“Northern Lights” presented by Kuljuntausta
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Artists and Scientists in Collaboration
Presentation Title:
- Northern Lights
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
Northern Lights takes the Aurora Borealis as its source material in a collaboration between art and science. In 2001, when composer and sound artist Petri Kuljuntausta was searching for new ideas for a forthcoming concert, he discovered that interesting new sound material had recently been recorded under bright Aurora Borealis. During thousands of years many observations have been made, however, there are no earlier measurements or recordings containing similar data. He contacted the person behind the research project, scientist Unto K. Laine, and a listening session was promptly arranged at the Acoustic Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology. Kuljuntausta was excited about the originality of the sounds and the sonic range of their characteristics, and the idea of a composition based on these sounds from space began to crystallize. The collaboration had begun.
In this concert we hear the original field recordings as well as processed versions of Auroral sounds. A continuous dialogue between the auroral soundscapes and their digitally manipulated alternate forms is created on stage using only real-time digital sound processors, such as a touch-sensitive sound processor.
Performer: Petri Kuljuntausta.
Visuals: Sami van Ingen.
Original field recordings: Unto K. Laine.
