The Dust Protocol: A Science-Driver Electronic Opera

Introduction

Atmospheric models produce large, high-dimensional outputs that communicate with precision to specialists but remain challenging to interpret to the public. The Dust Protocol is a science-driven opera that challenges this boundary: it translates real outputs from the MONARCH atmospheric dust model into live musical performance, making the invisible dynamics of mineral dust transport perceptible through sound and voice.

This work converges art and science by generating art through a direct, systematic pipeline from model output to sonic structure.

Scientific foundation: the MONARCH model

MONARCH (Multiscale Online Non-hydrostatic AtmospheRe CHemistry model) is an operational atmospheric dust forecasting and research system developed at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). It simulates the full life cycle of mineral dust aerosols: emission from arid source regions, long-range transport driven by atmospheric dynamics, and deposition across ocean and land surfaces. Dust aerosols play a significant role in Earth's radiative balance, ocean biogeochemistry, air quality, and regional climate.

The data-to-performance pipeline

The Dust Protocol was built around a structured methodology for translating MONARCH simulation outputs into musical parameters. From a comprehensive set of output variables that describe dust, the optical properties are selected as representative of dust mineral composition and interaction with solar radiation. The values of optical depth and single scattering albedo (SSA), are mapped to sonic dimensions such as pitch and velocity. This mapping is not arbitrary: physical relationships within the model inform the compositional logic, so that the sonic experience encodes genuine scientific structure rather than mere aesthetic association.

The soprano voice (Milica Jovičić) functions as a melodic and expressive foreground, while the electronic sonic environment constructed by Cristóbal Ulloa Cotapos is shaped in by model data. The result is a live performance in which the audience perceives, through sound, the behavior of an atmospheric system: dust rising from the Sahara, crossing the Mediterranean, settling over the Atlantic.

Methodology as transferable framework

A central ambition of The Dust Protocol is that the pipeline constitutes a generalizable methodology, not a one-off artwork. The systematic variable-to-parameter mapping, physically motivated compositional logic, integration of scientific output into live performance are transferable to other model types and other scientific domains. The approach offers a template for science-driven sonification that maintains fidelity to the underlying data while producing aesthetically coherent and emotionally resonant work.

Performances and reception

The Dust Protocol has been performed at El Palace Hotel (Barcelona), and an art+science festival (Belgrade) and presented at scientific conferences. Performances have engaged audiences spanning atmospheric scientists, performing arts communities, and the public. Qualitative reception across these contexts suggests that sonic translation of model data produces forms of scientific understanding that are distinct from, and complementary to, conventional visualization: audiences reported perceiving the duration, weight, and directionality of dust transport in ways that graphs and maps do not evoke.

Discussion: what data-driven art can do

The Dust Protocol raises questions this session is well-positioned to address. When scientific data is the compositional material rather than the inspiration, what is gained and what is lost? Does sonic fidelity to the model constrain artistic expression, or does it open compositional possibilities that purely aesthetic choice would not reach? And what does it mean for scientific communication when an audience experiences a model output rather than interprets it?

We argue that science-driven performance offers a mode of public engagement with atmospheric science that complements outreach, education, and visualization reaching audiences for whom data plots are inaccessible, and producing forms of embodied understanding that persist beyond the concert hall.

Conclusion

The Dust Protocol demonstrates that complex atmospheric model outputs can be systematically translated into live performance without sacrificing scientific integrity or artistic coherence. We present the data-to-performance pipeline as a methodological contribution to the growing field of scientific sonification, and invite reflection on the role of art-science convergence in making planetary science legible and felt beyond specialist communities.