Phantom Islands are artifacts of the age of maritime discovery and colonial expansion. During centuries of ocean exploration these islands were sighted, charted, described and even explored – but their existence has never been ultimately verified. Poised somewhere between cartographical fact and maritime fiction, they haunted seafarers’ maps for hundreds of years, inspiring legends, fantasies, and counterfactual histories. Phantom Islands – A Sonic Atlas interprets and presents these imaginations in the form of an interactive map which charts the sounds of a number of historical phantom islands.
Zoom in on individual phantom islands to hear their musical, biophonic and geophonic soundscapes.
Navigate around the map and click on islands’ names to learn the circumstances of their discovery and the dates of their cartographical existence.
…or engage Cruise mode to be taken on an audio tour of all the Phantom Islands.