Transpositions [TP] by Gerhard Eckel

The research project investigates the possibility of generating new auditory and visual forms based on the analysis and mathematical transformation of scientific data. In addition, the project studies whether and how these new forms are of scientific significance by asking the collaborating researchers to scientifically analyze the artistic outputs. By remaining true to the data while employing an artistic working method and, thus, by combining scientific and artistic values, the project contributes to the conceptual development of a space for research that is shared between art and science. This, however, implies that during the project both scientists and artists will be challenged to work in ways that are unfamiliar to them, either through confrontation with complex artistic interpretations of data or through exposure to very specific scientific working methods. On a meta-level, the project will report on the types of interactions that are deemed to be of value to either the artists, the scientists or both. At present, scientists use a variety of sonification and visualization procedures to analyse and communicate their findings. For artists, those representations are often of little artistic value since they are geared towards a transparent communication of the data creating little space for artistic interventions. Conversely, by foregrounding aesthetic effects, the expanding field of artistic data sonification and visualization runs the risk of producing art works that only superficially related back to the scientific research from which the data originated. While giving the arts an important role in the communication of scientific activity, the artistic exploration of scientific data may thus add very little to the research itself. Given the ever-increasing amount and importance of data representations, it is of particular importance that artists become engaged with their fabrication and to identify how in spite of their very different constitution aesthetic and epistemic research aims may support each other. Three case studies from different scientific fields provide data to be transposed by the artists into artistic outputs, which are in turn analysed by the scientists. The artists have an established practice in music composition and visual art, respectively, and have been collaborating very productively for the last 3 years. Given the transdisciplinary nature of the artistic collaboration it is possible to investigate issues of intermediality not only between art and science but also from within the arts. The process of creation and analysis is continuously exposed on the Research Catalogue online platform while a number of performances/exhibitions make the outputs tangible to the scientists and the general public.

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Transpositions [TP]: Case Study 3

dark matter cosmology

Beecroft Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology

at the University of Oxford and Department of Physics

and Astronomy, Astronomy and Space Physics

at the University of Uppsala

[ r e a d m o r e ]

Cosmology is the branch of astronomy that studies the large-scale properties of the universe, including its evolution from the Big Bang until today and into the future. An important hypothesis of current cosmology is the existence of dark energy, an unknown form of energy permeating all space and accelerating the observable expansion of the universe. According to the standard model of cosmology, dark matter, a hypothetical type of matter distinct from ordinary matter, together with dark energy constitute more than 95% of the total mass–energy content of the universe. Our scientific partner in this case study, Dr. Martin Sahlén, works at the intersection of theoretical and observational cosmology, with an emphasis on modelling and constraining dark energy. His work at the Universities of Oxford and Uppsala aims at testing fundamental assumptions of the standard model of cosmology.

In this case study cosmological data from observations (surveys) and simulations has been used. Martin Sahlén is an active member of the XMM Cluster Survey collaboration that produced a galaxy cluster survey using archival X-ray data taken by ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite. The survey aims at the derivation of cosmological parameters and released a catalogue with data of 503 optically confirmed galaxy clusters in 2012. TP commissioned three artists to perform transpositions of this data set. Artemis-Maria Gioti created an installation for player piano for the DA TA rush research event in Vienna, and Marcus Wrangö and Magnus Bunnskog produced audio-visual installations for the final research event in Stockholm.

Transpositions [TP]:

Case Study 1

Computational Neuroscience

and Neurocomputing research group

at the KTH Royal Institute

of Technology, Stockholm.

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