Where Parallel Lines Converge: Transforming Space Data into Music

Sunday - November 19 2023, 17:20 UTC - 1 year ago

A team of musicians used data from NASA's three space telescopes to create a soundscape titled ‘Where Parallel Lines Converge’, transforming scientific information into a unique auditory experience. The data is divided into three parts, each focusing on a specific astronomical feature, and the creation process follows the same principles as NASA’s original data sonification, turning visual data into sound. It is creative, educational and provides a different perspective in the interpretation of complex information.

The stars and the celestial bodies in the universe are in a never-ending concert, creating low and deep sounds and sometimes producing higher-pitched voices resembling the delicate sounds of celestial flutes.

The space telescopes floating about in space typically capture data in a visual format — and not auditory. But, scientists and artists sometimes use a process called sonification to convert the data into sound. Which is what musicians did using sounds produced by NASA’s space telescopes and performed a soundscape composed by composer Sophie Katsner.

The soundscape titled ‘Where Parallel Lines Converge’ is not based on traditional musical notes but is created using ‘sounds’ from Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer space telescopes. Essentially, the music ensemble has transformed scientific information into a unique auditory experience. Watch the video: .

Sonification is like turning data into sound. Scientists and artists give different data values of a specific sound that you can hear. This helps people "listen" to information rather than just seeing it. This can be a creative and educational way to present scientific data, providing a different perspective and aiding in the interpretation of complex information. But artists are using it to create melodies.

"It’s like writing a fictional story that is largely based on real facts," said Kastner. "We are taking the data from space that has been translated into sound and putting a new and human twist on it." .

The sonification project called ‘A Universe of Sound’ at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center began in 2020 and involves translating digital data like x-ray light and radio light captured by telescopes into musical notes and sounds.

Where parallel lines converge .

In the project, scientists are honing in on data from a specific spot in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, home to a massive black hole. This targeted region, stretching about 400 light-years wide, holds key insights into the behavior of the supermassive black hole and the surrounding cosmic landscape, explained the NASA press release.

The data used in the composition ‘Where Parallel Lines Converge’ from NASA’s three space telescopes is divided into three parts, each focusing on specific astronomical features in the image: the X-ray binary, arched filaments, and the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A.

The creation process follows the same principles as NASA Chandra’s original data sonification, turning visual data into sound by connecting different aspects of the image to musical elements. The goal is to provide an auditory experience that corresponds to the details of the center of the Milky Way.

"I approached the form from a different perspective than the original sonification: rather than scanning the image horizontally and treating the x-axis as time, I instead focused on small sections of the image creating short vignettes corresponding with these occurrences, approaching the piece as if I was writing a film score to accompany the image," explained Kastner.

"Because the Galactic Center image was so full of information, of material, I wanted to use composition to create a world of sonic narratives that would unlock our imagination," said the artist.