SOUNDS OF SPACE PROJECT
2017 to Current, Cambridge, Canberra & Global
Diana Scarborough, artist and co-founder of this multidisciplinary creative team that includes a space weather scientist and a composer. We, have been developing art-science artworks, talks and performances since 2017. working in collaboration with leading institutions (British Antarctic Survey, School of Music Australian National University) we have exhibited and presented at premiere locations. As the Sounds of Space Project our art-science-music outcomes are innovative, diverse and unique aiming to reach a wide audience. We feature in numerous science journals, podcasts, radio shows, and festivals and are known as a band, To date we have released four albums on Bandcamp with more to follow. We will perform at Glastonbury this year (2024) in the Green Futures area and our ongoing collaboration continues to attract global attention, online and in the physical space. MUSIC LINK:
IN AURORA'S GARDEN
In Aurora’s Garden is the fourth album for the Sounds of Space Project. We return to the ideas of our first project Aurora Musicalis with a soundscape drawn from our most mysterious continent, a response to the exquisite ‘sounds’ derived from the Very Low Frequency (VLF) receiver at the Halley VI Research Station, operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). We again imagine through scholarly research, music and art the yearning of all of us who will never get to Antarctica. With In Aurora’s Garden we can all become observers of cosmic time through the wonders of the Halley orthogonal receiver, an invention that allows us to hear the natural radio ‘sounds’ of our planet, in the quietest area of it, recorded in meticulous detail.
Wearable Sound Art T-Shirts by the Sounds of Space Project
Wearable Art with Music’
Activate the QR code on our t-shirt to hear the music from our free album releases ‘Sunconscious’ and ‘Celestial Incantations’. An immersive experience – wild, playful and beautiful. Made from organic cotton using renewable energy it is sustainable fashion at its best. We deliver to most countries. Click; www.soundsofspaceproject.co.uk
SUNCONSCIOUS
ALBUM, ARTWORK & T-SHIRTS
‘Sunconscious’ is the third album by the Sounds of Space Project released November 2022 for free on Bandcamp. Ten new tracks have been created for this project featuring music inspired by and including space ‘sounds’ from the Sun, Like their previous albums ‘Aurora Musicalis’, and ‘Celestial Incantations’, this album is a fusion of art and science and a type of dreaming of how art and science can tell the great stories of our time. The album includes liner notes new artwork, videos and T-shirt designs from Scarborough. CLICK HERE FOR FREE MUSIC
RELATED LINKS: Wearable Sound Art -T-shirts
CELESTIAL INCANTATIONS
ALBUM & ARTWORK JULY 2021, ONLINE
The album, Celestial Incantations, incorporates cosmic “sounds” from within and beyond our solar system, such as the oscillations of a comet, radiation from a galactic pulsar and the merger of two black holes. Designed as a journey in time and space it asks the listener to reflect on the wonder and complexity of science through art and music. There are 10 tracks and 11 album artworks inspired by medieval imagery blended with the science. Dr Nigel Meredith (scientist) and Professor Kim Cunio (composer) have created a rich tapestry of sounds and music that evokes an emotional journey of wonder as listeners are transported from Earth to beyond the galaxy as a unique sonic journey.
Available on Bandcamp
Music from ‘Celestial Incantations’ by the Sounds of Space Project is available to listen and download for free on Bandcamp. There you will discover the science, music and art provenance behind each track. Buy the artwork as a Fine Art Print on Shop of Art.
COLLABORATORS: Diana Scarborough, Dr Nigel Meredith, Professor Kim Cunio
FUNDING: Self-funded
LINK: Bandcamp: Sounds of Space Project ‘Celestial Incantations’
NEWS:”Celestial Incantations, captures the ‘sounds’ of space” Guardian
PUBLICATIONS: Music of the Spheres, Astronomy and Geophysics, Feb Edition
AURORA MUSICALIS & ANTARCTICA
Sounds of Space 2018-2020
Diana, collaborates with Kim Cunio and Nigel Meredith bringing conceptual ideas, imagination and narrative to the science. During this period, the focus was visualising and sonifying VLF data collected in Antarctica and highlighting the continent’s beauty and fragility from a climate change ecology perspective. As well as releasing an album ‘Aurora Musicalis’, the Sounds of Space Project gave talks, performances and concerts. Short art films were selected for the Venice Biennale in 2019 and Dark Skies festivals as part of this collaboration.
EXHIBITION : ECOCONSCIOUSNESS -AURORA MUSICALIS
Sept 2020, USA, Online
The art-film created by Diana Scarborough uses the compilation track from the album ‘Aurora Musicalis’ with animation. The art film was selected for the exhibition ‘Econconciousness’ by a US curator for an online exhibition by EcoArtSpace. The video combines a day of Earth ‘sounds’ derived from the VLF receiver at Halley Research Station with piano played ‘at the range of the human heart beat’. Images from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) archives merged at a similar pace that evoked a sense of yearning and wonder isolation, particularly during the time of social isolation due to the pandemic. The Antarctic location brings greater significance to the film as this continent is on the front line of climate change as we contemplate and fear for its future.
COLLABORATORS: Diana Scarborough (artist), Dr Nigel Meredith (British Antarctic Survey) and Professor Kim Cunio (composer, Head of Music, Australian National University).
LINK: Soundtrack in Bandcamp
FUNDING: self-funded
PUBLICATIONS: Ecoartspace Online Catalogue
Aurora Musicalis - Album
May 2020, Online on Bandcamp
Aurora Musicalis contains the natural radio ‘sounds’ of our planet, recorded at British Antarctic Survey’s Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica. The ‘sounds’ are accompanied by original piano music by composer Kim Cunio of the Australian National University, with artwork by Cambridge-based multimedia Diana Scarborough. In this time of social isolation, Aurora Musicalis offers the chance to listen deeply to the acoustic ecology of our planet’s natural radio emissions from the comfort of our homes.
COLLABORATORS: Sounds of Space: Nigel Meredith , Diana Scarborough and Kim Cunio
LINK: Album free on Bandcamp
FUNDING: N/A
DANCE PERFORMANCE
Oct 2019, Cambridge
In October 2019 an immersive performance of ‘sounds of space’ was showcased at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. This show included a science talk followed by contemporary dance. Dancers moved through the audience and space as they responded to the sound-led, data-driven journey from Antarctica to beyond the galaxy. The dynamic performance was followed by a guided meditative video and sound experience featuring ‘sounds’ from the VLF receiver at Halley, images of Antarctica and the beautiful piano music from ‘Aurora Musicalis’. composed by Kim Cunio.
COLLABORATORS: Sounds of Space, Diana Scarborough, Nigel Meredith, Kim Cunio
Dancers, Becky Byers, Felix Denton
FUNDING: British Antarctic Survey – Performance Space (Eddington, Cambridge)
AUSTRALIAN Aurora
Aug 2019, Canberra, Australia
(1 of 12) was created during Diana Scarborough’s artist-in-residence at the School of Music at the Australian National University in 2019. Enjoy the mysterious natural ‘Sounds of Space’ as ecology and as a deeply relaxing experience. The piano music was composed and recorded in one day to match a day of space weather data. It simulates the improbable notion and feeling of playing a piano in Antarctica in an ice landscape.
Sources: Sounds of Halley- Nigel Meredith (BAS) Music – ‘The Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations Prologue 12.05AM ‘ – composed and played by Kim Cunio Images courtesy of British Antarctic Survey. Video created by Diana Scarborough
During her one month in Australia, Diana Scarborough delivered seminars, a public lecture and an experimental concert premiere with Dr Alexander Hunter and the Canberra Experimental Music Studio.
COLLABORATORS: Sounds of Space, Diana Scarborough, Nigel Meredith, Kim Cunio and Dr Alexander Hunter
FUNDING: A-N Bursary. Support in kind from School of Music, Australian National University
NEWS:Research Seminar by Diana Scarborough, 8 Aug, 2019
ALIVE IN THE UNIVERSE - ART FILMS
May -Jun 2019, Venice Biennale
Nine one-minute art short films by Diana Scarborough, inspired by animations, music and ‘sounds’ of space from Earth to beyond the galaxy were shown as part of a film installation at the Venice Biennale in 2019. The installation, screened from 8th May to 4th June at the historic Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, is part of the ‘Alive in the Universe’ exhibition an art-film project that explores our emotional explanation of the universe through arts and ideas. Click below to view the films.
Films
COLLABORATORS: Eileen Haring Woods (art director/curator)
LINKS:All Films
SOUNDS OF SPACE - BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY
Nov 2019, Aurora Centre, Cambridge & Mar 2019 Cambridge Festival of Ideas
Our first art-science show, which included a scientific presentation followed by a performance with animation, contemporary dance and soundscapes, was performed at the Cambridge Science Festival in March 2018. Following on from the success of this event, Cunio travelled from Australia to play live in our second show. This event, which was performed at the BAS Aurora Innovation Centre in November was streamed live on the BAS YouTube channel.
COLLABORATORS: Diana Scarborough, Kim Cunio, Nigel Meredith, Becky Byers (dance),
Pete Bucktrout (Photography)
FUNDERS: in kind. British Antarctic Survey
PUBLICATION: Turning the sounds of space into art, Astronomy and Geophysics, April 2019 A&G Journal
THE BEGINNING - SPACE DATA AS AUDIO
Nov 2016 -2017
Our first art-science artwork as collaboration is a video animation by Diana Scarborough set to a selection of space sounds from Earth and beyond, curated by researcher and scientist Dr Nigel Meredith. The ‘sounds’ are incorporated into an abstracted time-lapse video of the aurora taken at Halley Research Station, a research facility in Antarctica operated by the British Antarctic Survey.
Original Video Footage: Halley Aurora Timelapse by Sam Burrell (copyright)
COLLABORATORS: Diana Scarborough (artist) Nigel Meredith (Science)
FUNDING: In kind from British Antarctic Survey