The Ancient, Distant, and Dead BY GREG BOUSTEAD / MARCH 4, 2010 Signal-to-noise ratio is the relationship between meaningful information (a signal) and external factors (background noise). In a broader theoretical sense, it can refer to seeking out meaning from complexity. We do this in our daily lives, constantly and without thought, each time we take mundane actions and, ultimately, whenever we attempt to make sense of the world we live in. The young Scottish artist Katie Paterson toys with this balance. Whether it’s hacking a mobile phone and burying it deep in the Arctic to capture the dying murmurs of a melting iceberg, or working with astronomers to capture the earliest known light of the universe, Paterson’s work—with a nod to scientific research—explores the curiosities within some of our universe’s infinite blips: remote ones, old ones, ones long gone. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Show Captions SEEDMAGAZINE.COM SLIDESHOW THE ANCIENT, DISTANT, AND DEAD
Transcript
The Ancient, Distant, and DeadBY GREG BOUSTEAD / MARCH 4, 2010
Signal-to-noise ratio is the relationship between meaningful information (a signal) and external factors (background noise). In a broader theoretical sense, it canrefer to seeking out meaning from complexity. We do this in our daily lives, constantly and without thought, each time we take mundane actions and, ultimately,whenever we attempt to make sense of the world we live in. The young Scottish artist Katie Paterson toys with this balance. Whether it’s hacking a mobile phone andburying it deep in the Arctic to capture the dying murmurs of a melting iceberg, or working with astronomers to capture the earliest known light of the universe,Paterson’s work—with a nod to scientific research—explores the curiosities within some of our universe’s infinite blips: remote ones, old ones, ones long gone.
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As part of Paterson’s Encounters exhibition atModern Art Oxford, a white neon sign displaysa phone number that connects curious visitorsto a live transmission of the gurgles and popsemanating from Vatnaj�kull, a massive glacierin the remote interior of Iceland.
MATERIALS: HYDROPHONE, DE500 MOBILE PHONE
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Anyone from around the world could call in tothe audio feed, which was captured by a jury-rigged mobile phone and submerged mic atJ�kuls�rl�n lagoon, an outlet lagoon intowhich the glacier is steadily melting. About10,000 people from 47 different countrieseavesdropped on the glacial murmurs duringthe two-month period that the number wasactive.
LISTEN TO A RECORDED VERSIONOF THE TRANSMISSION >>
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Earth-Moon-Earth (EME), or “moonbounce,” isan experimental kind of radio transmission firstproposed in 1940 by a British communicationsengineer. With EME, messages are sent inMorse code from Earth, reflected off thesurface of the Moon, and then received backon Earth. Later realized by the US military afterWWII, today the technique is used by amateurradio operators across the world. Currently,EME provides the longest communicationspath for any two radio stations on Earth.
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Fascinated with this curious mode ofcommunication, Paterson translatedBeethoven’s Moonlight Sonata into Morsecode and sent it to the Moon via radio waves.Ostensibly “remixed” as it bounced off thecontours of the Moon’s surface, the sonatawas then retranslated into a new score andplayed by a grand piano at Modern Art Oxford.
MATERIALS: EME TRANSMITTER/RECEIVER,DISKLAVIER GRAND PIANO
LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT OF THE SONATA >>
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The Moon reflects only part of the informationback; some of the transmission is “lost” inlunar craters, as can be seen in the Morsecode of the Moonlight Sonata that was sentback. The new gaps and absences becameintervals and rests.
LISTEN TO THE MORSE CODE, AS RECEIVEDFROM THE MOON >>
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Lighting engineers, on Paterson’s behalf, tookpainstaking measurements under a full Moonto recreate its exact spectral profile in thesecustom light bulbs. Each set producedcontains enough light bulbs to provide aperson with a lifetime supply of moonlight,based on the average human lifespan.
MATERIALS: SET OF 289 LIGHT BULBS,FROSTED COLORED SHELL: 28W, 4500K
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Paterson worked with astronomers,astrophysicists, and “supernova hunters”throughout the world to collect, catalog, andplot every known dead star in the universe(there are roughly 27,000). She laser-etchedthe map of these cosmic corpses onto 2x3-meter sheet of black anodized aluminum.
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The points on this map include gamma-raybursts, supernovae, white dwarfs, X-raybinaries, and pulsars—most of which haveemitted the last of their thermonuclear energylong ago.
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Although comprehensive, Paterson’s plot of“all dead stars” is incomplete: It can onlydepict dead stars identified by researchers sofar—a known slice of what is ultimately anunknowable quantity. Extinct stars arecontinually discovered as astronomers porethrough data collected by telescopes in thehopes of better understanding the formationand demise of planetary systems.
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For Paterson’s most recent installation, lightsalong a fishing pier in Deal, England, flicker inreal-time synchrony with lightning stormsacross the world. The electromagneticsignatures of lightning from as far away as theNorth Pole or North Africa are received by anantenna on the pier and translated into visiblelight. As the pattern of lightning strikeschanges, the pier lights oscillate in subtlecorrespondence that contrasts with the powerand drama of the faraway storms they reflect.
Working with astronomers from the W.M.Keck Observatory, Paterson produced animage of “ancient darkness”—captured fromthe earliest observations of the universe, 13.2billion years ago, shortly after the Big Bang,when stars and galaxies began to form. Thedim image was broadcast for one minute onthe New York television station MNN onNovember 22, 2009, as part of PERFORMA09. The project was supported by the BritishCouncil Darwin Now awards.
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