Category: Art

SSFX Evaluation Published

We’re please to announce that the evaluation of the Space Sound Effects Short Film Festival project has just been published in Geoscience Communication. This paper describes the processes behind of the project and its phases of engaging filmmakers, and later exhibitors and audiences, with the sounds of space.

Overall the results are very positive. The project successfully engaged filmmakers, infiltrated many existing arts events internationally, and attracted diverse non-science audiences provoking varied responses in them. We hope it provides an enlightening view of how this project operated and how its success was measured that will be of interest and use to wide range of people from across the art, science, and engagement sectors. Read it here.

Visualising “Noise” from Space

Artist Veri Maggieee has taken inspiration from the SSFX project, and specifically our anthology film, to create a visualisation tool that flickers computer screens based on sounds being being played. This was an effect that we had achieved in post production, using green screens and trackers, but it’s very cool to see this being done live as part of this media interactive art project.

You can find out a little more about their project here.

Art – Science Collaborations Using Data

Art and science are often seen as complete opposites: art is subjective, while science aims to discover objective facts about nature. But more and more, we are realising that there are commonalities between the two and this has lead to more and more collaborations between artists and scientists. However, the artworks’ inspiration from science isn’t always apparent to audiences – that’s why I’ve become an advocate for using actual data in these collaborative works, just like in the SSFX project.

I’ve written an article on this subject over on The Conversation, based on my experiences with this project.

How to Make Music Composed of Space Itself

You may have heard various space sounds, but some composers have done more than just listen to them. Hear about the ways in which music can be made from space itself.

#scienceraptrax

A bit of fun on Twitter right now is #scienceraptrax where people have been writing mini raps featuring science. Here’s one for SSFX: