Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries as scientists from NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory excitedly describe their discoveries.

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?

Animated photographs, using sound-controlled CGI and 3D compositing. [via]

Hold: Vessel 1 and 2 (2001 & 2007) brings together two immersive installation works that explore the intimacy and immensity of the natural world and our relationship to it. The audience is invited to carry a glass bowl into a darkened space and ‘catch’ projected images of microscopic marine life and telescopic astronomical imagery in a lens–shaped ’screen’. Hold uses moving image and technology to reveal the hidden intricacies of human immersion in the wide, complex world.

Hold: Vessel 1 features breathtaking imagery of microscopic marine life and telescopic astronomical imagery in a lens–shaped ’screen’. Hold: Vessel 2 updates this earlier version of the work with the addition of two newly commissioned video projections, to present five separate video pieces.

In creating these new projections, entitled Colonies and Light, Wallworth collaborated with specialist cinematographers, utilising current visioning technologies to produce intricate details of underwater marine life, recording how these environments have altered in the last six years.

The new projections for Hold: Vessel 2, also feature rare imagery of the 2004 Transit of Venus, an astronomical event which, in 1769, was used to compute the relative distance from the Earth to the sun, allowing calculation of the scale of the solar system. This event marked a pivotal moment in history when, for the first time, warring nations chose to cooperate in order to answer one of the leading scientific questions of the day. Wallworth makes reference to this global scientific co–operation and connects it to the effect of climate change on environments and marine species’ highly developed means of surviving in diverse communities.

Produced by Forma: Hold: Vessel 1, 2001 is courtesy of and commissioned by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, AU; Hold: Vessel 2, 2007 is commissioned by the British Film Institute.

Imagery for Hold: Vessel 2, 2007 comes from the following sources: David Hannan, Jeremy Pickett–Heaps, Dr Allan S. Jones, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Rosemary Golding, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Exploratorium, TRACE [Transition Region and Coronal Explorer], Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research, NASA Small Explorer program2, NASA Hubble, hubblesite.org.

Photos: Colin Davison, courtesy of the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK (L) | Dave Morgan, courtesy of BFI, London, UK (R)

Related links:

Lynette Wallworth ›
Invisible by Night [various works] ›
Diary ›

Further information for presenters of Forma projects go to Professional ›

Searching for a more simplified way to represent the complex library of information inherent in gene expression, Alterovitz decided to represent those changes with music. He hopes that doctors will one day be able to use his music to detect health-related changes in gene expression early via a musical slip into discord, potentially improving a patient’s outcome. From Technology Review

For more, go here.

Or see an earlier similar effort, in which two doctors convert actual heart rate data to musical notes. http://www.sacredbalance.com/web/flashplayer.html?id=heartsongs You can read about the scientific concepts behind the heartsongs demonstration on the Heartsongs page on
ReyLab.

Resonating Bodies is a series of mixed media installations and community outreach projects, which focus on the biodiversity of pollinators indigenous to the ecosystems of the Greater Toronto Area. Conceived by Sarah Peebles with Rob King, Rob Cruickshank and Anne Barros, the installations illuminate aspects of local biodiversity, such as bumblebee colonies and their foraging activities, ultraviolet bee vision, and pollinator / plant co-evolution. Some of these projects feature colour-coded DNA barcodes, a new technique for species identification pioneered by Canadian researchers.

Resonating Bodies coincides with the release of Toronto’s first guide to native bees, A Guide to Toronto’s Pollinators, by Laurence Packer, Professor of Biology at York University and published by the David Suzuki Foundation. Free copies of this booklet will also be available throughout July at several locations. The topic of the booklet - some 23 genera of bees found in Toronto - is the focus of our exhibition. Collaborating researchers Laurence Packer, Jessamyn Manson, Peter Hallett and Stephen Buchmann will be giving talks throughout the period of the exhibition.

Bumble Domicile, the first installment of the Resonating Bodies project, uses an on-site bumblebee hive at *new* Gallery (906 Queen street West) and displays video and audio of its internal activity. Headphones that “plug” into the actual hive give the viewer opportunity to hear the bees in real time. Ultraviolet video of flowering plants in the building’s communal garden is projected onto the North wall of the gallery to provide live tracking of the bees pollination.

Continuous audio transformations of pre-recorded bees and shoh (the Japanese mouth-organ, an instrument which has utilized beeswax since ancient times) fill the gallery space. Visitors are invited to place aromatic offerings into a heated copper tray, which resembles the interior of the hive. This copper tray was created through a unique process involving the remnants of a discarded bumblebee hive.

Viewers are also invited to take free bee trading cards, featuring macro photography of bee anatomy, life facts and colour-coded DNA barcodes of some local bumble bee species. These cards are the first in a series of trading cards of pollinators featured in Resonating Bodies at both *new* gallery and at the bee-wasp condo at the Franklin Children’s Garden on Toronto Island.

Speakers Series: Indigenous Pollinators, Habitat and Co-evolution
Researchers and artists speak about pollinator and bee biodiversity, habitat and related topics throughout the month of July at various venues. Co-presented by Seeds of Diversity and InterAccess, Dorkbot and Franklin Children’s Garden.

Thursday July 17, 7:00 p.m: “Barcodes and Bees?”
Featuring Professor Laurence Packer (York University) and Resonating Bodies artists. A Dorkbot event at InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre Studio, 9 Ossington Ave at Queen W. (http://dorkbot.org/dorkbottoronto)
Dr. Laurence Packer, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at York University, author of “Bees of Toronto” will discuss pollinator diversity and pollinator-habitat relationships, emphasizing recent research regarding DNA barcode data in understanding the bees of Canada. Artists Sarah Peebles, Rob King, Anne Barros and Robert Cruickshank will be present to discuss their interdisciplinary work, “Resonating Bodies - Bumble Domicile” in this context. Topics include visualization of pollen gathering data, ultraviolet video, the electroforming process, and audio transformations of bee sounds.

Sunday July 20th at 4pm: “Plants affecting pollinators: How plants lure bumblebees into making plant babies”
Featuring Jessamyn Manson (University of Toronto)
Location: Garden at 900 Queen W next to *new* gallery (enter by the blue gate), NW corner of Crawford and Queen W. Rain location at *new* gallery (visitors will be directed to the appropriate room in the building).
Jessamyn Manson, a PhD candidate from the University of Toronto’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, will speak about the interaction between plants and their pollinators, focusing on how plant traits like their flower’s colour and scent convinces the bumble bees to act as pollen vectors.

Sarah Peebles will perform solo shoh improvisations at *new* gallery on Saturday, July 26th, 1:20 p.m. as part of MUSIC(in)GALLERIES - an afternoon of Live Creative Music in Twenty Queen Street West Art Galleries (1-5pm). Details at http://www.somewherethere.org.

The featured artists in Resonating Bodies-Bumble Domicile are:
Sarah Peebles: audio material, audio programming; overall concept, facilitation
Rob King: visual programming, data gathering and projection
Anne Barros: electroformed copper offering plate with micro-controlled heating elements (collaboration) and silver bowl;
Rob Cruickshank: technical assistance, live video, ultraviolet video/tech development, technical and artistic consultant

Collaborating researchers: Laurence Packer (York University), Jessamyn Manson (University of Toronto), Peter Hallett (University of Toronto), and Stephen Buchmann (University of Arizona, Tucson).

Bios
Anne Barros, RCA, specializes in small functional hollowware and flatware. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Seymour Rabinovitch, and the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. She has received numerous awards, including the Canada Council’s Paris Studio.

Sarah Peebles is an internationally renowned artist who “has an ear for contrasting density and inventive transformation”(The Wire Magazine). She has performed and exhibited worldwide, and has collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists, Her music is available on a number of audio and video publications.

Robert Cruickshank is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist. He works in various media includes electronic, kinetic and robotic installations, sound art, electroacoustic music and lo-fi and stereo photography. He has exhibited in Toronto and internationally.

Rob King is currently finishing a MA degree in the Communications and Culture joint graduate program at Ryerson and York Universities. He is a New Media artist based in Toronto, Ontario. His work explores the social dynamics of networked spaces, the potentials of mobile and ubiquitous computing, and system theory.

Dr. Stephen Buchmann will present his lecture “The Forgotten Pollinators” at 7pm after the opening at *new* Gallery. He has authored and co-authored 8 books, along with 150 scientific publications, and is an adjunct professor of entomology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is the International Coordinator for the tri-national (Canada, USA, Mexico) North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and its Pollinator Partnership.

Laurence Packer is a melittologist - in other words, his research specialty is wild bees. At York University he teaches entomology and biodiversity. He is a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and is as active as he can be in promoting an understanding of the importance of bees.

Resonating Bodies is generously supported through the Drylands Institute, the City of Toronto Parks and Recreation and InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre and New Adventures in Sound Art and is co-produced by Sarah Peebles and InterAccess.

Trading Cards, colour-coded DNA barcodes and more! http://resonatingbodies.wordpress.com/.

http://pollinator.org and http://pollinationcanada.ca.
Pollinator Partnership provides information on pollinator - habitat conservation, pollinator gardens, co-evolution and more.

www.drylandsinstitute.org/.

Related: Honeybee Ballet Planting.

For three nights, big pogo-ing robots will come to punk gigs in the ICA theatre, and we will question how learning develops through the empathetic responses of the brain. Artist Fiddian Warman has played the punk records he collected as a young man to his robots, ‘programming’ them to become punks just like he was. Each night they will be tested - will the mechanical moshpit react with pleasure to the live music they’ve been brought up to love? How is taste embodied in human neurons and artificial neural networks? Fiddian fronts the band Neurotic and the PVCs with tracks written especially for the robots. Support bands during the three nights include Fumadores, Gertrude, The Red Eyes, Viva Las Vegas, Scrotum Clamp and The Devil’s Hotpants. The scientific and cultural issues related to Neurotic will be explored on a website and open forum before, during and after the performances at www.fiddian.com. Supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Featured bands will be:

July 3: Fumadors, followed by Gertrude, followed by Neurotic and the PVCs.
July 4: The Red Eyes, Viva Las Vegas, Neurotic and the PVCs.
July 5: Scrotum Clamp, The Devil’s Hotpants, Neurotic and the PVCs.

To book, please call ICA Box Office 020 7930 3647 or via the ICA website.

Nearest underground stations are Charing Cross and Piccadilly Circus.

Julie Freeman’s work spans visual, audio and digital artforms and explores the relationship between science, nature and how humans interact with it. For the past 12 years her work has focused on using electronic technologies to ‘translate nature’ whether it’s the sound of torrential rain dripping on a giant rhubarb leaf; a pair of concrete speakers that lurk in galleries haranguing passersby with fractured sonic samples; or by providing an interactive platform to chat with dogs in numerous international languages. She is currently Artist in Residence at the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Centre at Cranfield University. For more about the artist see www.juliefreeman.co.uk or click through to see the micro-site for The Lake - which was awarded £96,000 for development by NESTA, where Freeman electronically tagged various freshwater fish species to create animation and soundtrack.

On Saturday 26 April and Sunday 27 April 2008, the Veenfabriek and the Art History Department of Leiden University organise the Symposium On Sound. This symposium is a gathering of scientists, performers and artists, who will focus on the issue of mutual influence between art and science, more specifically with regard to sound. The exhibition On the Sensations of Sound, which is organised in cooperation with Museum De Lakenhal in Scheltema, will be opened during the symposium.

COOPERATION VEENFABRIEK & LEIDEN UNIVERSITY: Since 15 April 2006, the Veenfabriek and the Art History Department of Leiden University have been in charge of the unique, joint Scholar on Stage project. This project investigates the mutual exchange and confrontation between arts and science, applied to sound. The first Scholar on Stage is technique philosopher John Heymans. Heymans carries out interdisciplinary research into the influence of Helmholt´s standard work Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen (1863) in the development of early-electronic and contemporary music. His doctoral research will result in a thesis which will be finalised at the end of 2008, and in the reconstruction and installation of the Siren Orchestra. In addition, Heymans is the main force behind the Symposium on Sound. The symposium includes an expert meeting for invitees only, during which Heymans will discuss the contents of his research with a group of international experts, as well as a public programme.

Symposium On Sound: Two international keynote speakers have been invited; the Canadian art historian Jonathan Sterne, who published The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction (2003), among other works, and the American composer David Behrman. Both speakers will, emphatically from their own disciplines, discuss how the development of the art of sound, in the broadest sense of the word, is influenced, on the one hand, by the arts and, on the other hand, by science, and how this can be stimulated.

On Saturday 26 April, the programme also features a concertante lecture by the British composer Aleks Kolkowski who reconstructs instruments and machines from the pioneer days of recording and reproducing music. In addition, Sing Song — an ensemble that was established to make live ‘musique concrète’ — visual artist / actor Benjamin Verdonck and musician/composer Paul Koek will perform together.

On Sunday 27 April the Siren Orchestra will be launched officially, and the exhibition On the Sensations of Sound will be opened. This exhibition presents works by contemporary artists Carsten Nicolai (Germany), Suchan Kinoshita (the Netherlands/Japan), James Beckett (UK, Zimbabwe), John van Oostrum, Jochem van Tol and Der Wexel. The evening programme consists of a public interview / debate with the American composer and performer Laurie Anderson, who will comment on the theme of Symposium on Sound.

Siren Orchestra: As a result of the findings of Scholar on Stage John Heymans, the Veenfabriek sponsored the reconstruction of a number of musical instruments. These instruments go back to the work of the 19th-century physicist Hermann von Helmholtz: the sirens of the Dutch physicist H.A. Naber, and the intonarumori, the noise intoners, of the futurist Luigi Russolo. What originally seemed to involve a philosophical investigation into the effect of Helmholtz’s On the Sensations of Tone on early-electronic music was actually realised with this orchestra.

During the Symposium on Sound, the complete orchestra, consisting of twelve sirens and six intonarumori, will perform for the very first time. Leading composers have been invited to compose works for this unique orchestra. The Siren Orchestra will perform new works by David Behrman (USA), John Butcher (UK), Yannis Kyriakides (NL, UK, CY), Paul Koek and Martijn Padding (NL), introduced by the composers themselves.

On the Sensations of Sound consists of sound objects and sound installations by contemporary artists Carsten Nicolai (GER), Suchan Kinoshita (NL/JPN), James Beckett (UK, Zim), John van Oostrum, Jochem van Tol and Der Wexel. These artists use sound as their basic material. Through sound they change or intensify the perception of space, of material or objects. Much of their work has a scientific or investigative angle. James Beckett, John van Oostrum and Der Wexel will compose new works, especially for On the Sensations of Sound.

British essayist and composer David Toop will open the exhibition on Sunday 27 April 2008 at 4:00 p.m. Toop published Ocean of Sound (1995) and Haunted Weather (2004), among other works, and also presented the exhibition Sonic Boom: the art of sound, in the Hayward Gallery in London in 2000. [via Mediateletipos]

The chapter discusses histories of audiovisual performance, including its ancestry in color organs, visual music filmmaking, light shows, cognitive science, and more - as well as various approaches to current practice including VJ’ing, live cinema, and digital media art performance. This one is not available online, but the book is available from the usual sources.

The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music includes original contributions from many international artists, including Karlheinz Stockhausen and Max Mathews. Chapters introduce the reader to the history and practices of electronic music, including electroacoustic music composition, perceptual aspects and sound synthesis. Considers recent contemporary trends and promotes new movements in this continuously evolving field.

The print journal, Acoustic Space is a forum for net.radio, sound art and creative explorations in the networked electro-acoustic environments. Now in its 7th edition, Acoustic Space - SPECTROPIA issue investigates the rapid transformation of the usage of the radio frequency spectrum that we are witnessing in the 21st century. It doesn’t refer only to a quantitative increase in mobile, satellite and wireless networks, locative and pervasive media, but also to a qualitative shift in the way people communicate and the way spectrum is used in arts, education, science and commerce. The recent scientific research and artistic explorations of electromagnetic (EM) spectrum will be published in this issue, in order to introduce which chances and risks this tranformation process bears for artists and the populations at large.

For the first time, Acoustic Space journal will come out as ‘peer review’ (refereeing) publication. It will be published by the MPLab (Art Research Lab) of Liepaja University in collaboration with the RIXC, The Center for New Media Culture in Riga, Latvia.

Therefore, the publication will contain 2 main sections:

Section 1 - RESEARCH texts (’academic style’ writings with references, etc.)
Section 2 - ARTISTIC abstracts: ideas, concepts, pictures (this part will include mainly artists’ proposals for upcoming Spectropia festival exhibition - open-call is announced, deadline: April 21, 2008)

DEADLINES:

Deadline for submissions: May 19, 2008 - for completed research texts.
(For abstracts - April 21, 2007)

We encourage you to submit abstracts first. Proposals and inquiries regarding submissions should be made to Rasa Smite: rasa [at] rixc.lv

The RESEARCH texts should consist of 12000 - 15000 characters (i.e. 8 pages A4, 12 pt) + references.
(the ARTISTIC abstracts/texts - 2000-4000 characters)

Language: English (all texts will be also translated in to Latvian).

TOPICS:

The publication will cover wide range of topics under 4 main sections:

ELECTROMAGNETIC COSMOLOGY, SPECTRAL ECOLOGY AND EMF (ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELDS) RESEARCH: Modern cosmology constitutes the world we live in and our understanding about it by reducing ” the physical reality - galaxies, starts, planets, atoms - to electrical or electromagnetic configurations” - as stated by Bureau d’etudes (in their “Industrial dogma”). Could it be that “understanding the electromagnetic field is the only way to understand ourselves and our surroundings”? In such context the issue of “spectral ecology” will be investigated in the broadest sense possible. This section provides a critique of the industrial dogma and propaganda of electromagnetism, health and ‘green’ issues stemming from electrosmog and meriting more research, as well as sustainability and energy usage and other aspects in relation to communication and information technologies.

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE: FROM IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE OF SPYING (AND SECURITY) TO CONVERSION OF MILITARY TECHNOLOGIES: This topic studies secret past of communication technologies of military origin. Espionage phenomenon is explored, tracing back to its origins in military history of ancient culture. This part also brings up an issue of “cultural intelligence” - contemporary conversion and culturalisation process of military technologies by exploring how former military facilities have been conversed to become important social and cultural centers and objects.

FREE SPECTRUM: WAVES AND ELECTROMAGNETIC POLITICS: This field looks at electromagnetic spectrum as a socio-political space, investigating political practices in spectrum and bringing up debate on “free waves” and “open spectrum”. The spectrum is regulated and divided: for commercial use, military, radio amateurs, etc., yet wireless community networks continue to explore the exempt part of the spectrum, making small parts of the spectrum available for all.

TECHNOLOGY MYTH, ARTISTIC INTERPRETATIONS AND CONTEMPORARY GHOST STORIES: Electromagnetic fields have become the ghosts of today - invisible and surrounding us, opening up the boundaries of our imagination and bringing technology myths to life. This topic explores the place of those myths and stories in the life of modern society.

Scientific editorial board:

Armin Medosch - PhD., Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
Rasa Smite - PhD., Riga Stradina University; researcher at MPLab of Liepaja University; director of the RIXC, The Center for New Media Culture, Riga, Latvia.
Inke Arns - Dr. phil., artistic director of the Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV), Dortmund, Germany.
Douglas Kahn - Prof. and Head of Technocultural Studies at University of California at Davis, USA.
Andrey Smirnov - Head of the Theremin Center for Electroacoustic Music at Moscow State Conservatory, Russia.
Florian Dombois - Prof. and Head of the Institute for Transdisciplinarity (Y) at Berne University of the Arts, Switzerland.
Atau Tanaka - Prof., Culture Lab of Newcastle University, UK.