Tuning Into Whiplash
TUNING INTO WHIPLASH — A sonic field research project listening for hydroclimate whiplash in the Los Angeles watershed
Project Brief | LA Field Recording Club + Climate House
What does hydroclimate whiplash sound like?
We are setting out to listen.
About the Project
Tuning Into Whiplash is a voluntary sonic field research project investigating 'hydroclimate whiplash' across the Los Angeles watershed.
The term describes rapid and intensifying swings between extremely wet and extremely dry conditions. These transitions have long been part of ecological cycles, but they are becoming more frequent and intense as the climate warms, posing significant challenges for water management, ecosystems, and communities. Southern California is among the regions where these wet–dry swings are becoming increasingly pronounced.
In Los Angeles, the phenomenon is expressed through a landscape that can move between very different water conditions: prolonged dry periods, intense rainfall, sudden runoff, concrete channels, flood-control flows, water retention, infiltration, and the movement of water into the ocean.
The project explores how water moves through—and is shaped by—the landscapes and systems of Los Angeles, and how changing conditions can be heard across the watershed.
Due to fluctuating conditions and accessibility complexity, the project does not prescribe recording locations. Field recordists are invited to explore potential sites and explore the research questions through sonic fieldwork across the Los Angeles watershed, taking into account relevance as well as safety, accessibility, and conditions at the time of recording.
We will also host occasional public recording outings as well as listening sessions as part of Tuning Into Whiplash so we can tune in together!
Recordists determine which recordings they submit to the Los Angeles Field Recording Club’s Los Angeles Sounds Map, the Club's new public sonic archive documenting sounds of the city. As part of this project, Climate House may subsequently select material from submitted recordings as source material for sonic compositions that narrate hydroclimate whiplash. These works may take the form of soundscapes, installations, exhibitions, and public listening experiences, and may be presented alongside initiatives that highlight opportunities to address the phenomenon.
The project will develop over time through the accumulation of recordings and the different ways those recordings reveal, register, and narrate hydroclimate whiplash; however, the bulk of this project will occur over the next few months in parallel to Climate House's program Whiplash Files Los Angeles, of which this project is part.
The project begins during Los Angeles’s rainy season, when changing weather can bring significant shifts in water movement, runoff, and flooding. On top of it being the region's rainy season, this year is an El Niño year, and activities are underwear for residents in high-risk zones to prepare for anticipated heavy flood conditions. While these seasonal changes are an important part of the phenomenon the project explores, fieldwork should never involve seeking out or engaging hazardous conditions.
Before Recording
To participate in the project, please review and sign these documents: the Participant Recording Agreement (required) and the Liability Form (required). Send the completed forms to hello@climatehouse.us
Participants must be 18 or over to participate in the project.
Field Safety
Tuning Into Whiplash spans rivers, creeks, channels, wetlands, flood-control infrastructure, mountain environments, and coastal systems. Conditions can change quickly, particularly during and after rainfall. Never put yourself in the middle of hazardous conditions to make a recording.
Climate House and LAFRC cannot assess the safety or accessibility of every location participants may choose. Before recording, check weather and recent rainfall, confirm public access, and consider terrain, water conditions, infrastructure, and whether your position could become unsafe if conditions change.
Do not:
- Seek out storms, flooding, rapidly rising water, or other dangerous conditions to record them.
- Enter or cross moving water, channels, storm drains, culverts, or restricted infrastructure.
- Approach elevated flows, spillways, dams, or flood-control structures when conditions are hazardous.
- Enter water or unstable terrain to deploy or retrieve equipment.
If conditions change, leave. If access or safety is uncertain, choose another location or return another time. Your safety takes precedence over any recording.
Finding Places to Record
Given the conditional complexities of this phenomenon—which vary with weather, water conditions, and accessibility—there are no prescribed destinations or recommendations for conducting sonic field research as part of this project.
You may start with a place you already know along the river or watershed, an area where the river meets the ocean, a protected watershed, or a restoration project connected to the watershed.
The research references at the bottom of this page can help you investigate the watershed and identify places or questions of interest. Public access and conditions vary, and participants must determine whether there is a legal and safe vantage point before recording.
Recording the Watershed
Both terrestrial and aquatic recordings are welcome.
Terrestrial: Sound from the surrounding landscape, including water, infrastructure, habitat, weather, and human activity.
Aquatic: Hydrophone recordings can reveal underwater flow, turbulence, submerged infrastructure, and biological activity. Only deploy equipment where it is safe to do so; never enter water or unstable terrain to place or retrieve equipment.
Listen for relationships between water, weather, infrastructure, concrete, ecology, and more-than-human activity.
Recordings might include:
- Water flow, pooling, infiltration, runoff, seepage, waves, or absence.
- Evidence of wet and dry extremes.
- Pumps, pipes, drains, culverts, channels, gates, and reservoirs.
- Birds, insects, amphibians, vegetation, soil, and other ecological sounds.
- Accessible and permissable restoration areas, including return of wildlife like steelhead trout.
- Maintenance, construction, recreation, agriculture, industry, and habitation.
- The sounds surrounding water, including places where water is notably absent.
- A landscape changing through rainfall, seasonal shifts, or ecological recovery.
There is no single sound that represents hydroclimate whiplash. We are interested in a diverse site recordings from different relevant sites that capture its present conditions, as well as changing relationships to water through conservation, restoration, and infrastructure.
Length of recordings: Longer recordings are preferred. Ten minutes is a useful starting point. Allow the environment to establish itself.
Listening Over Time: Hydroclimate whiplash unfolds over time. Returning to a site can reveal changes that a single recording cannot capture.
Where possible and safe, consider recording the same location:
- Before and after rainfall.
- During wet and dry periods.
- Across seasons or at different times of day.
Note what changes as water arrives, moves, recedes, or disappears.
When Recording: Log Metadata
Please include as much of the following metadata as reasonably possible with each submission:
- Location: Site name, address, and coordinates, where appropriate.
- Date and time: When the recording was made.
- Weather: Conditions at the time and recent rainfall.
- Water conditions: Presence, flow, level, or absence of water.
- Infrastructure and ecology: Relevant structures, habitat, or observed wildlife.
- Field notes: What you notice about your surroundings, what you heard, noticed, or wondered about.
- Equipment: Recorder, microphones, hydrophone, etc.
- Photo(s) of the site
- Recordist: Name (optional).
Please avoid sharing precise locations where doing so could create safety, access, or ecological concerns.
Uploading to the Los Angeles Sound Map
Select the recordings you wish to contribute along with their metadata to the Los Angeles Sounds Map by emailing your recordings and details to: lafieldrecordingclub@gmail.com and cc: hello@climatehouse.us
Please let us know about any uploaded recordings you’d really like us to hear!
You can also bring your files to a Club listening session for help uploading it.
How Recordings Are Used
Recordists choose which recordings to submit to the LAFRC Los Angeles Sounds Map, creating a public sonic archive of the city.
Climate House may subsequently select from these submissions as source material for sonic compositions narrating hydroclimate whiplash across Los Angeles. These works may take the form of soundscapes, installations, exhibitions, public listening experiences, and educational or research programming, accompanied by materials highlighting opportunities to address the conditions they reveal.
The process: Field recording → LAFRC Los Angeles Sounds Map → Climate House selection → Sonic compositions and public presentations → Programs and materials exploring opportunities for response.
Submission to the Sounds Map does not guarantee selection for Climate House’s subsequent composition work.
Ready to participate? Sign the forms below!
To formally participate in the sonic field research project, participants must complete the Participant Recording Agreement, Liability Form, and Photo Release before beginning fieldwork to participate in this project.
[COMING SOON: PARTICIPANT RECORDING AGREEMENT + LIABILITY FORM (Required), PHOTO RELEASE FORM (Optional)]
Research References
Ojala Bookstore
Ojala carries books and reference materials related to Los Angeles water, landscape, ecology, infrastructure, and environmental history. Participants can learn more through the bookstore and purchase materials they would like to explore further.
The L.A. River Observatory is a digital project to share live data on water, habitat, and more linked to the river using drone surveys, river monitoring, and flow data to track how the river changes over time—including during extreme rain events. By making this information public, we’ll give government agencies, nonprofits, and communities the tools to design smarter restoration projects and build evidence for nature-based solutions in rivers across L.A. and beyond.
Los Angeles Public Library — Map Collection
LAPL’s map collections include historical maps, USGS topographic maps, city maps, street guides, maps of waterways and infrastructure, and other representations of Los Angeles across time. Historical materials can be particularly useful for considering what has changed, disappeared, been buried, or been built over.
Los Angeles County Public Works — Water Resources Maps
County mapping resources include layers for dams, debris basins, spreading grounds, levees, storm-drain infrastructure, and other systems through which water is managed across Los Angeles County.
UCLA Library — Los Angeles Aqueduct Digital Platform
An archive of photographs, documents, maps, pamphlets, and other primary sources relating to the Los Angeles Aqueduct and its role in the development of Southern California.
Jared Orsi, Hazardous Metropolis: Flooding and Urban Ecology in Los Angeles (Book)
A history of flooding, flood control, urbanization, engineering, politics, and ecological change in Los Angeles. The book offers useful context for thinking about how the city’s physical and political systems have shaped the movement of water.
Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (Book)
While some aspects are considered outdated, this book is considered essential reading. The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West.
Sites of Possible Research Interest
Some locations of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Hahamongna Watershed Park
* Devil’s Gate Dam
* Upper and Lower Arroyo Seco
* Elysian Valley / Glendale Narrows
* Sepulveda Basin
* Lake Balboa, particularly areas where watershed restoration projects are being developed, including steelhead trout rehabilitation
* The Los Angeles River’s connection to the ocean in Long Beach
These are examples of places connected to the project’s research questions, not designated recording sites. Public access and conditions vary. Participants must determine whether a location is legally and safely accessible and identify an appropriate vantage point before recording.