“Space Weather Instrument Ensemble’ by Heidi Neilson
Open Rehearsal – Spring Equinox
‘Space Weather Instrument Ensemble’ by Heidi Neilson
Sunday March 20, 2022 | 11am to dusk
Location: Welcome Kiosk
Heidi Neilson’s new sound-sculpture work, Space Weather Instrument Ensemble, and celebrate the energy of the Sun on the first day of spring.
Instruments on the NOAA weather satellite GOES-16 monitor the Sun’s energy as it touches the spacecraft. Here on Earth, replicas of a suite of these energy-monitoring satellite instruments comprise Space Weather Instrument Ensemble (SWIE), a sound sculpture which plays the data collected by the original instruments in space in near-real time.
The active scientific space instruments are re-imagined as an earthbound musical instrument ensemble through a networked process. Data from GOES-16 is received by the artist-run satellite receiving station Here GOES Radiotelescope (Heidi Neilson & Harry Dove-Robinson), at Wave Farm, in Acra, NY, and relayed to SWIE through the Internet. SWIE processes the data into sound and plays it through the replicas of the same instruments which originally received it, connecting the space weather environment and the experience of the satellite to us here on Earth’s surface.
About Heidi Neilson:
Heidi Neilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores connections between people on the ground and off-planet conditions and infrastructure. She works in multiple mediums including radio transmissions, sound, prints, books, sculpture, electronics, and video. She is currently co-operating Here GOES Radiotelescope, a sculptural receiving station for the GRB transmission from GOES-16, a NOAA weather satellite, and mining the volumes of earth observation and space weather data collected by the station for a variety of projects. heidineilson.com
This project is made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
