Renny Nisbet, Hemisphere. Courtesy the artist
Paul Dance takes his daughter along to Wysing Arts in Cambridgeshire to experience a sound art installation.
A remarkable installation can be found at Wysing Arts in Bourn until August 6 2006. Hemisphere, by Renny Nisbet, perfectly brings together the worlds of art and science.
A collaboration between Renny, the British Geological Survey team, a sensing station in the Scottish borders and scientists in Slovakia, Hemisphere allows visitors to become immersed in an audiovisual experience of thunderstorms and lightning strikes beamed from around the planet.
Renny Nisbet's Hemisphere beams in soundwaves from across the world. Photo © Paul Dance
Signals received by the sensing station are from sound waves caused by lightning strikes, which are then sent to Wysing over the Internet. Modified into audio frequencies, they are amplified to cause ripples in dishes of water suspended above hemispherical reflectors, which in turn cause light ripples on the floor.
There are three pieces, each of which has different patterns depending on the wavelength of the sound waves and the effect is quite hypnotic.
I took my 11-year-old daughter to see the work and she loved lying under one of the hemispheres, experiencing the ripples and reflections.
Rachael enjoys the soundwaves at Wysing © Paul Dance
Hemisphere is the culmination of a 16-month period of research undertaken through Wysing Arts Centre’s artist-in-residence programme and this means that the artist is often on hand to talk about his work and to listen to people’s experience of it.
The gallery runs a rolling programme of artist residencies with a distinct focus on art/science collaborations and the breaking of perceived boundaries between the two disciplines.
The project is typical of those supported by Wysing - an open and supportive arts centre with a keen sense of development and growth. Despite the withdrawal of its entire local authority subsidy last year, the gallery is set to redevelop six recently vacated studios into six environmentally friendly spaces with straw bale walls.
The old barn is also to be re-developed, but they are still in need of about £200,000 to complete the project. When it’s finished, it will be one of the most exciting, forward-looking and diverse arts centres in East Anglia.
