Entropy: Live Astronomy Documentary Meets an Electronic Music Performance
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Portsmouth
Department Name: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
Abstract
'Entropy' is an art-science collaboration that aims to frame public talks about astronomy with a live audio-visual performance. The best way to describe it is as an astronomy-documentary-meets-electronic-music-concert and it will be performed at science, music, and art festivals across the UK and internationally. Alongside the main event, several workshops will be organised, centred around the science and aimed at schoolchildren, where the children will be able to speak with the scientists to learn about astronomy.
For the audio-visual performance, bespoke music tracks have been produced, inspired and guided by the contents of the talks. To supplement them, visualisations will now be created that will be projected on special screens during the performance and will enhance the immersive, and interactive aspects of the event. These visualisations will be created from real astronomical data from experiments like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Survey, as well as from computer simulations of supernova explosion, growth of the cosmic web etc. Furthermore, some of the concepts described in talks, for example the cosmic inflation at the birth of our universe, or the creation of ordinary matter when inflation ends are very difficult to visualise for the public and not many scientifically correct videos of them exist in the public domain. Such videos will be created as a part of this project and after the initial year of performances, they will be released under the Creative Commons Licence into the public domain.
The Entropy team started working together in 2011, when they first formed under a working title of 'Neutrino'. They consisted of: Zazralt Magic now at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, whose expertise lie in the field of stellar astrophysics, Katarina Markovic now at the Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation in Portsmouth, who is a cosmologist, and Dopplereffekt, from Munich, Germany, who are a renown electronic music duo, whose compositions have always been inspired by science and technology. Later, the team was joined by Antivj from Brussels, Belgium, who are a cutting-edge visual arts studio and will create the visuals as well as the stage set-up.
This project presents science to the public in an entirely new format that will appeal to science, music and art fans alike. We expect to reach several thousand people in the first year just with the live performance. Online we count on tens of thousands of views of the material we release and expect that it will be used by many scientists and outreach officers in their public engagement activities in the future.
For the audio-visual performance, bespoke music tracks have been produced, inspired and guided by the contents of the talks. To supplement them, visualisations will now be created that will be projected on special screens during the performance and will enhance the immersive, and interactive aspects of the event. These visualisations will be created from real astronomical data from experiments like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Survey, as well as from computer simulations of supernova explosion, growth of the cosmic web etc. Furthermore, some of the concepts described in talks, for example the cosmic inflation at the birth of our universe, or the creation of ordinary matter when inflation ends are very difficult to visualise for the public and not many scientifically correct videos of them exist in the public domain. Such videos will be created as a part of this project and after the initial year of performances, they will be released under the Creative Commons Licence into the public domain.
The Entropy team started working together in 2011, when they first formed under a working title of 'Neutrino'. They consisted of: Zazralt Magic now at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, whose expertise lie in the field of stellar astrophysics, Katarina Markovic now at the Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation in Portsmouth, who is a cosmologist, and Dopplereffekt, from Munich, Germany, who are a renown electronic music duo, whose compositions have always been inspired by science and technology. Later, the team was joined by Antivj from Brussels, Belgium, who are a cutting-edge visual arts studio and will create the visuals as well as the stage set-up.
This project presents science to the public in an entirely new format that will appeal to science, music and art fans alike. We expect to reach several thousand people in the first year just with the live performance. Online we count on tens of thousands of views of the material we release and expect that it will be used by many scientists and outreach officers in their public engagement activities in the future.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Katarina Markovic (Principal Investigator) |
| Title | Entropy performance (simplified staging) at the Euclid Consortium Meeting in London |
| Description | Entropy was performed in June 2017 at the Euclid Consortium Meeting in London, UK. The performance was a further developed version that was presented at the premiere. This time the visual and lecture elements were updated. The staging had to be simplified because of the limited options at the venue. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | The audience is difficult to estimate, because the hall was not full. The best estimate would be 100-200 members consisting of both the general public (the event was advertised in TimeOut (https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/dark-matter-dark-energy) and experts (Euclid Consortium members - advert in the Euclid Newsletter - https://www.euclid-ec.org/Documents/Newsletter/EC-Newsletter_issue07.pdf). The performance was received well, receiving much very positive verbal feedback directly afterwards. In addition, several requests were expressed to perform on other occasions, with one having been followed up with further communication (in the Milton Keyns theatre), but not scheduled yet due to scheduling difficulties. In addition, the performance resulted in some social media activity, in particular: https://twitter.com/EC_Euclid/status/872015409783898112, https://twitter.com/EnDirectDuLabo/status/872202952576032768, https://twitter.com/emsk1g/status/872172885766492160. |
| URL | http://euclid2017.london/index.php/evening-events |
| Title | Two Entropy premieres |
| Description | Entropy was performed twice in September 2016 at the TodaysArt festival in The Hague. The performance featured the talk about Cosmology, explaining the birth of the universe, Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations and the future predicted end of times (among other astronomy topics). The talk was accompanied by live and pre-recorded music by the electronic music duo called Dopplereffekt, who had composed their pieces specifically for this project and that were not released elsewhere. The entire performance was immersive, largely due to the double screen projection of visualisations of simulations of scientific concepts and real astronomical data from the SDSS and DES surveys. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | An audience of approximately 750 art festival attendees was reached. Here is a public website containing a video summary of the TodaysArt festival where they featured the Entropy premieres: http://todaysart.org/festivals/todaysart-nl-2016/ The Entropy clip starts at about 1:40 until about 2:10. There were several Tweets about this performance: https://twitter.com/entropyspace. A review was posted on ResidentAdvisor: "Dopplereffekt managed to keep their audience engaged during a lecture on a topic that could easily have been too much for a Saturday evening: the Big Bang. Stardust, blobs and Milky Ways were projected onto a huge screen that dwarfed the speaker-cosmologist Dr. Dida Markovic-creating a starry universe all around her. While Markovic spoke, Dopplereffekt founder Gerald Donald (AKA Heinrich Mueller) manipulated a soundboard and various synths, at first to minimal effect. But as stardust collapsed into planets, the music started bubbling with energy. On its own the score wasn't that thrilling, but combined with telescopic images, it had the audience enthralled." (Dopplereffekt is the band.) https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/19954 There is interest and further performances in the UK and abroad are in negotiation. |
| URL | http://todaysart.nl/2016/program/entropy/ |
| Title | Two full Entropy performances |
| Description | The updated version of Entropy was performed twice in June 2017 at Sonar+D festival in Barcelona. This time the updated live musical element was included together with the full dual screen set-up. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | An audience of 500 per performance was reached - each of the two performances had the auditorium filled to capacity. The show was also reviewed positively many times online, e.g. "While most festivals warm consumers gently into the day with low-level indie bands and novelty acts, Sónar kicks off its first full day of music with actual proper science, courtesy of Entropy, a collaboration between astronomer and cosmologist Dr Dida Markovic, digital arts label Antivj, coder Elie Zananiri, Detroit techno legends Dopplereffekt and thousands of scientists who contributed their research. The idea, essentially, is to tell the story of the universe, from the Big Bang to the universe's possible demise, using floating visualisations of real astronomical data, Dopplereffekt's chilling Detroit ambience (played live) and a lecture from Dr Markovic that is pitched perfectly - it is understandable and comprehensive. [...] Most people will have some idea of extremes of scale, temperature and time that the history of the Big Bang theory entails - a mixture of astronomically small moments in time and billion-year histories, played out at extreme densities and heats - but Entropy does a fantastic job of reminding us just how mindblowingly extreme the birth of the universe was and stands as a tribute to the human thirst for scientific knowledge and advancement, something that is more relevant than ever in the era of Trump and Michael Gove's knuckle-dragging disdain for experts. That makes the show sound decidedly dry, though, which Entropy is emphatically not. It is immersive and fascinating, like being sucked into a particular entertaining science programme in your dreams, while Dopplereffekt's soundtrack is wonder of cosmic machine funk." (http://thequietus.com/articles/22860-sonar-2017-review-bad-gyal-arca-miiin-floorplan-thundercat). In addition, we received attention in classical media and on social media, many people posting images and short videos of the show. |
| URL | https://sonarplusd.com/en/programs/barcelona-2017/areas/tech-shows/entropy |
| Description | We have performed the show twice in The Hague at the TodaysArt 2016 festival to an audience of between 700-800 people. We have performed the show once in London at the Euclid Consortium Meeting 2017 to an audience of between 100-200 people. We have performed the show twice at the Sonar+D 2017 festival in Barcelona to an audience of between 900-1000 people. |
| Exploitation Route | We are working on sharing the materials we have produced for the performances with the community. As mentioned in other sections, we have already made the software public. We have now received a small grant from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation to make the software more easily usable by others and to produce some standalone videos that can be used in other engagement activities. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://todaysart.nl/2016/program/entropy/ |
| Description | There has been some reach online, but this is limited as the project is still ongoing and further performances are being negotiate. As examples, here are some reviews from TodaysArt in 2016 (some in Dutch), two very positive, two less so: - http://www.gonzocircus.com/todaysart2016/ - https://yeahiknowitsucks.wordpress.com/2016/09/27/two-days-of-art-todaysart-2016-day-two/ - http://3voor12.vpro.nl/lokaal/den-haag/artikelen/overzicht/2016/September/TodaysArt-2016.html - https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/19954. Furthermore, here are some of the reviews from Sonar+D in 2017 (some in Spanish): - http://www.arshake.com/en/lesperienza-dei-live-al-sonar-festival-2017, - http://thequietus.com/articles/22860-sonar-2017-review-bad-gyal-arca-miiin-floorplan-thundercat, - http://www.digicult.it/news/passionate-report-sonard-technology-art-industries-convert, - http://www.theransomnote.com/events/reviews/review-sonar-2017, - http://zapbangmagazine.com/music/features/sonar-2017-report, - http://diariodesign.com/2017/06/las-escenografias-mas-espectaculares-se-vieron-sonar-2017, - http://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2017/06/16/5943bb0a22601dfc7a8b45d0.html,http://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2017/06/16/5943bb0a22601dfc7a8b45d0.html, - http://www.buenosaliens.com/notas.cfm/cod.67788.t.manteniendo-el-nivel.htm, - http://www.kaput-mag.com/rainbow_en/sonar-2017_rolling-with-heat, - https://chickenorpasta.com.br/2017/sonar-barcelona-2017 (pic only), - http://www.ara.cat/cultura/Princess-Nokia-Dawn-Simposen-Sonar_0_1815418525.html, - http://www.eargasmweb.com/cronica-sonar-de-dia-jueves, - http://www.sociedaddelainnovacion.es/los-5-proyectos-mas-innovadores-sonar-d-2017, - http://www.monitornacional.com/todaysart-dopplereffekt-antivj-scientists-artist-coders-entropy. We could not find any reviews of the London 2017 performance online, but we received one accidentally and privately in an email from an audience member: "I have no connection with the project other than having seen the presentation and having a feeling that it is as culturally significant to people today as the great medieval stained glass windows were when new. It gave me a glimpse of the enormity of creation and a sense of something that is beyond what is 'known'. I feel it deserves to be more widely seen. I couldn't think of anyone with which to share my excitement until I heard you on the radio the other day. I think you would appreciate its significance and it may be something that the Humboldt Forum might be interested in. [...] The show defies description. Turning it into words lessens its impact. So I won't try. I had hoped top find it on You Tube but sadly there is little about it on the internet. So having launched this shot into the dark, I will leave it to you to investigate if you want to." As mentioned in other sections, the software repository on GitHub was forked a couple of times. It is not clear yet what this has resulted in. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Title | Software to simulate and visualise the physics discussed in the Entropy performance |
| Description | Several repositories on GitHub contain pieces of software used to create physics simulations of concepts and visualisations of real astronomical data discussed in the Entropy performance. The software also governs the timeline setup and effects that appear on the Entropy dual screens. Most of the repositories are "forks", or modifications of the OpenFrameworks public library. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The software was used to run the visual projections in the Entropy premiere performances at the TodaysArt festival in The Hague in September 2016. It has also been "forked" 3 times so far by others in the developer community (the Entropy and ofxTimeline repositories twice and once respectively). |
| URL | https://github.com/Entropy |
| Description | Interview for C-TV on Austrian national TV, ORF |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was an interview about Entropy at the Sonar+D festival. Unfortunately the website that describes the piece seems down, so all the information here is from what we were told in advance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.campusfernsehen.at/sonar-d-2017 |
| Description | Interview for Facebook Live |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an interview about the project and the performance at Sonar+D in Barcelona, in June 2017. The interview was transmitted live on Facebook and is still available there (shows likes and views as well) - see URL below. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/weare.europe.eu/videos/1919562884932396 |
| Description | Online presence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A basic website was published (and is still available) at http://entropyspace.net. This was created by University of Portsmouth master students. A Twitter account was connected to it: https://twitter.com/entropyspace |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://entropyspace.net |