Sound has played an important role in Locke work. Early works involved simple mechanisms which produced sound – sand falling onto metal surfaces – ball bearings dropped at regular intervals- an installation of 400 mantelpiece clocks - ticking and chiming. Over the years the artist has continued to collect environmental sounds from her travels – she now has a bank of sound samples collected form all over the world. These sounds are often utilized in her installations as well as in her own soundscape recordings.

In the sound installation ‘Badnoise’ , she worked with musicians who were given a specific brief for their compositions – to create a soundtrack that is only complete when two versions of it are played at the same time, one backwards, one forwards.
Locke has worked with musicians to create elaborate soundtracks within her installations. Fear factor seven was accompanied by a soundscape produced by Gareth Bailey which involved only two sounds – mirror smashing and the sound of an umbrella unfurling.

The installation ‘Pelleas and Melisande’ was a collaboration with ‘Tractor’ and dancer Kerry Nichols. Locke created sound by vibrating large steel pools of water which together with Andrew Deakin and Martin Robinson’s ( Tractor ) improvised polymorphic sound provided a real time synthesis combined with unique sound gestures and instruments.

Locke recorded the sound of her own heartbeat, assisted by the cardiology department at Leicester Royal Infirmary. She experimented with different frequencies, sending the sound through water to create patterned wave formations. This research was later developed and became part of the large-scale work ‘Breath’ .

'Hydrophonics' is a development from the artist’s recent work 'Breath', where the sound of her own heart beating was amplified through water so that spectators could experience the sight of sound. This important event brings research that spans more than five years of the artists practice to a live public audience. Caroline has experimented by sending different sounds through water to experience the different formations on the water surface that each sound makes. Over the past eight months the artist has been working with musicians to explore this further, in order to compose music, which is based on the sight of the composition rather than the sound of it and developing new designs for water tanks and speaker systems.

‘Hydrophonics - On Line’ is a groundbreaking project that is developed by sound from one side of the world being transmitted via the web to interact with a live installation in the UK. The artist was invited to work with musicians at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Where she sent sound across the world to water tanks situated in the UK.
Working with new web technologies the work is now able to be created across vast distances and be experienced on an international scale.

Locke has extended this research, designing a new permanent Sound Fountain for the International school of Governance, University Of Maastricht.
This public sculpture has been built in the refurbished 18th Century Kapoenbuilding in the centre of Maastricht.