - divided into fifteen specific movements - designed to be heard while walking through the natural landscape above Verbier between Ruinettes and Croix de Coeur. The full composition or each movement could be engaged with utlising QR codes presented on each billboard.