Throughout 2019 and 2020 I am working on a new spatial composition using data from the NASA TESS mission. I became a Creative Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Birmingham in 2017.

I approached Prof Bill Chaplin who leads the HiROS team of asteroseismologists in the School of Physics and Astronomy back in 2011 when I realised that they studied the natural acoustic resonances of the Sun and other stars. I was fascinated by the microtonal relationships that exist within the overtone structures of the stars and have collaborated with the group ever since, spending 2014 as Leverhulme Artist in Residence and making a number of sound works that incorporate asterosiemological data from the NASA Kepler and TESS missions. Following our successful collaboration and an invitation to discuss it at an AHRC workshop, Prof Bill Chaplin has run further workshops and embarked on collaborations with other artists through PHYART – a Physics meets Art project at the University of Birmingham. More info is available here:

I am currently learning about the celestial coordinate system during development of my new sound installation that makes use of data from the NASA TESS mission. TESS – the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite – is a space telescope for NASA’s Explorers Program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method. I am developing a spatial composition using TESS data as it returns to earth. The work is generously supported through Arts Council Englnd DYCP programme.

Below is an animation by Prof Paul Robinson on Youtube explaining positions on the Celestial Sphere.

The image above is a celestial globe exhibited in the exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics at V&A Museum in 2018. Photo: C Devine.