- Tags
- Artworks, Sound art
- Author
- Ana Prendes
Nicole L’Huillier takes over Radio Amnion’s broadcast with Plasmática Fantástica, a sonic essay on our ‘vibrational reality’
The platform Radio Amnion broadcasts new sound commissions for and to the sea, transmitting through the P-One neutrino telescope, located over 2 kilometers deep in the Cascadia Basin, off Vancouver Island, Canada.
In the ocean’s depths, the cosmic radiative noise of Earth’s surface diminishes, making it possible to detect elusive particles like neutrinos. These nearly massless, neutral particles interact only very weakly with other matter. Alhough abundant throughout the cosmos, these mysterious particles may hold clues to physics beyond the Standard Model. Starting from 2025, the P-One neutrino will use a vast array of optical modules submerged in a multi-cubic kilometre telescope to measure high-energy neutrinos. The underwater detector will capture the ultraviolet Cherenkov radiation from secondary particles produced when these ghostly particles interact with water, reconstructing the rare faster-than-light particle events across the ocean depths. Such events could shed light on the nature of black holes, supernova outbursts, and other cosmic phenomena.
It is from these optical modules that Radio Amnion transmits into the ocean. During each full moon, the Cascadia Basin’s abyssal waters resonate with these soundscapes. The transmissions are available online for just three days during each lunar cycle.
Nicole L’Huillier sonic essay, Plasmática Fantástica (13’15”), explores what the artist calls our ‘vibrational reality’. Drawing from her conversations with CERN theoretical physicists, as well as Andean cosmologies and rituals, the piece embarks listeners on a journey to the very first sound vibrations of the universe, using plasma as the guiding element. Plasma, often referred as the fourth fundamental state of matter, is an ionised gas consisting of approximately equal numbers of positively and negatively charged particles and the most abundant form of ordinary matter.
The composition blends sounds from electromagnetic activity recorded with LA PARACANTORA at CERN’s underground caves, a South Andean collective flute procession, and vibrations from the Atacama Desert hidden through the Vilama River. The voice-over, layered with rich textures and beats, tune us to connect with what L’Huillier describes as our ‘plasmatic existence’. Plasmática Fantástica is an invitation to find strategies to navigate the vibrational maps imprinted in our flesh, the sonic memories residing in our bodies, tuning our brains into a timeless state of fluid intuition.
