Sunconscious by Sounds of Space Project

Since the dawn of civilisation humans have been fascinated by the Sun. Indeed, in every civilisation people have grappled with the Sun, building stories, myths and beliefs that survive and thrive even in our scientific age. From ancient Egypt to the great living religions of the world, the Sun has had a place to play in our cultures. In Hinduism Surya the Sun God is described as riding across the sky in a chariot, as well as inspiring millions of yoga students each morning. The Persians describe the Sun and its worship within the ancient worldview of Mithraism, a feminine principle that governs the world. Celtic cultures also have sun deities, from the Irish Aine, to the Welsh Olwen. Ah Kin is the Mayan God of the Sun, in Ancient Rome Aurora was the Goddess of the Dawn, and in Australia the First Nations (now seen as some of the oldest extant cultures of the world), have many names for the Sun, such as Bila.

Monotheism is not exempt from its own profound solar relationships. In the Jewish tradition the Birkat Hachama (Blessing for the Sun) is spoken once every 28 years, as according to the Talmud it is only this rarely that the Sun returns to its same state as during the week of its creation. In Christianity the Sun is a great symbol of hope, a symbol of the resurrection itself, and in Islam seeing the Sun or moon should be followed with prayer.

Early Western traditions believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe and our relationship with the Sun was vastly different. Aristotelian philosophy saw the Earth as the centre of everything, despite the theories of Aristarchus. It was not until the mid sixteenth century that Copernicus revived the Sun-centred or heliocentric model of the solar system. To test the two theories, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) made detailed observations of the motions of the planets from his two observatories on the island of Hven between Denmark and Sweden. He was hoping to disprove the heliocentric model and developed his own models keeping the Earth stationary at the centre. After his death his assistant, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) used his careful observations, to show that the planets do indeed orbit the Sun.

Moving to the present day and our compositions, many of the ‘sounds’ of space used in our first two albums were ultimately driven by the Sun, including the ‘sounds’ of chorus at Earth, the ‘sound’ of the jovian bow shock and the ‘sounds’ of interstellar space. In addition, space weather, which is also driven by the Sun, represents an ever increasing risk to society due to our increasing reliance on technological systems . Explosions on the Sun cause bursts of charged particles and magnetic field which travel out into space. When they reach the Earth they can tear open the magnetic field causing a magnetic storm and disruption to power grids, aviation, communications and satellites. In this album we turn our attention to the Sun and encounter some fascinating space ‘sounds’ to set to music.

The album begins with an awakening on Earth with a track featuring the 'sounds' of space as recorded by the Halley VLF receiver on the day of the first sunrise following the long austral winter. We then move out into interplanetary space and encounter tracks inspired by and including the 'sounds' of plasma waves in the solar wind as captured by the Fields Experiment on the Parker Solar Probe. In amongst this intriguing mix we include tracks featuring the Sun's natural vibrations as detected by the SOHO Michelson Doppler Imager and a type III solar radio burst recorded by the Radio Wave and Plasma Science instrument on the Cassini spacecraft. The album ends back on Earth at Halley VI, with recordings from the VLF receiver on the day of the last sunset before the long austral winter.

You will see some astonishing images as well. For the new album Scarborough chose to emphasise the beauty and warmth of the Sun through abstraction. The artworks are simple evocations in flow and colour representing the visual symbiosis of the moods and meanings of the music and the ‘sounds’ of the Sun (more art information below)

Once again we hope you enjoy the journey, it is definitely solar powered, almost literally, as most of the recording and editing was undertaken at the beyond zero emissions campus of the ANU which obtains a significant proportion of its power from solar projects.

Kim, Nigel and Diana


The Art of ‘Sunconscious’

We are conscious of sunlight… and even more, its absence, acknowledging that our biological survival as part of the natural world depends on it. We are undoubtedly creatures of the Sun. The absorption of light from the Sun is needed by plants for photosynthesis and without it, all known life on Earth, cannot endure. On a lighter note and with an aesthetic eye, we are conscious of Sun’s transformational powers to give beauty to the ordinary and make it extraordinary… Just typing ‘sunset images’ on Google gives 1,300,000,000 results in 0.46 seconds.

Throughout human history the Sun has been a catalyst for artists, scientists, writers and religious thought and provides rich resources for creatives. Making art for our new album became a playground of opportunity. As the artist in our collaboration, I chose to emphasise the beauty and warmth of the Sun through abstraction using the traditional art media of painting. This differs from the cover designs on previous albums which alluded to astronomical imagery, VLF radio equipment and medieval motifs.

In art, abstraction can be the more difficult than realism to comprehend. Colour field paintings, such as seen in ‘Orange and Yellow' (1956) by Mark Rothko, evoke the ephemeral, the contemplative and the immersive. Inspired by this concept and the sublime nature of the Sun I created artworks that play homage to this particular fine art movement.

The process for creating track and album covers was lengthy and multi-layered. Listening to each track and my desire for ‘analogue’ visuals became the stimulus. Gouache used like watercolour influenced by the mood and timbre each track influenced the painted backgrounds. After scanning, they became the blended base layers for digital art creation.

Titles of the tracks are equally important for inspiration. I recently visited the Cornelia Parker exhibition at the Tate Britain (London) which stimulated ideas for a new vocabulary for the titles which we later refined and finalised together.

After selecting the font (Futura) for titles, visual design experimentation continued. I spent time layering and blending the backgrounds to find the right image. At one point, I incorporated textual references into the mix, including Sun-inspired scientific texts, front covers from early 20th century popular novels that included the words ‘Sun' and British Antarctic Survey data extracted from the edges of 1970’s prints of satellite imagery. Working with the premise that ‘less is more’ and ‘show don’t tell’, I then removed all texts from the final images. The artworks remain simple evocations of flow and colour and together with their titles, represent a visual symbiosis of the wonderful meanings and moods of the music and the captivating ‘sounds' of the Sun.

Diana

Sounds of Space Project is a collaboration with space weather research scientist Nigel Meredith (BAS), multimedia artist Diana Scarborough, and Head of the New Zealand School of Music and composer Kim Cunio. Our projects emerge through a shared process of creative engagement and cross-disciplinary collaboration inspired by the 'sounds of space' from Earth to beyond the galaxy.

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