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Taking Soundings places musical composition and sound art in a space of navigation and landscape. It suggests that technologies of navigation contribute to forming our relationship to the natural environment. Through the media of sound, moving image and space, the research contemplates the artistic implications of navigation through a technological position of motion, instability and noise. This empirical approach highlights the contrasts between a bodily experience of a physical environment and technologies of invisibility and intangibility. Sound, in the meeting of its physical and musical guises, is the primary catalyst.

As a composer I advocate that musical composition can benefit from stepping outside its own formal systems in order to investigate how sound can operate within the larger context of image and space. Beginning with the musical score, which does not contain sound but encodes potential interpretations by a performer within its notation, I use this interpretative gap between image and sound to drastically expand the idea of the score. Building on my other formal training in architecture and moving image, I initially looked into sound in relation to landscape and new technologies, then focused on navigation techniques. Much like a score, these presented spatial and temporal concepts with a direct physical relationship to the person navigating. It also created a discourse around the map, chart, trace and the various levels of notated or linear images in relation to the environment.In attempting to chart as carefully as I can an illusive area between sound, image and space as we actively make it, or physically compose it, I take on the complex influences of technologies.

Whether navigation infrastructure, communication protocols or sound synthesis programming, these shape the forms of interaction between place, self and sound. In order to gain more than a surface level of understanding into these technologies, I have taught myself celestial navigation and experimented with GPS navigation in a practice made up of studio work, field work and performances. Here I present both the concepts and experiences that have motivated me and give an overview of the basic principles of navigation. The central technical section provides the fundamentals for the compositional choices of Taking Soundings described towards the end of the paper. To breath, to walk, to swim, to rhythm.The yacht stops becalmed in the middle of the sea, I climb overboard and swim away, then return towards the bow and together we move forwards at the same speed through the water. The horizon stays at the same distance however far we move towards it. We are sailing forwards but remain in the absolute centre of a disk. Learning to swim front crawl taught me how to breathe, how to stop salt water flooding down my nose making me choke at every breath. I breath every two strokes, sometimes every three, whilst my view shifts from the underwater world, cuts through the crumpled surface light and sees the water level and the sky in a second before returning underwater.

Conscious of the responsibility that I am my own engine, as I breathe out through my nose the bubbles rise past my ears with a loud pressure.The sun is extremely bright around noon so I have to use all three shades on the sextant telescope as I pull down the sun to rest its lower limb on the horizon.Sleeping on deck … the sun sets, the moon rises, the moon sets, the planets follow it across the sky, the sun rises …  the sun sets, the moons rises, the planets follow it, the sun rises, the moon sets …. the sun sets, the planets follow it, the moon rises, the sun rises, the moon sets …As I walk I remember, and the more I walk the more I remember incidents that I never thought memorable.I am performing with the sextant and take a sight on the pole star, just as a plane points to it with its floodlights, so I take the next sight on the next plane, a false sight moving fast across the celestial sphere.I pull down my sound until it disappears, but I notice that the audience remain completely intent on watching and listening, and so eventually I bring it back in.The ability of humans to adapt to environments on or underwater, in mid air or under conditions of micro-gravity, relies on technological support (Buread 2006).

Protective skins, breathing apparatus and many other systems such as a space suit with pressurizing, heating and cooling systems, and communication systems to converse with others, maintain a microenvironment suitable for humans in an artificially sustained environment. As humans we carry the desire and some ability to explore and adapt to circumstances that are extreme to our biological nature, where we have to technologically extend ourselves in order to survive (Saint-ExupŽry, 1942). However, this drive cannot be thought of on an exclusively technological level. To swim, surf or to float in a boat already forces an alteration of bodily state where the stability of land is replaced by the perpetual surface motion of the sea. I am interested in the human potential for adaptive expansion across two or more states (land, sea, air, underwater, micro-gravity) and the subjective, experiential awareness of environment and place that this entails. The physicality of sound and its dispersion through air and water have distinct effects on orientation. Physically moving within these different states requires adapting to specific problems of orientation and developing different techniques of navigation. How do technological extensions of orientation and navigation in (potentially or once) extreme environments, or those not suited to our physical human capacities, morph our perception of place and extend our horizon beyond the limits of a still very human body? And where does sound fit into this?My investigations of satellite navigation using GPS and celestial navigation using tables and sextant, revealed how we calculate a static position by observing objects in motion. Navigation is essentially a calculation of position, or location, derived from points of information in space and time, which are continuously updated to mark traces and define future trajectories. When navigating on land, these points or landmarks are fixed and we measure our motion by calculating our speed and direction in relation to these points. The development of navigation across open sea however, where there are no fixed marks, required a different strategy for locating position accurately (Deleuze & Guattari 1987).

Celestial navigation is the technique of navigating by measuring ones movement in relation to the movement of the sun, moon, planets and stars. It was used by small boats until the widespread availability of GPS in the 1990Ős and is still used as a back-up system. This technique relies on a conceptually antiquated theoretical structure of an earth-centred universe surrounded by a celestial sphere. To understand the basics of celestial navigation, imagine two spheres, one smaller enclosed within the other larger sphere. The internal sphere represents the surface of the earth (the terrestrial sphere), the external sphere marks the surface along which the heavenly bodies move (the celestial sphere), both spheres are anchored to a point in the centre of the earth. I am somewhere at some particular time on the outside surface of the inner sphere and I want to locate myself precisely. To do this I observe the celestial sphere above me and, using a sextant, take a measurement of the angular distance of, for example, the sun above the sea horizon that I can observe, noting the precise time of the sight. I can enter these two pieces of information into the tabulated data of the Nautical Almanac and the Sight Reduction Tables, which give corrections for altitude and declination of the sun for a particular time and date, from which I can calculate a plotting line. With two or more sights taken over the course of a few hours I can combine them to produce a running fix to infer an area within which I am, or was, located.These measurements can only be made use of by superimposing a reference grid over the terrestrial sphere Đ the concepts of latitude and longitude. A geographic position is any point fixed on the earths surface by its terrestrial coordinates of longitude and latitude. This grid is wrapped around the sphere of the earth and the measurements represent the angular distance from a central point.

The unit of measurement is a degree, each degree divides into 60 minutes of space, and each minute into 60 seconds of space. Longitude takes the earths pole as the central point of the circle, marks an arbitrary starting line of 0 degrees, fixed now at Greenwich, and divides the circle into two halves of 180 degrees East and 180 degrees West. The coordinate of longitude is therefore given as how many degrees East or West of 0. Latitude makes an imaginary two-dimensional plane sliced at the equator and takes an imaginary point at the centre of the earth. The angular distance from this central point north or south of the 0 degree equator, and not more than 90 degrees which would be the poles, is the co-ordinate of latitude. In order to navigate by the stars this grid of longitude and latitude on the terrestrial sphere is extended outwards to the celestial sphere where the position of the sun or planets are located by coordinates. Celestial longitude is measured as 360 degrees West of 0, and is called the Greenwich Hour Angle (GHA), as longitude is related to the change over time as the earth spins (see time zones). Celestial latitude refers to the number of degrees North or South of the celestial equator, and is called the Declination. The observers Zenith is the projection of their terrestrial position on the celestial sphere, so that the declination of my zenith is the same as my latitude and the GHA of my zenith is the same as my longitude. (Cunliffe, 2001)This relation between the two spheres, both of which are in motion, is shadowed by the navigation satellites that now orbit the earth as the Global Positioning System. NMEA data (National Marine Electronics Association), the protocol used by the GPS to define the transmission of data between satellites and receivers, contains a large amount of information about the position of satellites and the strength of their respective signals. Although in everyday use we are only concerned with the resulting longitude and latitude, this raw data shows the underlying principles of navigation. It includes the precise time and date, longitude and latitude, the specified hemisphere, the number of satellites visible, their identification number, the strength of the signal, the altitude of the antenna, the elevation and azimuth of the satellite. The computation of position from this data is updated every second, which is the resolution with which the satellite sends out its information. Although the NMEA protocol shows a technical throwback to the concepts and terminology of celestial navigation the differences in technique present a significant change in our conscious awareness of space and position. If navigation is not only a way to position oneself with coordinates but also to locate oneself in direct relation to the surrounding environment this is important: the GPS system has effectively split the geographic position of navigation from the environmental location of navigation it has split the data from the meaning, much like how, with electronics, sound was split from the body as a production instrument.

This means that the GPS trace can exist without reference to the physicality of the place, the map of position has an abstract existence that could refer to anything else and is not tied to the quality of land or sea over which it is laid. Whereas historical forms of navigation were specific to their environment – a compass and map needs landmarks, a sextant and tables need a sea horizon the satellite form of navigation can be used in the same manner on land, at sea, in the air.I have been thinking and experimenting with how to use this navigation information in composition, and the relation between navigation, physical orientation, sound and the map. Sound dissipates through air, water and solids over sometimes large distances. We can think of sound as a vibration or oscillation that we find audible within the physical constraints of human ears. Our experience of sound, even at the extremities of our hearing range, is tied to our physiological capabilities, and every inaudible or unheard sound must be brought into our range of hearing and therefore translated or altered considerably. We can listen to sound as information about the immediate environment, and a change in sound signals a change in situation.

We don’t actively listen to sounds that continue over periods of time, but we notice any change and link it to a change of state. This is not the same as ambient sound but is an informative state of listening through periods of non-attention. Given these ideas, in Taking Soundings I transform the satellite data from a GPS receiver into sounds. In the first phase of the project I treated the longitude and latitude as x and y coordinates on a flat plane, as if represented on a map, giving each a simple pitch to make two short simultaneous tones within audible range. Other data such as altitude and the number of connected satellites were presented as various clicks, and the spatialisation of the sound was determined by the inferred direction of movement. This first phase looked into coastal navigation and in particular lighthouse technology in contrast to GPS technology, where the signals of lighthouse flashes were presented as direct translations of waveform signals from light to sound (Harris, 2007) With these components a slowly evolving sound environment existed which I described as coastlines of sound.In the second phase of Taking Soundings I looked into celestial navigation as a way to understand more about the concepts and terminology behind satellite navigation. The longitude and latitude coordinates of recorded GPS traces of my movements, are treated as two audio signals whose waveforms are multiplied by each other, a ring modulation, creating one tone. The data therefore generates a sound with a distinct pitch and timbre that can become generally recognisable as a location whether in Holland or Portugal in the northern hemisphere, or Sydney in the southern hemisphere, and which subtly change with local movement in these areas. All other incoming data received by the GPS is used to describe the envelope (shape) of a sound over a very short period of time. This results in a click of varying timbre. Changes in altitude are mapped to the overall volume of the sound signal. The clock time in the data is used to drive the timing and rhythm of the sounds. These sounds are placed in space around the audience. The spinning spatialisation of the sound is described by the speed of orbit of the earth at the latitude of the location of the trace, the earth’s surface spinning faster at the equator than at the pole. The resulting soundscapes, which can be generated with both recorded traces and live GPS data, occupy a position of ambiguity between sound as information and sound as music. I’ve set up a sound environment that can last for long expanses of time, or can describe an event, it can be emotionally distant or provoke subjective memories. My use of sound in these pieces consciously distances the practical use of the GPS for navigation, replacing it with a weightlessness of floating points of moving sound.In trying to chart a shifting state that exists between sound and image, as between land and sea, I notice tensions.

There is a tension that comes from the mapping of a curved multidimensional space onto a two dimensional surface, a tension of encoding information that can be interpreted by someone else at another time, and a tension of ownership or authorship where map-making is in some way a claiming of territory. These are also classic tensions between sound and image and can be found in the notation of a musical score, much the same as in a map or chart. I am trying to re-chart the idea of a score by using the boundary of environmental opposites such as coastlines or deltas. This is why lighthouses are extremely interesting as points/signals at the absolute boundary of landscape and for the (now historical) technological progress they represent. In the first image, the trace of the GPS records the route of a sailing boat on a lake in Holland, an delta area where re-claimed land is often lower than water and below sea-level (Figure 1).

I like the confused inaccuracies of the trace as the boat appears to sail over and through the polders ignoring the solidity of land. In the second image, my collected traces of coastlines in different parts of the world are folded in together so that they fit within one degree of longitude and latitude (Figure 2).

This folding and overlapping generates lines of interruption and new spaces or holes between the combined contours of imaginary coastlines. The implied or potential sounds, as with the memories, are shaken together into a mess of charted territories. (Figure 3)

I am interested in a situation where environmentally I sit between two states, and a situation where musically and artistically I occupy two states. It is an investigation of the relation of the map to the process or progress, and the mapping of a territory, the chart of a trace. When does the trace become more than a subjective memory? Or can it never be more than a trace of someone’s imagination? Given the impossibility of others accessing this memory that the line provokes, how much of public and private is encoded into a map or score, and how can it be interpreted? This navigating is a way of precisely ordering techniques to eliminate errors of position. But our direct experience is often of misalignments, approximations, instability and a noise generated by the tension between the theory and the practice, the abstract maths and calculations and the messy reality of physically being in the world. This gap between the calculated and the experienced and the striving for accuracy is where I locate composition.

The first stage of the project Taking Soundings was supported by an Artistic Fellowship at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne March to November 2006, (http://www.yolandeharris.net/takingsoundings.htm) It is more formally described in my paper ‘Taking Soundings: Coastal Navigations and Orientations in Sound’ which I presented at the 4th International Mobile Music Workshop in May 2007, hosted by Waag Society and STEIM Amsterdam. A performance and installation were held in Cologne November 2006, and adapted for a sound installation at SNO galleries in Sydney March 2007.  The second stage of Taking Soundings was supported by an Artistic Residency at STEIM in Amsterdam during June and July 2007. The work in progress was presented at Mediamatic as part of DNK series Amsterdam June 2007. This stage culminated in a solo outdoor performance, the first incorporating the sextant, as part of a New Music and Astronomy Festival in Catalonia August 2007.

References:

Yolande Harris, Amsterdam, September 2007

Buread, A. (2006) What if … art and weightlessness. In Bakke, M. (Ed) Going Aerial : air, art, architecture

Jan van Eyck Academie, NLCunliffe, T. (2001) Celestial Navigation Fernhurst Books UK

Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. A Thousand Plateaus; capitalism and schizophrenia (original 1987 in French) Contiuum London/New York 2003 translated by Brian Massumi pp 478-482

Harris, Y. (2007) Taking Soundings: Investigating Coastal Navigations and Orientations in Sound. In Proceedings 4th International Mobile Music Workshop http://www.mobilemusicworkshop.orgde

Saint-Exupery, A. (1942) Flight to Arras (Pilote de Guerre)

Nautical Almanac 2007 Commercial Edition, (2006) Paradise Cay Publications Sight Reduction Tables for Air Navigation, downloaded in June 2007 from http://www.nga.mil/portal/site/maritimeNMEA 0183 protocol, from September 2007 described on http://www.nmea.org/pub/0183/ , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_0183 and http://home.wi.rr.com/n9uur/nmea.htmlAcknowledgements

Yolande Harris (UK1975) composer and media artist based in Amsterdam http://www.yolandeharris.net  yolandeh@terra.es Yolande is working with sound, video and interactive technologies to create Score Spaces through performances and installations.

She studied music at Dartington College of Arts (BA), architecture and film at Cambridge University (MPhil). She has held residencies as Artistic Fellow Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Jan Van Eyck Academy Maastricht and STEIM Amsterdam. Yolande exhibits and performs her work at venues and festivals throughout Europe and Australia. She taught interaction design at the Technical University of Eindhoven, regularly presents her work at guest lectures, conferences and in journals.

We are nostalgiac when we lose the phenomena we have fought with – open unknown seas, rainy forests, high plateaus or deep caves. We as the mankind we have grown through these fights and we have gradually becomed stronger than most of the sea storms, underground rivers and deep forests. Civilisations are evolving when they fight with nature and shrinking when they start to fight with themselves. The last wilderness that remains is climate. This relationship is far from being friendly or melancholic one. It is a threat of the magnitude of Pacific Ocean in 15th century. We know now that climate is stronger and does not care about consequences. What we should talk about are not only the real impacts of climate change but the archaic processes how we deal with wilderness – fears, awe, conflicts, reconciliations and finally protection. But we are at this moment at the very beginning of a deal with a new God of Climate Change.

CLIMATE IS NOT AN ISOLATED SYSTEM

The climate is not an isolated system. It is closely connected with the Sun and other parts of the Earth system such as the ocean, cryosphere, biosphere and so on. The connection with other parts of the Earth is a function of the spatial and temporal scale. For limited time scales – years and decades – the climate depends on the composition of the atmosphere and on solar activity, but for large time scales the other parts of the Earth, such as the lithosphere and biosphere, must be taken into consideration. The climate cannot be considered only as the behavior of the atmosphere but as the total response of the Earth and Solar systems to an ever-changing flow of influences. The biosphere activity buffers some of these changes and makes the Earth more habitable.

Changes in climate involve factors both external to and within the climate system. External factors include solar variability, volcanic activity (especially dust and aerosol eruptions), astronomical characteristics of the Earth’s orbit and meteorite impacts. Internal factors include variability within the atmosphere and ocean, and anthropogenic activities. The climatic system can be viewed on three hierarchical levels:

• Level 1: Solar energy. The solar input at a given point on the Earth’s surface is the result of the distance between Sun and Earth, the Earth’s axis inclination and the internal solar activity. The amount of solar energy captured by the Earth depends on the interactions of the Earth’s orbital cycles and the internal cycles of solar energy production. Some of Earth’s orbital characteristics happen at very different time scales from the solar luminosity cycles (11 years to 400 thousand years) so a variety of interactions must be expected.

• Level 2: Greenhouse effect. Part of the incoming solar energy is reflected back to outer space but entrapped by the greenhouse gases. Without greenhouse gases, the present Earth would be about 32º C cooler. The uneven carbon burial could have caused temperature shifts of about 50^o C during the Proterozoic.

• Level 3: Function of sea currents. The changing solar output is entrapped by the Earth’s surface. In the Quaternary, more than 80 % of the incoming energy is captured by the ocean for two reasons: 1) the equatorial part of the Earth receives the maximum of solar energy; 2) the ocean is predominant in the equatorial part of the Earth. The captured heat is distributed by a system of sea currents in a manner similar to that of a house’s central heating. The distribution of land and sea is crucial for heat and humidity transfer.

The gradual development of climate can be interrupted by rapid or even abrupt climatic changes caused by reorganization of the sea currents, meteorite impacts and volcanic events. Temperature rises or falls on the scale of 5-10º C were observed to happen about 20 times during the last glacial within a few decades or even years.

ONSET OF THE QUATERNARY GLACIATION

We observe throughout geological history several factors implying the coming of ice ages:

• The continent or islands must be at the right place or high enough to collect and build up the ice masses.

• The equator-pole gradient should be high in order to transfer the water vapor evaporated in the tropical zone to the pole regions. The glaciations are not only the result of low temperatures, but also of the humidity transfer to the low-temperature area.

• The global pattern of sea currents should be organized in such a way as to bring the moisture poleward but not to melt the ice sheets.

• The concentration of greenhouse gases, mainly CO₂, should be low.

• The total solar irradiance should be diminished.

Between 3.2 and 2.4 Ma, the climate system evolved through another cooling stage ending with the abrupt cooling and ice expansion at 2.5-2.7 Ma. Rapid tectonic movements possibly triggered these changes. The Central American Isthmus became closed and the poleward heat and humidity transport increased. The Greenland-Scotland ridge sank down more than 1000 m and the warm near-surface Atlantic currents were able to reach the Greenland-Norwegian regions, while the cold bottom currents could spread over the Atlantic. The Himalayan uplift may have caused a change in the upper troposphere winds. The Northern Hemisphere glaciation probably represented the switching mechanism of the global ice age onset, because the Antarctic ice sheet was isolated by mid-ocean ridges.

PLEISTOCENE ICE AGES (1.8 MA – 11700 YEARS BC)

We live in the Quaternary period, which has been assigned a beginning at 1.8 Ma, while other scientists propose a ”long” Pleistocene starting at approximately 2.7 Ma. The Earth climates have, during this time, undergone periodic glaciations and cyclic environmental changes. These were accompanied by changes in the geochemical fluxes of many atmospheric elements, in biosphere productivity and oceanic and in atmospheric circulation patterns. Deep-sea sediments show that during the Pleistocene the climatic changes are dominated by orbital forcing, i.e. by the changing distance and inclination between the Sun and the Earth. Temperature and ice volume was mainly controlled by the so-called Milankovitch orbital cycles – changes in precession (19 and 23 ky), obliquity (41 ky) and eccentricity (100 ky). Several other cycles (1 Ma, 400 ky and 60 ky) sometimes appear in the fossil record.

Even if the astronomical theory of Quaternary climate changes is accepted, one should be aware that the global climatic state is not a simple function of the incoming solar energy. The Earth modulates the amount of incoming solar energy by changes in the surface reflectivity, thermal retention in ocean and heat redistribution by sea currents. The process of climate modulation is made even more complex by biological feedback and biogeochemical cycling of atmospheric elements.

The Pleistocene epoch can be divided into a series of ice ages or glacials and warm periods or interglacials. The term ”ice ages” should be restricted to the polar and temperate areas covered by the continental glaciers, because although the tropical and subtropical zones cooled by some 4-7º C, mild tropical weather prevailed even during the ”ice age”. More exact terms such as ”cryomere” or ”Pleistocene cool mode” have been proposed but are not widely used.

The Antarctic ice sheet was not significantly larger than it is now because dry conditions and partial isolation did not allow the build-up of a more extensive ice sheet. The most drastic changes of the glaciated area (shifts from 10 % to 29 % of global ice-covered land) occurred in the Northern Hemisphere. The Laurentide ice sheet covered the northern part of the U.S., reaching as far south as New York. Iceland and Greenland were almost entirely ice-covered. The Scandinavian ice sheet extended south to Kiev, Warsaw and Berlin. Much of Siberia was overspread by the Siberian ice sheet. High mountains on all continents (even in Japan and Hawaii) carried glaciers of varying dimensions.

The effects of the glacial climate and continental ice sheets included a fall in sea levels of up to 120 m, because the water cumulated in ice sheets. The cyclicity of glacial and interglacial modes remains puzzling for the early Pleistocene. The 40 ky cycle seems to have been dominant until some 0.9 Ma ago the 100 ky cycle took control. The early Pleistocene ice ages were shorter and less severe, while the interglacial climates were warmer and possibly (as evidenced by red soils in loess sequences) more arid. The 40 ky orbital cycle is, with regard to insolation, more influential than the weaker 100 ky cycle. In that case, why is the climate of the last million years driven by the latter cycle? The possible explanation may depend on the extent of the ice sheets. They grew so large about 1 Ma ago that due to thermal inertia the longer cycle prevailed. The climatic change during glacials is more severe in the polar and temperate zone where the annual temperatures dropped by about 10º C and the total precipitation decreased by about 50 %. The equatorial zone witnessed less pronounced changes. The glacial seasonality of the temperate zone can be compared to present-day Siberia – short, hot summers alternating with long, dry, windy winters.

The last million years are marked in the temperate zone by 9 large ice ages lasting about 100 ky and 9 interglacials lasting about 20 ky. We have no reasons to conclude – in spite of the present warming – that the interglacial period we live in will not change into another glacial. The orbital parameters suggest significant cooling 5 ky from the present. The last ice age was interrupted by abrupt climatic changes. They are well documented during the last ice age but will very probably also be found in the other glacial intervals. They are known as follows:

Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillation is a rapid, relatively short warm and cold oscillation that punctuated the last glaciation and lasts up to three thousand years. The mean annual temperature may rise by up to 10º C within a few decades and then fall abruptly back into glacial conditions.

Heinrich event is a period of massive iceberg discharge into the North Atlantic, which occurred several times during last ice ages and probably many times throughout the Pleistocene. The meltwater blocked the upwelling sea currents and it reduced the thermohaline circulation and thus the poleward heat transfer. One of the most surprising and alarming climatic findings of the last years holds that the thermohaline conveyor belt, represented by a complex of sea currents, can be switched off and on within several years. The result is a drastic global climatic change. However, thermohaline circulation during interglacials seems to be less variable and less sudden.

HOLOCENE OSCILLATIONS

The Holocene Epoch, also referred to as the Recent, is the latest interglacial interval of the Quaternary Period. It is unique because it is coincident with the development of post-Paleolithic human civilization. The influence of Man on nature and the environment and, recently, on the climate becomes more and more visible during this epoch. The Holocene has been extensively studied in Europe during the last century and thus a ”eurocentric” view of this epoch still prevails. New studies, however, show that the major climatic changes are simultaneous over the majority of the globe, although smaller or short-lived climatic changes are often restricted to small areas. For example, the Holocene climate fluctuations of the last centuries in the Rhine catchment are slightly different and asynchronous from the developments in the Elbe area. The minor climatic oscillations in Switzerland do not correspond to the oscillations recorded in Greece or Poland. The smaller and shorter the climatic fluctuations are, the more they tend to be restricted to different landscapes and regions.

The Holocene was originally considered a remarkably stable epoch, because major coolings occurred within the range of 1.2 – 1.8º C and major warmings were some 2-3º C higher than at present. The precipitation varied considerably within at least –50 % to +100 % on decadal, centurial and millennial time scales. There is growing evidence of at least three crises when the Holocene climate deteriorated abruptly, only to return to its previous stage within a few centuries. These are recorded in the abrupt falls of many African lakes and are dated to 12 000, 8200 and 5200 years before the present. Other droughts took place during the end of the Late Chalcolithic period some 4500-3900 years before the present, during the Early Iron Age at 2800-3300 years before the present and possibly on many other occasions. These aridity waves are often associated with human ethnic and cultural migrations and societal changes. The droughts, not the temperature, have always represented the principle obstacle to biome or civilization development during the Holocene.

Some of the world’s regions were more vulnerable to these fluctuations than other parts of the Earth; for example, the Saharan desert did not exist during most of the early Holocene. The Saharan Neolithic has appropriately been labeled the ”aqualithic culture” because turtles, mollusks and fish were important food components. The abrupt events are recorded by the ice core record as sharp troughs in atmospheric methane, implying a reduction in tropical wetlands. The main causes of the Holocene climate change are not properly understood, but the most frequent explanations are as follows:

• The first half of the Holocene was generally warmer in the Northern Hemisphere, because this part of the Earth received during the summer months some 8 % more of the insolation than it does at present. The elevated temperatures and humidity led to a so-called thermal optimum (9000-5500 years before the present). As the vegetation cover diversified under warm and more humid conditions a so-called forest optimum was reached in the temperate zone some 6000 years ago. Subhumid forest dominated Europe and temperate Asia during this interval.

• The climates in the tropical and subtropical zones were largely controlled by the position of the Intertropical Zone of Convergence (ITCZ) and its associated rains. ITCZ moved several times to the north and back again, bringing and withdrawing rains in the very climate-sensitive semi-arid belt of Asia and Africa. It very probably affected the monsoon regime of the Indian Ocean, which was stronger in the early Holocene.

• The periodical switching of the North Atlantic Oscillation (periodicity: 7-30 years) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (periodicity: 4-6 years) and the complex interplay among these large oceanic and atmospheric circulation systems led to abrupt short-lived temperature and humidity fluctuations.

• The human role in nature was far from being passive. The Mesolithic forest clearing, Neolithic agriculture, pasture and changes in land-use and thus surface reflectivity, massive recent emissions of greenhouse gases, nitrous oxides, aerosols, industrial dust and many other factors are either contributing to the natural climatic ”cycles” or in some cases even counterbalancing them.

THE LAST MILLENNIUM

The conventional view of the climate of the last millennium is concerned with the simple sequence of the Medieval Warm Epoch, Little Ice Age and Industrial Warming. Recent investigations have found no evidence for synchronous climate changes on the global level, but many regional anomalies happening on decadal time scales. The most significant environmental risks are not associated with mean temperatures but with changes of circulation patterns resulting in seasonality shifts and prolonged drought periods. The other important criterion of climate change is the frequency of extreme states; for example, the Medieval Warm Epoch (9^th to early 15^th century) represents an interval of abundant hydrological anomalies. Some of these may have led to anomalous warmth in some (but not all) regions.

The Little Ice Age (conventionally 1550-1850) is one of the coldest intervals in the entire Holocene. It displays wide temperature variation unevenly distributed in different regions. Some areas were warm at times when others were cold and vice versa. The solar variation and volcanic eruptions can be correlated with the climate oscillations of the last millennium. However, it is more difficult to find such a correlation for the last century. Humans seem to be reaching the point of becoming one of the prime factors of short-term climate change.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE PLANET AND LIFE

The atmosphere composition and the resulting climate represent the general response of the Earth system to an interconnected web of feedback loops among the ocean, lithosphere, biosphere and outer space. The general cause-effect scenario is often invalid, because complex systems behave like neural nets where direct causality is diminished and cycles or cascades of effects appear. Many synchronous changes of different parts of the Earth system shape the climate. The concept of planetary co-evolution fits our experience with the Earth system better than the idea of a chain of linear causes. Our climatic models are often too simplistic because we are required to choose one cause from the cycle of causes as the beginning, and then to deduce the consequent chain of climatic effects. The climate can be thus expressed as a never-ending and ever-changing dialogue between the planet and life.

Old house in Bahariya Oasis in Western Desert, Egypt. We sometimes believe that a dialogue between humans and nature takes place, but in fact we often hopelessly sit in front of the closed doors.

Baviti in Bahariya Oasis in Western Desert. The travellers and pilgrims frequently found abandoned cities in the desert and they asked if the climate is really as stable as we suppose.

The Valley or the World has always represented for Old as well Modern Egyptians the place of order encircled by chaotic barbarian forces of desert. We conquered all wilderness on the Earth but climate remained one of the last strange gods of our changing world ( all photos by V. Cilek).

Vaclav Cilek (*1955, Czech Republic)

Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Science, senior geologist, e-amil: cilek(at)gli.cas.cz.

V. Cilek studied Mining Institute and Faculty of Natural Science of Charles University. Be became involved in study of hydrothermal deposits, later he studied samples brought from Moon by Russian satellites and then he focused some twenty years ago on climate change and environmental issues. He combines the knowledge of humanities with natural science. He is author of aprox. 400 scientific topics and several books including award winning „Inscapes and landscapes; Makom book of places“ .

THE INFINITELY SMALL, THE INFINITELY LARGE AND THE HIGH ENERGY DENSITY FRONTIER

Fundamental physics explores areas of nature which are more and more distant from common sense and usual representations of reality. In the past decades, high energy particle accelerators have revealed a new world of sub-atomic particles and forces which govern the behaviour of matter. These objects are described within the frame of quantum mechanics and Einstein relativity, which dilute the usual concepts of determinism, localisation, time and energy. It was recently recognised that the properties of sub-atomic particles are intimately related to the behaviour of the Universe in its very first moments. Within the Big Bang model, now corroborated by numerous observations, the energy density was so high in the first fraction of second that all kinds of sub-atomic particles existed together, forming a gas of matter, anti-matter and radiation interacting in the same way as they do in present high-energy accelerators or violent cosmic phenomena like quasars or super-novae. This conjunction of cosmology and particle physics is one of the most striking trends of present fundamental research.

THE COSMOPHONE

The cosmophone is a tentative to reveal this close connection between the infinitely small and the infinitely large in a sensuous way, by detecting and imaging the continuous flow of elementary particles originating from our entire galaxy: cosmic rays. Figure 1 gives a general sketch of the concept and Figure 2 a schematic view of the technical implementation.

COSMIC RAYS

Our planet is continuously bombarded by cosmic rays made of protons and atomic nuclei which are emitted from throughout our galaxy. These particles can be accelerated to very high energies when they encounter gases in expansion as produced by super-novae. They are confined within the galaxy by the galactic magnetic field and travel typically several millions of years before reaching the earth. As they hit the upper atmosphere, cosmic rays create avalanches of elementary particles. The most penetrating of these are “muons”, which can reach sea level. A muon is a type of heavy electron not found in ordinary matter because of its very short life time. The human body is insensitive to muons, even though several muons pass through us every second. Muons can show up in three ways: either individually (the most frequent case), or as a bunch originating from a particularly energetic cosmic proton, or as an electromagnetic shower of electrons, anti-electrons and photons in case the muon interacts with matter above the installation.

  Figure 1 : overall concept of the cosmophone

PARTICLE DETECTION

The cosmic particle detection is based on standard techniques used for decades in high energy particle physics. Muons are detected by the very faint bluish light they generate in plastic scintillator strips deployed as two detector arrays located on the ceiling and the floor of the installation. The tiny light flashes are converted into short electric pulses by photo-multipliers. Parasitic noise from terrestrial natural radioactivity is discarded using the fact that muons travel at a speed close to the light speed, and therefore cross the installation quasi-instantaneously: a muon signature consists in two sensors hit simultaneously on the ceiling and the floor. The positions of the hit sensors give the direction of the muon trajectory in space. In case of electromagnetic showers, several contiguous sensors are hit in both detector arrays. The electromagnetic shower size variations are an essential additional source of randomness in the detected phenomena. The signals of all detected phenomena are readout by a fast data acquisition system, converted in MIDI format and transmitted almost instantaneously to a real time sound synthesis system.

SOUND SYNTHESIS

The aim of the sound synthesis is to instantaneously materialise the trajectories of cosmic particles in space as they move through a given point, and to offer additional features to composers for special effects. The sounds are produced digitally in real time by a computer which operates two arrays of loudspeakers directly hooked up to the detectors. Sound synthesis is technically handled with the program MAX-MSP, which is interfaced to the cosmic particles input parameters

Figure 2a: Technical implementation of the cosmophone: particle detection

Figure 2b: Technical implementation of the cosmophone: sound synthesis

through a more general framework, allowing the composer to drive the music as function of the occurrence of cosmic phenomena. The generation of sounds in three-dimensional space makes a heavy use of the laws of psycho-acoustics, but full freedom remains to the composer to interpret the cosmic phenomena in a personal way and let his imagination wander.

ARTISTIC CONTEXTS

The cosmophone can be declined in various artistic contexts, ranging from museum installations to more general implementations serving as framework for public artistic shows.

MUSEUM INSTALLATION

As a museum device, the cosmophone acts as a three-dimensional installation whose goal is to materialize the features of the detected phenomena in the most evocating way. As an example Figure 3 gives a view of the cosmophone built for the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris. In such an installation isolated muons are reproduced by activating the two loudspeakers associated to the top and bottom hit detectors. The sound is moved in space from the muon’s entry point down to its exit point, while shifting its frequency as would occur with a real moving source (Doppler effect). Impact sounds are added at the entry and exit points to improve the spatial localisation of the trajectory. Electromagnetic showers are materialized by trickling and streaming envelopes whose texture can depend on the size of the showers.

In such an installation, the choice of sound as a medium is essential for several reasons. First of all, sound is transmitted as a mechanical vibration, providing a direct contact with the distant phenomenon. The moderate ability of the ear to locate sound sources is also well matched to the rather coarse space sampling allowed by simple particle detectors and loudspeakers. Finally the present sophistication of numerical sound synthesis techniques allows a flexible real-time three-dimensional imaging of particle properties. Such an environmental reproduction is essential to the emotional impact of the physics phenomenon. These principles could be extended to the reproduction of many other physics processes.

  Figure 3: the cosmophone built for the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris

ARTISTIC SHOWS

The cosmophone can serve as a general framework to public artistic shows involving composers, choregraphers or other artists. Such a large cosmophone, covering an area of up to 100 squared meters and initially built for the 50^th anniversary of CERN (the European Centre for High Energy Physics located in Geneva), is now exploited by the Music Company UBRIS STUDIO led by Jacques Diennet. Potential performances include pure electronic compositions, mixed compositions with musicians improvising within the cosmophone, or even dancers acting as function of the detected phenomena. The public can stand either within the cosmophone, or outside like in front of a conventional stage. In all cases, the cosmophone offers artists an opportunity to express how the extreme worlds of sub-atomic particles and cosmic phenomena stimulate their imaginations.

The first use of the cosmophone in such a context was pioneered by Jacques Diennet at the 50^th anniversary of CERN in October 2004. In this occasion his piece “La Paix des Etoiles N⁰ 2” was created in Geneva with the large cosmophone exploited by UBRIS STUDIO. This is a 10 minutes pure electro-acoustic composition which attacks one of the central question of music: the control of the musical process. In the present case and in line with the principles initiated by John Cage, the spacialised sound effects are driven by the real time random occurrence of cosmic phenomena, within a pre-defined sequence programmed by the composer.

UBRIS STUDIO also offers artists the possibility to exploit the cosmophone within their own aesthetic principles. An opportunity to extend the artistic use of the cosmophone was given by the “Groupe de Recherche et d’Improvisation Musicales” (GRIM) in Marseille, where several concerts and workshops were organised in January 2006. In this occasion three new pieces were created: one electro-acoustic piece from Michel Pascal, “Leçons de choses”, combining a pedagogic text on cosmic particles with sound effects, and two pieces involving for the first time live musicians interacting with the cosmophone. The first one, “Téléphone maison, variation cosmique sur un theme populaire” from Pascal Gobin, presents a brass ensemble which improvises within the cosmophone as function of the detected phenomena. In the second one, “Intraçables N⁰ 1” from Jean-Marc Montera, the words of a poem from late writter Tarkos are scattered apart within the room by the random occurrence of cosmic muons, whereas Jean-Marc Montera improvises on a traditional Corsican guitar, a cetera. Figure 4 shows a photo of this performance during one of the GRIM concerts.

The positive reaction of the public as well as of the press to these exploratory attempts have confirmed the relevance of the artistic exploitation of the cosmophone, and UBRIS STUDIO is presently developing new partnerships for further projects.

Figure 4: Jean-Marc Montera improvising on a Corsican cetera guitar within the cosmophone, during a concert given at GRIM in Marseille in 2006.

SUMMARY

The cosmophone is a meeting point of advanced basic sciences (astrophysics and particle physics), new technologies (real-time digital sound synthesis and sound spacialisation) and contemporary art (environmental music and systems), fields where mutual fertilisation offers a potential source of innovative developments. By putting spectators at the junction of the infinitely small and the infinitely large, the cosmophone brings the listener into direct contact with our galaxy and the violent phenomena that take place there, creating a new world of stimulation to artistic creation.

Jacques Diennet, French, 1947

Composer, Artistic Director of the Music Company UBRIS STUDIO, ubris.studio(at)wanadoo.fr

Got familiar with digital composition during several stays in the USA and Canada, as Robert Ashley’s guest in the Mills College Studios and as John Appleton’s guest at the Darmouth College Studios. Laureate of several international prizes including: First Prize of the town of Varèse Competition Ruigi Russolo and First Prize of work for multimedia at the Bourges International Competitions in 2000.

D^r David Calvet, French, 1970

Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS),

Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Clermont-Ferrand, http://clrwww.in2p3.fr, calvet(at)in2p3.fr

Has participated to several High Energy Physics experiments at the European Centre for High Energy Physics (CERN, Geneva) and the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY, Hamburg). Has worked on several projects related to science popularisation, and designed the particle data acquisition of the Cosmophone. Laureate of the Communication Prize awarded in 2000 by the CNRS High Energy Physics Institute IN2P3.

D^r Richard Kronland, French, 1957

Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Head of the group “Modeling, Synthesis and Control of Sound and Musical Signals”, Laboratoire de Mécanique et d’Acoustique de Marseille, http://www.lma.cnrs-mrs.fr/, kronland(at)lma.cnrs-mrs.fr

Doctor in acoustics from the University of Aix-Marseille II (France), his primary research interests include analysis and synthesis of sounds with particular emphasis on musical sounds. Has participated to several artistic projects and coordinated the development of the sound synthesis framework of the Cosmophone.

D^r Claude Vallée, French, 1958

Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille, currently Spokesman of the H1 Collaboration at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Hamburg, http://marwww.in2p3.fr/, vallee(at)cppm.in2p3.fr

Former student of the Ecole polytechnique in Paris, he has participated to several High Energy Physics experiments at CERN and DESY and has initiated the development of the Cosmophone in 1998. Co-laureate with Richard Kronland of the “Prix Création de la Culture Scientifique” awarded in 1999 by the French Ministry of Research.

Thierry Voinier, French, 1953

Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Laboratoire de Mécanique et d’Acoustique de Marseille, http://www.lma.cnrs-mrs.fr/, voinier(at)lma.cnrs-mrs.fr

Expert in real-time sound synthesis techniques and algorithms, he was involved in many sound analysis and synthesis projects, developing several digital musical instruments and digital audio effects for composers. Designer of the moving source synthesis engine of the Cosmophone.

“Space Dance in the Tube” is an exhibition, a workshop, and a performance with a new communication based on the whole body to get an awareness about the familiar relationship between the body and the space.. Now we have 6 spaces for this project using by 6 tubes, “Space for Balance”, “Space for Darkness”, “Space for Light”, “Space for Play Tag”, “Space for Posture”, and “Space for Real & Virtual.” We think that this project is very useful for scientific education, communication, experience of art & science, new experience of rehabilitation, developing a health.

Yuichi Takayanagi, Director of Tama Science Museum, Ex-Commentator of NHK TV

Now people, in our present-day digital life, lose a kinetic sensation which exists on the source of the life activity for making an evolution as a human with the recognition towards the space using by our whole body. In that time, “Space Dance in the Tube” as a space experience and an expression with adventure will revive our kinetic sensation from our unconsciousness fields. I would like to call to everybody to join this experimental experience.

DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW SCIENTIFIC SENSE

- We develop our kinetic sensation, our ability to judge the difference between a real image and a virtual image, and a new idea for developing our health.

Now we have the serious crisis that threaten our existence. In our continuous search for convenience and comfort in today’s information society, we began to lose our sense of raw reality, our kinetic sense, and our physical sensations. As one characteristic phenomenon, we have a difficult social condition where we can’t judge the difference exactly between a real image and a virtual image.

Then, for children and adult, “Space Dance in the Tube” stimulates their bodies directly, and they can recognize themselves as the real existence with the body and awaken the original plentiful physical sensations as a human.

Now in Japan, children sometimes kill their parents and friends very easy. Because they can not feel the life as the most important matter. In children’s world the virtual reality is in progress, so they lose the sense of reality. Some children tried to make sure its weight of the life by the murder with the blood. Also in adult’s world too, for example like the War in Iraq, the soldiers kill the opponents very easy by the high-tech fighters on the screen. For them the murder is like one of the games. The virtual reality is in progress still more, so the value of the life will be very light.

Also it is a tendency of our times, our 21st century will be realized as a robotic society very soon. In that time, one of the objects of our dreams will be realized as a robot, several robots will appear on the stage of our daily life, one is as the supporting robots for household matters, elderly care, medical treatment and communication, the other is as the rescue robots at the dangerous zone or soldier robots at the battlefield. So, in the near future, we should imagine that sometimes children will commit a more sad crime using by these robots, and adult will expand the murder like a dream using by soldier robots.

In these conditions, how can we get back the needed kinetic sense and our life? How can we remake our safety living and how to create new designs using by these sensitive experiences for our society? This is our theme, with our project “Space Dance in the Tube”. Therefore, our earnest needed theme for children and adult is how to develop a new “scientific sense as a wisdom for 21st century” as a new ability to judge the difference between the real and the virtual, as a link in the chain of the education for learning a literate for the science. For this theme the physical sensations that assure the reality is our “last foot-hold” and our “first start point” as a way.

So, just we need the recovery of the physical sensations and the recognition of ourselves as a real existence with the body. Moreover, the needed education is not a selection about the real or the virtual, at first it is a judgment about its difference, then most important education is a development of the ability to produce its compound according to our necessity. We think that this point is very important for the new scientific education for children.

Because we think that essential points for new scientific education are not only the arouse of the new interests about the science, but also the consideration for the science to create a social design as a social technology with the unity. In this meanings, when we think about the dangerous double-edged dispositions of the information society and the robotic society, firstly the developing children’s physical sensations is very important, it is very timely. If children keep the physical sensations with their body, they can understand by themselves about its dangerous points of the robot and the virtual reality.

Indeed, from now we should build up our society as a hearted society with enough considerations based on the body, and only the scientific conception with plenty physical sensations have a possibility to bear the creations of the next science. Through “Space Dance in the Tube” children can develop its first experience and a wisdom of a new scientific sense.

Same time, not only for children’s world but also for adult’s world, general public, elderly people, handicapped people, in the society of welfare, nursing-care, and medical treatment, almost people are very anxious about their body. This is one of the characteristic illness of our age, then the recovery of the care about the body will be demanded as an almost social desire. In that case, we think that they need the new programs for getting their own characteristic walking and rehabilitations for their health, instead of the same programs for everybody.

For these demands “Space Dance in the Tube” offer to them the several new ideas for developing their health based on their individualities in their personal life, by the experiences for recovering the physical sensations. Then, they can cultivate new ideas for keeping health by themselves.

WHAT IS TUBE?

The tube has been estimated as a Boundary Object. Boundary Object, this means an object which exists on the bound. Both children and adult, both general people and a specialist, both a person who belongs to scientific fields and a person who belongs to artistic fields, they can feel same interests towards the tube with common sense..

The tube will be consisted by cloth supported by TORAY, 1.5 meters height, 10 meters long. We hang the tube in the air about 1 or 3 meters height from the floor using by 6 ropes. For this project, as an exhibition, a workshop, and a performance we need the space, about 12 meters wide, 12 meters length, 5-7 meters height, like a gymnasium, or like a big stage, and a gallery space.

TUBE EXPERIENCE – WHAT IS THE POSTURE? IN TUBE, EVERYBODY WILL BE CHANGED AS A DANCER

The tube is not only a space to take a balance away from the participants, but also to give a beloved feeling to them, because always their movements decide the shape of the tube. We can’t find this kind of experience in our modern architectural society any more.

In the tube, at first everybody lose a posture soft, secondly they try to get back it desperately. Its ways how to get back a posture are very different for them, so its experiences are very interesting and funny not only for them but also for visitors.

In short, like a child, the person who throw out his body naturally and make one unity with the tube as a given environment is expert person. In that time the tube support them using by the strong repulsions from the bottom and the sides with enough flexibility.

The participants, slowly, go ahead in the space tempted a beloved feeling and be able to try to make the several fluid postures like a fish, like a space walk, like a fetus, and like a unknown animal based on the basic postures of standing, sitting and lying as a human, and enjoy it heartily with something sweet memories.

Like that, the participants be able to learn two important facts, one is that always we need the support from the space to keep our postures, other is that always we need to keep our characteristic postures for keeping our personalities.

TUBE EXPERIENCE – WHAT IS THE INFORMATION? IN TUBE, WE DEVELOP OUR ABILITY TO JUDGE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A REAL IMAGE AND A VIRTUAL IMAGE

Still more, the participants can touch their own images from inside in the tube which are projected by a video camera. When they try to overlap their right hands on right hands, their left hands on left hands, and continue to overlap inside themselves on outside themselves as an image, soon they can get the feeling like the border between inside and outside of the tube will be disappeared, then at last they can get one feeling like they will be absorbed toward outside.

Its experience is like an experience for the cure, its feeling for the expansion is like a feeling when people come and go between this world and a next world. We think that, it is one of the earnest feelings for a modern who would like to get it.

And these scenes are very strange for the visitors who watch it from outside. At first the visitors watch the participants as the shadows at the right side of the tube shining by strong spot-lights. Secondly when the participants were projected at the left side of the tube by a video camera, the visitors watch the left side against their will, even if they know right side participants are real person.

This is a mischief by our brain. Because for the brain the important thing is only one, its amount of the information. The brain don’t need the distinction between the real and the virtual. If one image keeps a large amount of the information than other image, this is real for the brain. Today’s video camera keeps a big quality of its information, so it is able to catch the participants with high accuracy more than our eyes. So, without any hesitations the brain watch the participants at the left side. Then, suddenly, the visitors fall in the separation with the consciousness. Because the visitor’s consciousness watch the participants at the right side persistently, as a real. Therefore, at last when the participants overlap inside themselves on outside themselves, the visitors make a shout with the surprise.

Like that, the visitors face the scene with the split between the brain’s judgment and the judgment by the consciousness. They can learn that the brain’s judgment is not wrong, it is one true, so at first they know they need to judge the difference between the real and the virtual, then they can develop their ability to combine its two images correctly.

ART & SCIENCE, DANCE & DESIGN – WE CREATE A DESIGN AFTER A DANCE

“Space Dance in the Tube” is also a performance by the professionals as art & science, and dance & design using by the tube, intelligent robot, its virtual robot on the network, and interactive system.”

In the tube the dancer’s movements always decide the shape of the space, and the repulsion in the tube always support the dancer’s body, so the relationship between the dancer and the space will be kept as an amicable relationship of its unity. We express this relationship as a “body-space model” by a digital manikin on the network, then we use this model as a medium to design a “Fittest Space” and a “Memory Chair”.

At first, we try to create “new postures” as a human.

As many animal’s postures have experienced the big changes in their historical life into the water and on the ground, and as our human beings could been born by our walking using two feet, human’s posture is a parameter which will change by the change of its environments.

Now we think that human are faced in the new unknown change of environments influenced from the outside of the information space and the outer space, and the problem of environmental pollution, and from the inside of the body, with the artificial bodies by robotics, bio-technology and so on, so they should seek to create new postures with a new outlook on the body for adjusting its changes.

Therefore, we reconsider the “making forms” in our dance works as the “making postures” in Space Dance. Also we are taking notice of a fact that always the postures will be born with the relationship of the condition of the space, so then we develop the tube as an intelligent robot through the interaction between the dancer and the space. And we develop each dancer’s unknown postures which sleep in their unconsciousness using by this intelligent robotic spaces.

Further, we define and choose each developing unknown postures from the view point of the evolution, then we change these postures to a “Fittest Space” and a “Memory Chair” using by “body-space model”. Then, on the network, we express a “Fittest Space” and a “Memory Chair” as an image and a sound.

So, we construct these series of all works as a “Six Stories of Body”, then we will perform Space Dance. As its result, we can get the new designs of a “Fittest Space” and a “Memory Chair” after our dance, one is as the real fruits, other is as the virtual fruits on the network.

Like that, through these works, we can get a new position that our Space Dance is not only a dance work to perform a “New Story” but also a “Bauhaus Work” to create new designs.

ROBOT DEVELOPMENT IN OUR WORKS

We don’t find new robots yet in our society, which can support human’s body soft with the enough interaction and the familiar relationship. If we can develop these robots it will make big topics as new break-through not only in the scientific world but also in our daily life, as our long-expected robots with a mind.

Just now in Japan and in the world we find several robots which are a talk of the town in the van of new era, Power Assist Robot by Tsukuba University, Tacit-Understanding Robot by Honda Research Institute Japan & ATR, Artificial-Arm Robot by Chicago Rehabilitation Center, and so on. But we can not find the mutual relations in these robots with human’s bodies, we find the one-sided conditions because these robots only use human’s muscular electric current and brain waves for their movements as signals. So, with these robots, we can not develop our needed robot which can support our body soft.

So, we take other ideas. We pay attention to Mr. Tani Jun’s way, like Behavior and Dynamic Cognition, in the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research Brain Science Institute Lab in Tokyo, to make a needed relation between a robot and a human. We call its way as “Tani’s program” and try to develop our robot named “Tube Robot”.

In our tube, the relationship between a dancer and a space will be kept as an amicable relationship of its unity, like one body, always they talk each other. We express this mutual relationship as a “body-space model” and develop “Tube Robot” by loading “Tani’s program” on a “body-space model”.

2004 – 2006, we had a study together with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) in Tokyo about a “body-space model” and the tube. Then with its fruits, and together with the accumulations from NEC Research Institute about 16 cameras system and internet technology, we made a collaboration with JAXA’s Joint Robot as a “Robotic Dance” between a dance, a robot animation and a Joint Robot.

Now, as a series of this works, we continue to develop a “body-space model” and “Tube Robot”. And, with its results, always we develop “Six Stories of Body.” We will develop the tube more exactly as the new intelligent robot and the wearable suit to support our body with more amicable relationship.TY EDwe can cultivate a new idea and a new concept for the several designs, keeping health, and environmental protection. Particularly we can find these themes in the fields of the Education, Space Development, Robot Development, and Cultural Development for the adult.

We started to address our idea through “Space Dance in the Tube” to these four fields supported by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Obayashi Foundation in Tokyo 2004-2006. November 2006, we joined “Science Agora 2006″ supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency in Tokyo, December in Monaco, at “UNESCO Prize for Digital Arts”, “Space Dance in the Robotic Universe” was selected as “20 Project in the World”. January 2007 in Tokyo, we hold it at a Primary School with 440 students and Tama Science Museum, it was the talk of the town and TV news. So, now we will hold this project more exactly at Tama Science Museum and other museums in Japan as our foothold, then at first we will start to hold it as “Space Dance in the Tube 2008” in Bangkok, Istanbul, Paris, and Helsinki supported by National Institute of Science & Technology of Ministry Education & Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and other institutions, then secondly in the world. So we would like to find the several collaborators, directors, and curators, together with dance, architecture, design, information, film, sound, costume; and also scientists, technicians, researchers, editors, journalists in each city, for this challenging project in the world. If you are interested in this project, please contact with us.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/tokyo/sd/index_e.html

Fukuhara Tetsuro, Japan, 07/06/1948

Director and Space Dance Choreographer of Tokyo Space Dance

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/tokyo/sd/

email: jv4t-fkhr(at)asahi-net.or.jp

“If I were to create art in space, it would be composed of light.” Souichi Noguchi, the Japanese astronaut, commented after the STS-114 mission to artists at a debriefing session held at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music in October 2005. He stated that through his visual experience in outer space, he felt that light had an artistic
potential in space. The statement was a great inspiration for me as a creator of light art and as a professional who conducts studies on space and art, and gave me the opportunity to write this paper. (Mission Debriefing Session by Astronaut Noguchi, 2005)

In 2008, when the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) “KIBO” will be docked to the ISS (International Space Station), the pilot mission for artistic experiments will begin. Prior to this mission, since 1996, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has been conducting research on the effective application of cultural-social sciences to JEM, and since 2000, has carried out experiments pursuing the theme “Potential of Art in Space”.

The artistic experiments in the space shuttle by astronauts Doi (STS-87 Mission, 1997) and Noguchi (STS-114 Mission, 2005) are from this project. The present paper will report on the artistic experiments that started in 2000 and introduce the designs of the art pilot mission to be launch in 2008, and discuss the potential of art in space.

ARTISTIC EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE PROJECT
Since 1996, JAXA has been conducting research on “Researches on the utilization of JEM from the viewpoints of humanity science and sociology” (Report No.1998-006) with experts in the fields of sociology, literature, psychology, religious science and art. It is in anticipation of the fact that, in the near future, human beings will be staying in the ISS for long periods of time and a mini-earth society will be organized. It will become a stage for cultural and social science experiments and a new ethical concept, view of the world, the earth and the universe, will be conceived. After 4 years of discussions, a collaborative project with the art society began in 2000 with the following objectives: “Basic understanding of the space environment”, “Pursuit of the meaning of human existence in space”, “A new model to ‘integrate’ scientific technology and the cultural-social sciences using the space environment”.

Mr. Itsuo Sakane (President of IAMAS) was invited by NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan) to give a lecture and stated, “Space exploration is a global project for the survival of humankind. Such an undertaking has never been attempted before, and since there are no past examples of art in space, it is essential, like space development, to collaborate with many other disciplines and genres”, and introduced the project for a new comprehensive form of art. In October 1999, Tomifumi Godai, President of the International Astronautical Federation and Executive Vice President of NASDA, gave a talk titled “Renaissance in the Space Age” at the 50th IAC (IAC 1999) held in Amsterdam and spoke about the project. The French space agency, CNES-Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales showed interest in the project, which was proposed to the countries around the world. In Europe, there were already such movements by artists. The KEO Project (KEO) was backed by the city of Paris, and the British experimental art group Art Catalyst was using a Russian test aircraft to conduct artistic experiments in zero gravity (Russian parabolic flight). However, JAXA was the first government space agency to adopt an artistic project for a pilot mission, and it is expected to generate discussions on the future operations of ISS.

JAXA carried out collaborative studies on the theme, “Art in Space” with Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music between 2000 – 2003, and with Kyoto City University of Arts between 2001 – 2004. In the same period, research and its results of the Feasibility Study Project within JAXA were reported by Ochanomizu University in 2001, Musashino Art University between 2001 – 2002, and Tokyo Space Dance Company in 2003. The following is a description of the parabolic flight experiment in 2003, the Sound Wave Sculpture, which was one of the collaborative studies. Using aerial vibration, patterns created by the micro-particles (styrene foam pellets of 2mm in diameter) inside a cylinder form different shapes and movements to the sound of music. Since the resonance caused discrepancies in the density of the air inside the cylinder, stripe patterns most prominently appeared in micro-gravity. By increasing the variation of music with sound source of 1,000 to 10,000 Hz, a show of a wide variety of movements can be expected. At the First Gwanju Design Biennale, Korea, 2005 (Lee, 2005), an interactive artwork with the participation of the viewers was created by using an electronic instrument (Theremin) as the sound source. In 2004 and 2005, a group of students experimented with a further developed type and showed it at the “Parabolic Flight Education Program in Japan”. (Japan Society of Microgravity Application, 2006)

ISS/KIBO’S PILOT MISSION APPLYING CULTURAL-SOCIAL SCIENCES
JAXA is working on cultural-social science projects at the ISS to find answers on how to apply the new view of the world seen from outer space, what to think of it, and what to pass down to posterity. Approximately one year from the start of the actual operations of “KIBO” has been designated as the pilot mission period (around 2008 to 2009). In order to conduct preliminary experiments with artistic themes from the cultural-social sciences, we sought for ideas.

As a result of evaluation taking into account the technical conditions and the purpose and significance of the cultural-social application, JAXA and the selection committee chose the following 10 themes as candidates for the space experiment. (ISS/KIBO Cultural, Humanity Science and Sociological Application/Pilot Mission)

1)

Title: Hiten (Flying asparas)
Leader: Setsuko Ishiguro (Honorary Professor)
Description: Flying asparas on wall paintings in Dunhuang and Houryuji Temple will be
Ochanomizu University) recreated in orbit.

2)

Title: Formative Experiment with Water Spheres
Leader: Takao Fujiwara (Professor, Kyoto City University of Arts)
Description: Experiment to apply vibration to water spheres to create shapes that are
unattainable on earth.

3)

Title:  Sumi-Marbling on Water Spheres
Leader: Takuro Osaka (Professor, University of Tsukuba)
Description: Using the unique Japanese technique of sumi-marbling, create patterns on water spheres.

4)

Title:  Spiral Top  
Leader: Takuro Osaka (Orifessor, University of Tsukuba)
Description: Using the after-image effect, light art that performs in zero-gravity.

5)

Title:  Space Garden
Leader: Shiro Matsui (Associate Professor, Kyoto City University of Arts)
Description: Creating a garden inside the ISS in space to portray the Japanese perception of nature.

6)

Title:  Bright Neurons
Leader: Hitoshi Nomura (Professor, Kyoto City University of Arts)
Description: Images of radiation visualized by high-resolution camera affected by cosmic radiation.

7)

Title:  Fashionable Life in Space
Leader: Michiyo Miyanaga (Assistant, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music)
Description: Fashion based on the study of physical changes (esp. legs) in zero-gravity.

8)

Title:  Capturing Space
Leader: Shiro Matsui (Associate Professor, Kyoto City University of Arts)
Description: Capturing and packing the air (vacuum) in space.

9)

Title:  Space Modeling
Leader: Yuichi Yonebayashi (Professor, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music)
Description: Making human figures with clay in tebineri (hand-pinching) style in ISS, and
collaborate with children on earth.

10)

Title:  “Moon” score by ISS astronauts
Leader: Hitoshi Nomura (Professor, Kyoto City University of Arts)
Description: Photograph the moon of different ages from ISS, and create music regarding the photographs of the moon as musical notes.

PROPOSALS BY OSAKA
Zero Gravity Water Art
The earth, which is a water planet, is known as the miracle planet, the planet of life. In the 4 billion year history of life on earth, it is said that life crawled out of the water to the land, and then continued to evolve eventually into mammals. Human beings have now taken the step out of Mother Earth into space. We are now facing a time in which the unbroken line of life on earth is making great strides. Water, which produced life on earth and has been instrumental in the evolution of life on earth, will float in mid-air. The Greek philosopher Thales stated, “It is water.” “It” is the nature, the archê, the originating principle. (Aristotle, 1959) Water, the origin of all things, will be disengaged from earth, and various types of stimulations will be applied to water spheres to elicit organic patterns and changes in color.

“Marbling Painting on Spheres of Water”
“Marbling Painting on Spheres of Water in zero-gravity” will be created as a symbolic objet d’art of the earth, a biosphere. (Lovelock, 1987) Using as a reference the images of the experiments conducted inside the space shuttle by Dr. Donald Pettit during his nearly six-month flight from November 2002 to May 2003 (Pettit, 2003), marbling paintings will be created by pouring sumi-ink on water spheres floating in zero gravity. Marbling is a painting technique that has been around since ancient times and enjoyed across the borders. Fluids, such as sumi-ink and surface active agents that have different surface tensions, will be poured on to rotating water spheres, creating beautiful patterns similar to drifting clouds in the earth’s atmosphere. The patterns on the spheres will be blotted onto dome-shaped Japanese washi-paper, fixed and brought back to earth for display. This proposal was conceived by an experiment to fixate a water sphere in mid-air using high-frequency sound, and was supported by the JAXA Science Project Team and University of Tsukuba, Zero Gravity Kinetic Art “If I were to create art in space, it would be composed of light.” Souichi Noguchi, Astronaut. “When I stepped out of the space shuttle on to the ground, for a moment, I could not keep up with the movements around me.” Chiaki Mukai, Astronaut. (Chiaki Mukai, interview at JAXA, Nov. 7, 2002, Apr. 6, 2007) As an artist who employs light as a medium, I found these comments by the astronauts extremely interesting. “The Spiral Top” The spiral pattern is a motional phenomenon in space. The pattern can be found in infinite places in the world, from the DNA double helix, fingerprints, spiral shells, plants, typhoon clouds to the Galaxy. The Spiral Top is a top that has been designed to leave traces of spiral patterns of light in mid-air. When the structure with blinking LEDs on some of its arms is rotated and pushed forward, traces of the multiple spiral patterns created by the light will appear in the air. Furthermore, when the center of gravity of the structure is shifted, reverse motion will occur. The intricate spiral traces will create a three-dimensional drawing of light that can only be perceived in zero gravity.

Although the traces of light are visual after-images, it would be interesting to see the difference between the visual effect in zero gravity and that on earth. Since this involves visual physiology and the discrepancy cannot be recorded by a camera, an appropriate method for verification, such as a questionnaire, is being considered. This proposal, which has a fun, entertaining feature, was inspired by the astronaut, Chiaki Mukai, who had mentioned that, immediately after she had returned to earth from space, when she moved her gaze, the visual scene she saw was unstable and winding, and by the reverse motion of a pair of pliers observed in zero gravity. (Debriefing by Mamoru Mouri.)

IN CONCLUSION
Looking back in history, there were always pioneers who had visions that transcended the existing norms when initiating a new era. In that regard, astronauts are transcendentalists for they have acquired a view from outer space. Irrespective of their will or intentions, the astronauts are deposited in an arena of an entirely new notion of creativity.

Every single one of them are said to be deeply moved when they see the earth from space and are overcome by a profound feeling of love for the earth. Some of them say that it would be interesting to know what sentiments and ideas would artists and poets project if they were to have the same experience. (TV Interview of Koichi Wakata at NASDA Head Office, Feb. 13, 2002. Mission Debriefing Session by Souichi Noguchi at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music, Dec. 18, 2005)

Modern art started with the expansion of the “artistic” concept that anything could be art. The artistic experiments at the ISS will be pursued as a model of this expanded artistic concept. On the other hand, the changes in spatial recognition and vision acquired from the experience in space might well lead to discussions about the existing
“artistic” concept. The important point achieved by this study is to share the experiences of the astronauts. In other words, it is the acquisition of the vision “to see oneself from the outside”. It is to feel the irreplaceable value of our home planet and to objectify the confrontations and egoism that afflict us by looking at the earth from the extraordinary environment of space, and then to speak to the hearts and souls of the people and deliver the opportunity to reexamine the perceptions and values of the present world. In order to achieve this goal, it is essential that art (figurative, performance, visual images, music, etc.) as a more effective tool of communication is discussed.

References:

Aristotle (1959). Keijijo-Gaku Metaphysics. (Takashi Ide, Trans.) Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. Debriefing by Mamoru Mouri. Retrieved Aug. 2007 from the website: Earth and Space. The scientific experience of microgravity: http://www2.edu.ipa.go.jp/gz/d-etu1/d-muj1/d-mrj1/IPA-etu130.htm

IAC 1999 (International Astronautical Congress) and Mr.Godai’s article. Retrieved Aug. 2007 from the website Space Applications Dominate IAF Conference: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/iaf_991003.html

ISS/KIBO Cultural, Humanity Science and Sociological Application (Pilot Mission). Retrieved Aug.

Japan Society of Microgravity Application (2006). (Vol.23, No.1, pp38~39). KEO. Retrieved Aug. 2007 from website: www.keo.org

Lee, S.-J., Rhi, J., Eun, B., & Park, I.-S,. (2005). Light in to Life-Future Life-Asian Design. Organization of Gwangju Design Biennale 2005 (pp114~115). Gwangju, Korea.

Lovelock, Jim E. (1987). Gaia-no jidai, Gaia: A new look at life on Earth. (Jun Hoshikawa, Trans.) Tokyo, Japan: Kousakusha.

Mission Debriefing Session by Astronaut Noguchi (2005, Nov.18) Art In Space. A collaborative study by Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music and NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan). National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was changed to the new organization JAXA in 2003.

Pettit, D. (2003). Dr. Donald Pettit’s Experiments with Water. Retrieved Aug. 2007 from the NASA Website: http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/balloon/blob.htm

President of IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Art and Science). Retrieved Aug. 2007, from the IAMAS Website: http://www.iamas.ac.jp/index_J.html

Report No.1998-006. (1998, March). Researches on the utilization of JEM from the viewpoints of humanity science and sociology. IAS (International Institute for Advanced Studies, Kyoto) Russian parabolic flight.

STS-87 Mission (1997, Nov. 19 ~ Dec. 5).

STS-114 Mission (2005, July 26 ~ Aug. 9).

Theremin (1920). An electronic instrument invented by Russian inventor, Theremin, in 1920. Also known as Thereminvox. Volume and registers change by placing hands over transmitter.