'SOUNDS OF SPACE'
Diana Scarborough is an artist-engineer working cross-discipline, creatively and collaboratively.
‘Sounds of Space’, working with British Antarctic Survey (BAS), has received much interest in the art and science fields.
Diana collaborates with researchers and scientists in other disciplines: biotechnology, nanoscience and textile Archaeology.
Aurora Musicalis by Sounds of Space Project
R&D
The arts project takes recordings of Earth's natural radio sounds, normally not audible to the human ear, and stunning imagery captured at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica to create a 90-minute soundtrack set to piano. The resulting album, Aurora Musicalis, is released today.
Diana Scarborough combines the resulting soundtrack with original visual sequences - using photos and images captured at Halley.
"The Halley Research Station is located in the remote Brunt Ice Shelf. It's not only ideal for capturing these incredible sounds, but also stunning visuals, including spectacular auroras that light the horizons with bright and captivating colour,"
"These images provide an enthralling video for the soundtrack. They are also the perfect way for the human eye to soak in what the ear hears on this album.
"I was really inspired by the rich archive of images collected at Halley and knew they would be the perfect way of helping people 'see' the amazing sounds selected by Nigel (British Antarctic Survey) and the beautiful, mesmerising music composed by Kim. (Australian National University) "
Aurora Musicalis forms part of the 'Sounds of Space' project and is available for free on BandCamp.
Aurora Musicalis Video https://vimeo.com/410411926
R&D
This is a bonus compilation track with video to accompany the album 'Aurora Musicalis' which was released 6 May 2020 on Bandcamp. To hear the entire album click HERE.
The entire album, has been edited to create a 90 minute soundtrack combining earth's natural radio sounds collected at Halley, Antarctica with piano music as a meditative conversation.
Sounds of Space Project is an ongoing collaboration between . Diana Scarborough, a Cambridge based artist-engineer, Professor Kim Cunio, Head of Music at the Australian National University composer and thought leader Associate and Dr Nigel Meredith, a space weather research scientist at BAS.
For Aurora Musicalis, Nigel analysed and curated a day of data as audio, Kim combined space weather data with a day of composing and playing on a grand piano in Sydney and Diana created the video using images taken from the BAS photo archive as source material.
Read more at :-
bas.ac.uk/media-post/aurora-musicalis/
bas.ac.uk/project/sounds-of-space/BAS
Exploration and Innovation
Working with space-weather scientist Nigel Meredith since 2014, Scarborough explored ways of visualising space weather data collected in Antarctica. This has evolved into a multi-disciplinary performance taking an audience from earth to beyond the galaxy using contemporary dance, live music, sounds and animation with scientific presentation. She collaborates with researchers and scientists in other disciplines: biotechnology, nanoscience and textile archaeology.
Time To Stare
R&D
Acuity Arts was part of the creative team joining Diana Scarborough at her Time to Stare residency in February 2019.
B&R productions' first 'Time To Stare' bursary was awarded to Artist Engineer Diana Scarborough to develop her project Sounds Of Space into a more performative, multi-disciplinary experience for audiences, integrating and responding to scientific data collected by the British Antarctic Survey, initially for Blue Dot Festival 2019. Find out more about the bursary and Diana's project here.
Meet the Creative Collaborators
Creative Exchanges
Diana Scarborough
Artist-engineer
Working cross-discipline, creatively and collaboratively, taking inspiration from scientific practice that embraces concepts of data, code, mutable materials, rekindled history, technology and environmental concerns and rephrases them from an art perspective.
Dr. Ljiljana Fruk
BioNano Engineering
Research into synthetic chemistry, molecular biology and various instrumental techniques to design bio-nano elements and hybrid materials for application in catalysis and medicine.
Nick Moran
Lighting Designer
Teaching contemporary theatre design and production practice and am a published author and a practising lighting designer, occasionally working in other areas of design for live performance.
Nigel Meredith
Space Weather research Scientist
Research scientist in the Space Weather and Atmosphere team at BAS. Investigating fundamental problems in radiation belt physics with relevance to space weather hazards. Developing global plasma wave models, essential for the operation of radiation belt models in the UK, Europe and the US.
Becky Byers
Creative Dancer
Dancer Byers provides a physical, bodily reaction, alongside the music and visual art. “I imagine each sound to be its own creature such as a small scuttling insect for the Antarctic ice, or a large bull-like powerhouse of energy for Saturn's radio emissions.”
Dipak Mistry
Producer
Exploring interdisciplinary practice and bringing together artists, academics, scientists, technologist, anthropologist, dancers, storytellers, even business people, whatever it takes for us to fully explore and push the boundaries of what we know and don’t know.
