Interactive Sculptural Sound Installation, Sonification of Space Data
The installation Full Throttle! was a response and critique of humanities technological expansion into space and the inherent consequences for life on earth, and on a more fundamental level how unregulated capitalism enables a highly undemocratic exploitation of the world and its inhabitants.
The installation consisted of a sculptural found object, bits and pieces of a 3 meter satellite parabolic dish, speakers and a soundscape generated in real time from deep space data. A sensor detected if a person moved in the room and then randomly distorted and permanently altered the data before transforming it to sound, representing how our interaction is interfering. If no one was present in the room, the data was transformed to sound without being distorted, but parts that were altered stayed altered.
Full Throttle! was realized at Ireland National Space Center.
The work was created with the support of Greywood Arts, Ireland National Space Center, Cork City Council, and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee (Konstnärsnämnden).
Original exhibition sign:
FULL THROTTLE!
When I conducted my research on the subject of space waste, a particular image made a deep impression on me. It depicts an optical telescope view of the night sky with white streaks that originate from Starlink satellites in LEO (Low Earth Orbit).
Space technology is a huge and complex subject with many different technologies and agendas.
Light pollution from satellites may be a huge problem for some, like those using light telescopes, but less so for others, like those using radio telescopes, for example.
To me this image represents a problem and pattern that is very similar to the Environmental crisis we are experiencing now on earth.
The soundscape is built upon data from a 2-meter radar telescope located in Cork reading the night sky as the earth rotates. This data comes from tuning into a specific microwave frequency, the 21-cm wavelength, which can also be used to measure the hydrogen concentration in deep space. Hydrogen has certain features that can be used to give us knowledge about deep space, like how the universe began and can help us search for extra-terrestrial advanced civilisations.
We search for traces, for anomalies, in the noise.
Enter, observe, and interfere.
Jon Nicklas Lundberg
Thanks to Greywood Arts, Ireland’s National Space Centre, Cork County Council and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee for the grand opportunity to take part in this. Thank you Tom Bonner for supplying the data files.
Jon Nicklas Lundberg 