How did ocean surveillance in the Cold War shape our relationship with ocean sound?

Granting Agency
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Project Duration
5 years (2022-2027)

Decades of underwater acoustics research led to the emergence of what we know today as sonar and, at outset of the Cold War, the US Navy constructed an ocean-spanning undersea acoustic network – the SOund SUrveillance System or SOSUS – which monitored the ambient sound of the ocean to detect Soviet submarines in the Atlantic. With listening stations in Canada, the US, the Caribbean and Europe, SOSUS was a key infrastructure of the US military-intelligence establishment. The archival record and the material ruins of SOSUS facilities present an opportunity to advance our understanding of the way earth-observing infrastructures shape relations between technology, society and the environment. In addition to traditional scholarly outputs, this project has generated various media outputs with drones, photogrammetry, 3D modelling and 3D printing that are designed to engage non-scholarly audiences, particularly in Shelburne and the surrounding communities. The purpose of this part of the project is to help enhance public engagement with socio-environmental histories and potential futures of military infrastructure. These materials will be shared here as they are generated.