Thermoacoustics

In development since the mid-1970s, a thermoacoustic refrigeration device was used for cryogenic cooling on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1992. The associated sound gismo was a moving loudspeaker diaphragm.

–NewsAtlas, January 25, 2019

During Principal Andrea Lynn's Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency, she explored her fascination with the acoustics of ice and the aspects of naturally versus unnaturally occurring sounds as she contemplated the role of thermoacoustics—heat into sound into energy (the interaction between temperature, density and pressure variations of acoustic waves). During this exploration she wondered if it would be possible to utilize vibrations to teach refrigerators to sing in order to reduce the detrimental super greenhouse gases refrigerants emit, and to quiet or transform the often annoying mechanical sounds that refrigerators generally produce. 

She hypothesized that this transformation could lift the world’s happiness as measured on the “World Happiness Report," a publication of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.