- Wildlife DJ Ben Mirin has teamed up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection on a new online game that uses wildlife recordings.
- Players take sound recordings of wild creatures and transform them into loops, creating a wide variety of song clips. Players also learn about the animals and the habitats they live in.
- Mirin was also a guest on Mongabay’s podcast in 2017.
Wildlife DJ Ben Mirin has teamed up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection on a new online game that is sure to entrance nature lovers of all ages who also enjoy music.
“BeastBox” users take sound recordings of wild creatures and transform them into loops, creating a wide variety of entertaining beats, breaks, and drops. Players also learn about the animals and their habitats.
Ben Mirin, aka DJ Ecotone, is an explorer, wildlife DJ, educator, and television presenter who creates music from the sounds of nature to help inspire conservation efforts. Last year he appeared on the Mongabay Newscast, Mongabay’s biweekly podcast, to discuss his work and to perform some mixes he’s created (listen here from minute 5 on):
Of this new project, Mirin said in a statement, “I’ve used my passions for music and nature to explore the world, recording wildlife sounds and sampling them to create music that inspires conservation. BeastBox is another way to share that joy and knowledge with others. I hope people who play the game will be inspired to take their own creative approaches to nature, because the future of the planet depends on the ingenuity of people who care.”
“BeastBox is a surprise mashup brought to you by scientists, musicians, designers, animators, and coders,” said Mya Thompson, leader of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Academy project. “It’s dedicated to the idea that we could all use a few minutes to appreciate our musical planet. When I first met Ben Mirin, I knew we could take his wildlife DJ concept to a new level—and BeastBox is what came out.”
BeastBox combines two of Cornell University’s collections: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection.
By bringing animals from the same ecosystem together on a virtual stage, players can unlock “Beastmode” and control the moves of animal characters as they dance to the music, according to a press release. Each bonus track is created from sounds recorded in six ecosystems, including the rainforests of Madagascar, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Sonoran desert.
Banner image © Cornell Lab of Ornithology.