Inspired by the discovery of the first double-pulsar system (ranked as the 6th most important scientific discovery of 2004), and specially written to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RT32 – a reclaimed 32m Radio Telescope in the middle of the Latvian forests (the VIRAC Radio Telescope in Irbene)…
…brought to life over a decade, after being trashed by the Soviet military, as the only radio telescope in the world that is dedicated to both science and art.
The full name of the piece is ds² – series 1 (PSR J0737-3039B)
Background
Inspired by the discovery of the first double-pulsar system (ranked as the 6th most important scientific discovery of 2004), and specially written to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RT32 – a reclaimed 32m Radio Telescope in the middle of the Latvian forests (the VIRAC Radio Telescope in Irbene) … brought to life over a decade, after being trashed by the Soviet military, as the only radio telescope in the world that is dedicated to both science and art.
Radioqualia-led a project to transform the output of the telescope into music and was streamed as part of an online radio station, aptly named “radio astronomy”. This project, along with Makrolab, won a UNESCO digital award.
Pulsars are “pulsating stars” – objects with about the same amount of matter in them as our Sun, but squashed into a 20km ball. They spin very quickly (some a thousand times a second) and emit jets – creating a lighthouse-type effect. These two not only spin but rotate around each other every 2.4 hours.
One spins 45 times a second, the other every 2.8 seconds. They are very chaotic and will collide in 85 million years, maybe turning into a black hole. By analysing them we can check many of Einstein’s theories of General Relativity, which help us understand how the Universe works.
The piece was originally named after the slower pulsar, PSR J0737-3039B, but then renamed as ‘ds squared – series 1’, reflecting some of the 4-dimensional geometric properties [specifically, the Schwarzschild metric] used in this field, and setting some of the initial foundations of “Acoustic Cosmology”.
COLLABORATORS
Andrew Newsam (Astronomer + Software), Peter Clive (Piano), Jaako Mattila (Artist), Ulya Gumeniuk (Artist), Aidan Keane (Cosmology). A sonification of Jaako’s painting (http://www.jaakkomattila.fi/works/canvas#item_13) is embedded in the piece as one of the instruments.
Performances
- Iberne Radio Telescope, Latvia 2004.
- Dorkbot, London, UK 2004
- Sprawl, London. Nov 2005
- DEAF04, Rotterdam. Nov 2004
- ResonanceFM, London. Nov 2004
- La France, London. February 2005
- Science Museum, London. April 2005
- Placard, London. September 2005
- Polar Radio (I-TASC and r a d i o q u a l i a), Antarctic, 2007