INSTALLATION
SOUNDS OF THE SPECTRUM
Alex Gagliano, Jackie Bertone
Curated by Deshna Mehta
Venue: GOA SCIENCE CENTRE, MIRAMAR
Time: 10:30 – 18:30
For thousands of years, we have used our eyes to study the cosmos, but what if we could use our ears? Our senses are limited tools for understanding the universe, but in being attentive to patterns, we can learn about how things are connected. The story of space is a story of energy. The light that we perceive is electromagnetic energy. Every atom has a unique light signature, called an emission spectrum.
For their installation, astrophysicist Alex and Jackie, a Physics major, took the light frequencies unique to elements of a star and converted them into an aural frequency. Vibrating metal plates sprinkled with sand revealed these frequencies as visual patterns. By layering the audio and the patterns, the pair created new representations of water, humans, the Earth, and even the universe.
One could also go on a short ‘star walk’, where you could hear the different elements of a star, based on which ‘part’ of the star you were standing at.
Jackie Bertone
Jackie Bertone is a third year Physics major with a dual minor in Astronomy and Music Technology at Virginia Tech. Two of her most significant passions in life are music and physics. From a young age, she began composing and taught herself to play the piano. Now, she studies digital sound manipulation and composition while pursuing her degree in physics. Last year, her interest in space led her to start a team and build an astronaut EVA tool for NASA’s Micro-g NExT program. The tool was tested at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas and the research is currently being used to help engineers design better tools. For the Story of Space project, she was inspired to combine her background in music and her fascination with space to sonify the building blocks of the cosmos.
Alex Gagliano
Alex is an astrophysicist working at Los Alamos National Labs on cosmology simulations and supernovae. He is interested in the intersection between astronomy and culture, specifically how society influences the way an individual sees and interprets the sky. Last year, he traveled to Gabon to study traditional West African astronomical beliefs. He presented the works this past November at a TEDx event in the US.
Alex also completed an internship at the Office of Astronomy for Development in Cape Town, South Africa, where he interacted with a blind astronomer who inspired him to explore sound-based astronomy outreach practices. With the Story of Space, Alex hopes to explore ways to make astronomy more accessible to under-served and under-represented communities.
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