The second of four interdisciplinary seminars took place on 27 May 2022 at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Autonoma University in Madrid (IFT UAM-CSIC).
A four-part series of interdisciplinary seminars to put research into creative practices, cultural work, technology, communications and particle physics in dialogue. Second Part: Membranes, Microphones, Hydrophones and Particles
The second session considers the use of acoustic technology in particle physics and the creative/cultural uses of radio. Neutrino telescopes, which make use of this technology on the seabed to observe elementary particles, have turned out to be much more versatile and interdisciplinary observatories. Although we were once (perhaps naively) able to think of the deep ocean as a homogeneous and silent space, data from such experiments teach us otherwise. Continuous listening in underwater areas provides crucial information about a plethora of sonic phenomena. Along with insights into the behaviour of high-energy particles, these experiments also provide insights into underwater noise profiles and acoustic activities of deep-sea life.
What are the right conditions to detect the microscopic and invisible elements of our Universe? What can the ability to navigate the intensities and densities of the underwater, otherwise inaccessible in our daily lives, offer to aesthetic thought? How can these forms of scientific experimentation inform current thinking within the arts and humanities? Miguel Álvarez-Fernández is a sound artist, musicologist, curator of artistic projects, essayist, radio producer and film director. Since 2008 he has been director and presenter of the weekly program Ars Sonora, on Radio Clásica/RNE. His latest book Radio Before the Microphone: Voice, Eroticism and Mass Society (2021) explores a peculiar history of radio. Miquel Ardid is a researcher at the Gandia Campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and is the leader of the acoustics research group for the detection of astroparticles. Series organized by Rebecca Collins, professor of Contemporary Art Theory at the University of Edinburgh and David G Cerdeño, Beatriz y Galindo distinguished researcher at the UAM-CSIC Institute of Theoretical Physics. Rebecca Collins is currently a resident researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Autonomous University of Madrid (2022-2023).
Feature image above: Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, David G. Cerdeño, Miquel Ardid & Rebecca Collins (Left to right) Image Credit: Laura Marcos Mateos