Science-Inspired Animated Song Portfolio
An Asteroid Named Psyche
For NASA’s Psyche Mission, this song was written around the leading theory of how the Psyche asteroid came to be. It has seen success in classrooms around the country, educating and exciting children about the mission.
Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tantum Psyche Mission Lead
"When An Asteroid Named Psyche was complete, I listened to it from a hotel room late at night and was so affected by its authenticity and humanity. Right away I sent it around to the whole mission team, hundreds of people, and I know from their emails back how many people felt united by this work. This is the power of animation and song: It connects people, and it connected us across the team, engineers, scientists, managers, financial analysts, media people, all together with one vision."
Journey of Theresia
This animated song tells the story of how Dr. Kettemer tracked humpback whale Theresia across the ocean. We worked to bring Dr. Kettermer’s research to life, creating a nuanced portrait of marine ecosystems and climate change. This piece gained acclaim at film festivals including the NYC Independent Film Festival and the Nature & Culture Film Festival.
Columbia Univeristy Neuroscience Study Music
Here’s someone’s brain listening to music I wrote! What you’re hearing is what this person was hearing. Red = high activity, blue = low activity. When it quickly jumps around, that’s frisson, or chills.
It was a dream project to be able to work on a neuroscience study on music, emotion, and the brain out of Columbia University. Willing participants brains were scanned to observe activity for a few different moods/emotions that a couple other composers and I wrote in. The study is the first of its kind to match the sounds of the fMRI machine to the tempo of the music.
Water vs. Fatberg (in progress)
The song will tell the story of the character Water, who will stop at nothing to run, not even fatbergs (masses of fat and oil that form and clog the drain). We’ll follow her down the drain, cheering her on. Playing on the double entendre of running water, sloshy footsteps will provide the rhythm. The chorus is intended to be memorable and singable for classrooms, incentivizing kids to keep their drains clean of fatbergs so that Water can run. The video is currently in production.
Rax and the Aurora (in progress)
Commissioned by the UMich aero department, RAX-2, or Radio Aurora Explorer 2, is a cubesatellite that launched in October of 2011 and currently orbiting Earth. This animated song will function as a fun promotional piece for the aero department.
The unconventional love story will follow Rax from his “birth” in the lab, where he awakes with the word “aurora” rattling around his head. He has an attraction to it despite having no idea what it is, let alone who, where, or what he is. Of course, Rax is programmed this way, to have such an intense desire to be with Aurora. I plan to follow his confusion and quest to figure out what the word means all the way up to space, where he finds her. As his orbit decays and he enters the atmosphere, he slowly begins to burn up (ouch), though because he continues inching closer to her with every orbit, he is in bliss until his last, and closest moment with her.