‘Whistling Dolphins’

Soft Pastel | 42.5×32.5cm

My idea here was to create something a little on the surrealistic side to visually represent a dolphin’s signature whistle.
The contour of the ‘bubbles’ are an example of what one dolphin’s signature whistle looks like on a spectrogram (where you can look at sound in a visual format). 

Not all dolphin species are known to produce signature whistles, but of those that do, signature whistles seem to be the most frequently used sound they make.  

There’s still much to learn about signature whistles, but we do know that they’re an integral part of dolphin society and that our activity in the ocean and the sounds we produce can have a big impact on dolphins ability to hear the signature whistles of other dolphins.