Explorations in Eleven Dimensions

ABM@JHG

Anna Piva & Edward George, in collaboration with Dr. David Berman, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary College, and Dr. James Sparks, mathematical physicist at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford, are developing Explorations in Eleven Dimensions, a multimedia art project based on a series of sonic, visual, and textual readings of string theory’s equations, themes and aesthetic concerns.

The first component of the project, a series of sound art performances, will take place at the Science Museum Dana Centre on November 1st 2011, and in Queen Mary’s Octagon room on the 5th and 6th of November 2011, at 7.30pm.

The performances will have as their basis the sonification of Dr. Berman’s string theory equations and a series explorations of frequency and micro-tonality in the work of Bach and Debussy with Dr. Sparks.

Flow Motion will be joined for the performance by a quartet of musicians from London’s classical and improvised music scene: Alison Blunt (violin), Chris Cullen (flute, saxophone), Grahame Painting (cello, guitar), Mark Sanders (drums).

Artists Statement 

With Explorations in Eleven Dimensions we want to foster a creative exchange and dialogue between multimedia art practice and new developments in theoretical physics. We want to bring our concerns with space - sonic space, the three dimensional space of multimedia art, the two dimensional plane of digital image making, space as it is conceptualized in diverse [multi]cultural cosmologies – into creative dialogue with string theory’s propositions about space.
 
Explorations in Eleven Dimensions is the latest in a series of collaborative art-science projects that engage with the most mysterious aspects of space and the cosmos. Our previous projects Astro Black Morphologies / Astro Dub Morphologies [2004-2005] and Invisible [2007], created connections between the enigmas of dark energy, black holes, and the invisible universe, and multimedia art practice, via multidisciplinary dialogue and pedagogic practice.
 
These projects, funded by Arts Council England in 2004 and 2007, and researched via a grant from the London Arts Board in 2003, were created in collaboration with Southampton University Department of Astrophysics, The Southampton Institute of Sound and Vibration, Cambridge University Institute of Astronomy, Manchester University Astrophysics Department at Jodrell Bank Observatory, the art science agency Arts Catalyst, new media agency SCAN, and the Science Museum Dana Centre; they were the object of primary and secondary schools workshops attracting around 600 participants in London, Southampton, Cambridge and Manchester.
 
The resulting art installations, performances, and curated events were hosted by UK institutions - the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, the John Hansard Galley in Southampton, the Science Museum Dana Centre, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in London, and Vivid in Birmingham – as well as international institutions: Astro Black Morphologies was presented at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, and was performed at the SETI headquarters in California.
 
The projects were extensively documented online, and appeared in published form in international journals - in MIT’s Leonardo Journal, [2004] and the Leonardo Special on Space Art [2006]; in the BBC Sky at Night magazine, [2007], and the Journal of New Media Practice [2010].
 
Invisible
The conceptual scope of the projects was expanded with additional educational outputs and the inclusion of themes of darkness, invisibility, and sound in cinema in the Invisible Workshop @ Merz Academy of Media Studies in Stuttgart in 2007.
 
The exploration of string theory at the heart of Explorations in Eleven Dimensions provides continuity with Astro Black Morphologies and Invisible’s concerns with the aesthetic possibilities of translating and transforming scientific data about the enigmas of the universe and with creating connections between scientific space exploration and the spaces – sonic, visual, physical – of multimedia art practice.
 
Explorations in Eleven Dimensions also presents us with the possibility of a new departure; a relocation of our concerns [with forging new connections between cosmology, art, and voices on the margins of science] from the world of astrophysics to new developments in the world of theoretical physics: strings theory suggests a radical rethinking of the nature of space and the universe that challenges both scientific orthodoxy and common sense ideas and intuitive thinking about space, time, the nature of reality, and the workings of the cosmos.
 
Flow Motion, 2011