"For this project, I used a variety of microphones and listening devices—an omnidirectional pair, geophones, hydrophones, contact microphones, and electromagnetic receivers—in an effort to listen to the cicadas and their surroundings in different ways. Periodical cicadas are amazing creatures that spend nearly their entire lives underground as immature insects; they come up for a few weeks once every either 13 or 17 years to molt into adults, bask in the sun, mate, lay eggs, and then die. In May and June 2024, trillions of cicadas belonging to Brood XIII (17-year cicada) and Brood XIX (13-year cicada) emerged from their underground burrows across the Midwest and South—a convergent phenomenon that occurs once every 221 years. In Illinois, Brood XIII (sometimes referred to as the Northern Illinois Brood) covered the northern part of the state and Brood XIX (also known as The Great Southern Brood) covered the southern half of the state. However, there was a thin area in central and eastern Illinois where the two groups of cicadas overlapped and if you listen close enough you can hear them chorusing together on some of the recordings included on Sonifying the Sun."

Patrick Quinn is an artist focused on sound art, conceptual writing, and walking. He holds a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently based in Ridgewood, Queens. His work has been published by Impulsive Habitat, Presque Tout, Neuma, Burial Recordings, Hysterically Real, Gauss PDF, among others; and has upcoming releases on Topos Press, zappak, and Sono Space. He has had performances and/or participated in exhibitions at EMPAC, Wave Farm, House of Electronic Arts Basel, Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center, Festival of the Smallest, Unsmoke Systems Artspace, Live Performers Meeting (Cape Town), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. In addition to teaching at a number of CUNY colleges, Quinn runs a music studio for adults with severe mental illness called Green Door Studio at Fountain House in Hell's Kitchen.