Interview: Caroline Devine

How has the engagement with physicists changed your practice, inspired/stimulated new ideas and ways of working?

“My sound arts practice is inspired by the natural, physical world around us. I strive to understand and describe that world through sound and open it up to the ears through new ways of listening. My works investigate sounds, signals and voices that may be obscured, silenced or in some way absent. I have a particular interest in the use of space as a compositional parameter and my works are frequently site-specific. They have been described as poetic sensory experiences.

As part of my creative process, which is usually research-led, I seek out experts and voices that further my understanding of phenomena that interest me, which I then describe in my works. My practice is quite varied - the work with asteroseismological data is just one aspect of my wider compositional practice - which incorporates human voices and the voice of nature, field recordings, natural radio and other hidden sounds and signals. My works investigate the way that sound relates to memory, environment, time and place and have explored identity, acoustic ecology, community, landscape, museum objects, VLF radio signals, stellar resonances, legal contracts, imposed silence, absence, surveillance and protest. In researching these works, I have sought out the voices of naturalists, poets, activists, community leaders, scientists, historians, radio amateurs, museum curators, residents, choirs, field recordists, musicians and musicologists.

I share an interest in the natural physical world with scientists, and among my various collaborations I have worked alongside physicists who have provided rich information about the science behind the data that they have shared with me. In 2011, I approached Prof Bill Chaplin and the HiROS team at Birmingham University when I realised that HiROS collected and analysed data on the overtone structure of the Sun. I was researching for a work about the Sun’s energy that would incorporate VLF radio signals from solar activity and wondered whether there were any other ways of listening to the Sun. The field of asteroseismology was intriguing to me as a composer working with microtones. Since then I have made a number of works with helioseismological data and asteroseismological data that have explored the natural resonances of stars, the orbits of exoplanets and our human experience of time, consonance and dissonance.

The concept and development of a work is a single-minded process and remains largely the same, regardless of the subject of my investigation - once I have settled on a concept, it usually involves some investigation of site-specific or time-specific ideas, followed by a period of listening and research and then the composition and production stages. My compositional approach considers all sound as potential for composition and where I employ music, it is frequently microtonal, electronic or electroacoustic and free from the constraints of Western Musical tradition.

My way of working was challenged when first receiving data from the physicists. Audified data is a cold and unappealing listening proposition. I had to conceive compositional strategies and sonifcation techniques that would enable me to develop a work with compositional integrity and a desired aesthetic that would engage an audience while remaining true to the data.

Working with Prof Chaplin affords an international angle, due to the collaborative nature of science research. In the last couple of years, I have had the opportunity to travel to Arhus funded by IAS at UoB to learn more about the NASA TESS mission from the team at the Stellar Astrophysics Centre and to seek out potential sites for further artworks.”

How has this impacted your audiences and those who you reach?

“From an impact point of view, my microtonal approach to composition is a contemporary way of thinking about the ‘music of the stars’ beyond the confines of the Western Classical Musical tradition. The equal tempered scale is an unnatural method of dividing pitch into discrete units and is frequently irrelevant in contemporary electronic composition. My approach as an electronic composer is accessible to an art audience as well as of interest in the fields of experimental composition and sound art. My site-specific approach presents the works as immersive experiences that engage a visitor on a sensory level and this makes the science accessible to a new audience interested in contemporary arts practice.

Many of my works receive radio exposure and the works developed from BiSON and NASA Kepler data featured on BBC World Service, at a talk on contemporary artistic practice called Notes from the Universe as part of the exhibition Lightshow at the South Bank Centre and in experimental music magazine The Wire.”

How has working with a scientist changed your understanding of your career? 

“Working alongside scientists has made me realise that as an artist, I don’t have a career - more of a creative path led by enquiry and endeavour. The subject of my enquiry changes with each new project or concept, while the object of my focus, my creative process, remains largely unchanged, albeit a process that continually embraces emerging technologies.

The pace of a career in science feels much slower than the pace of the creative path for a contemporary artist. The contemporary artist by definition deals in new concepts and challenges traditional boundaries. As an artist I tend to dive into a subject, explore it as fully as I can in the time I have available, present my findings and move on. Working on a project basis means that I have to continually come up with new ideas and then work relatively quickly to realise them.

My work is a combination of commissions and self-initiated projects. Approaching the BiSON physicists was part of a self-initiated project for which I sought funding from Arts Council England in order to be able to explore, driven purely by my curiosity. I have been fortunate that Prof. Chaplin has been open to my developing work in parallel with his research and our combined efforts to secure funding have allowed me to continue revisiting this area of my work over a longer period than would have otherwise been possible.”

Do you feel that your processes and outcomes can inspire/further the field of physics?

“We live in a connected world and it is unsurprising that art and science overlap. Fields of study have become more interdisciplinary and increased value is now placed upon cross-disciplinary collaboration. In the modern world, knowledge exchange is commonplace and encourages new ways of thinking with potential for discovery and innovation.

Sonifcation most definitely has a role to play in the field of physics and is already employed by some scientists. The scientists I have encountered will use data visualisations but not often sound, when seeking to understand or recognise patterns within data. Ear training, along with the sonification of data could allow scientists (anyone in fact) to recognise particular stars or types of stars. While working alongside the HiROS team, I brought sonified models of stars into the department and also invited the physicists to visit my finished works, which I hoped would have been of interest to them. The ear can be adept at detecting and decoding patterns, especially very small differences - think of how precisely we are able to detect tuning or spatial cues. Applying sonification techniques in a considered and practical manner has the potential to rival data visualisations for providing a summary understanding of asteroseismological phenomena.”