A musical instrument for the Sun.
The Sun is a complex object, writhing with all sorts of invisible energies. Some would expect these energies to remain incomprehensible by our human senses, yet with the right equipment, strange music can be heard.
HeliOscillator1 is an audio visual installation built by the experimental electronic musicians Jamie Salmon (aka The Curious Machine) and Noel Murphy (aka VDU), in collaboration with the University of Sheffield’s Professor Róbertus von Fáy-Siebenbürgen.
Róbertus and PhD student Nabil Freij have supplied Jamie and Noel with data taken from seven separate sunspots, captured through the Dutch Open Telescope, an optical solar telescope in the Canary Islands.
The HeliOscillator1 software converts the data into computer generated patterns and projects it onto a modular light-reactive screen. As the patterns of light shift across the screen, graduations in intensity create an abstract musical soundscape, as if the Sun itself were playing the HeliOcscillator.
You can hear the Sun create music throughout the festival.
The launch party takes place on Thursday 20 September from 6.30pm.
