Juliet Robson

Sound, Installation, Film and Sculpture

Everything in the universe vibrates, from the smallest molecule to distant stars and yet the vast majority of frequencies are hidden from our senses. Conceptual artist Juliet Robson has been working with Professor Chaplin and his research group on the overarching project “hertz”, to produce an interactive and novel artwork that allows an audience to hear, see and engage with the patterns of stars “singing”.

In “hertz” we are making an audio-visual experience to bring to life the detected resonances of stars tens or even hundreds of light-years away. Having first raised the pitch of the measured stellar frequencies – to bring them into the audible range – we then use the resulting tones to drive the resonances of a metal plate on which coloured sand has been sprinkled. As the pitch is changed, so the sand is shifted by the plate’s resonant vibrations into beautiful ordered patterns. Our “star machines” are designed to be interactive; participants generate the patterns of real, observed stars, sprinkling the coloured sand and changing the driving tones.

We have already run a successful interactive event with the star machines at the Oxford IF Science Festival in October 2018.

“hertz” also ran at “We the Curious”, Bristol, 5 Nov 2018 to 22 Feb 2019.

Max Reinhardt featured hertz on BBC’s Radio 3’s Late Junction:

‘What a totally astounding, amazing project” - Max Reinhardt, May 2018.

Some reactions:

“Some incredible vibrations – I’ll be able to go home and tell the family I heard the stars sing in Newbury!”

“Mind-blowing Stuff – Resonating sounds on a different spectrum – just trying to imagine an auditory dictionary/directory of different stars – Could you potentially identify stars from sound alone? So many Questions!!!”

“Hertz was really exciting! As an artist I really enjoyed being able to see the patterns created and how I might be able to work with those.”