creative music technology do how do i
leave the way in terms of showing the
next generation have some work in this
field something that I like to do is to
try and expand what creative means you
might be where you might do it and who
you might do it with so with that in
mind I’m very keen on collaboration I
really like to work with other people it
gets me out of my dark little room with
my computer screen and out into the real
world but more importantly it gets me to
meet different kind of a triple if
people have worked in different areas do
different things but they also think in
different ways and they talk in
different ways and I find that I can
really learn a lot from that and bring
it back to what I do so something I
particular like to do is actually work
beyond the Arts completely and to work
with scientists have done this quite a
lot there i find this way of doing
things different doing things
differently and particularly interesting
particularly different to the way that
I’m used to thinking about things I also
it fulfills childhood ambition of mine
in that I’ve always been interested in
both I’ve always been interested in art
I was interested in science and I find
that at school I was kind of forced one
way or the other I just about managed
dr. ailable to do science subjects and
our subjects but after that I had to
choose one and I chose music but I think
it’s a real shame these things are
separated and I don’t think that they
should be something that I’ve found
looking at the program for today not
only is it a great lineups and really
good people talk
today about really interesting subjects
but I was delighted to see the quite a
number of them are crossing this
boundary of arts and science so I feel
kind of in good company here and that
perhaps this is changing so I’m here
today to talk to you about dance room
spectroscopy which is a bit of a
mouthful I’m sorry about that it’s the
name of a project and it’s a
collaborative project in art science
project I’m collaborating with a lot of
people on this I’m really talking here
today on behalf of a big team I’m only
form of this team probably the most
important member is this guy Dave
Milwaukee this project is his idea it’s
his name so you can babe in theory
unpronounceable words and David is a
scientist of course and he works as a
computational chemist at Stanford
University and the University of Bristol
his day job is what this project is
based on and is they job consists of
running computer simulations of
molecular systems and what is interested
in is the way that matter and energy
work together at a microscopic level
what is particularly interested in is
the dynamics of the system how the
system moot and molecules move I find
this very interesting in getting to know
dates work in that what I remember from
school with static models of molecules
balls and sticks they didn’t move
through your kind of thought of them as
static energy and that seems something
that’s really changed in scientific
thinking and so here we have what my
spirit is still image this is an image
of a diamond one of the hardest
substances known to man of course and
you can see the lattice like structure
that makes up that crystal but you might
think about a static thing dymond of
course you don’t see it moving and it
seems very hard very dense but this is
actually a movie and if i set it running
you’ll see that even in this case even
then the hardest substance
to man all the molecules are moving and
they’re moving in a really interesting
way they’re not just moving randomly
it’s a complex but ordered system where
every molecule influences the movement
of every other molecule in the system so
we like to describe this as a dance that
the molecules are dancing together might
seem a bit fanciful that it is but
there’s something to it something about
way these molecules influence each other
is a bit the same as a choreography and
the way in which dancers might move
together and influence each other on a
dance floor dancers might influence the
way other dancers leave we’re not the
only people to use this language I’ve
done a bit of googling and I found many
quotes many different quotes on this
slide of other scientists who use the
word dance or related words to describe
the movement of molecules in this case
is a wild dance floor so this brings me
back to the title bit of a mouthful
sorry about that the dance room vicked
make a room covered now we’re imagining
molecular system as a dance rooms a room
full of dancing molecules what about the
other bit spectroscopy bit that’s how
you pronounce that word spectroscopy is
the site science of seeing things
through light and dave has used this
term here in a slightly tangential way
to describe the fact that induction
spectroscopy you can actually see the
molecules with light with your eyes of
course in the real world this is
impossible at the microscopic level
light itself is particles so the idea of
being able to see other particles with
them it’s nonsensical but in our system
you can see them so this brings me to
what Dan through spectroscopy is it’s a
simulation where you can see molecules
and you can dance with them you can
move with them and this is what makes us
a remarkable project for me is that it
really furthers understandings furthered
my understanding of the way in which are
microscopic world works usually this is
described using numbers using equations
using formulas using algorithms and for
a lot of us myself included that’s a
barrier to entry we don’t speak that
language we don’t understand those
equations and so we don’t understand
what actually is a quite simple thing
about how energy and matter works
together if we can feel it if you can
see it if we can hear it and perhaps we
can so this is what done through
spectroscopy years and how it works it’s
an installation it’s an immersive
environment usually about kind of this
size the size of this stage that we work
in all sorts of configurations in the
video projection is designed to
immersive so it’s never a single screen
it will always surround the people who
are interacting with it and in the
projection on the projection you will
see the molecular system working in
real-time of scientifically accurate
simulation of molecules working together
but crucially you’ll see your salads you
will have yourself an angel avatar this
is made possible by recent occasions in
human-computer interaction in a
particular depth sensors which can see
human beings in particular in three
dimensions we track the movement of
every part of the human body what we use
for this certainly in the first version
our connect centers the microsoft kinect
which was designed to work with the xbox
games and proly but we hacked it to work
with the supercomputer and top and
graphics cards to produce this molecular
simulation the way in which you put you
are put into the simulation is very
interesting and probably the bits that’s
most difficult for me to talk about
scientists but they have a very good
metaphor for this which is a way of
representing the energy landscape so the
way in which energy would be distributed
through a space and that’s what you can
see the left hand image there is a graph
of an energy landscape areas that are
red are hot so those are the areas with
the highest temperature in this
simulation and in this rap they’re also
represented as being kind areas with low
energy of Blu and Lo and to visualize
the way in which molecules might move
through that landscape you can take it
in a very literal way imagine and this
is terrible science I’m sure you had a
handful of molecules they like ball
bearings and you drop them onto that
landscape they would naturally roll
downhill they roll away from the areas
of high energy in towards the areas of
low energy so in doubt shoe spectroscopy
you become a feature in this energy
landscape singing image there on the
right hand side and I never were about
you but I can see that any kind of
optical illusion type way I can see kind
of concluding problem the screen or
being an indent in chi into the screen
and in downstream spectroscopy folks are
possible so you can either be a high
energy energy field in which case you’re
like hill in the landscape molecules
will naturally flow away from you it’s
as though you kind of swimming through
them or you can hear cool feature and
the energy landscape in which modern
case molecules will be drawing towards
you and into you anyway hopefully that’s
given you some idea as to how it works
what I want to do now is show you a few
images in a short video of the system so
these are all in a dome configuration
this is how it most often done bunkroom
spectroscopy in quite a large immersive
projection zone with projections all the
way around the audience so you really do
feel like a part of this and these are
all photographs from all around the
world actually of the dungeon
spectroscopy
don’t this one I put in it to the only
one of the system from the outside don’t
even the outside just to show how far
we’ve taken this geographically this is
in Bhutan right at the top of the
emulators that’s the farthest we went
with our little dancing spectroscopy day
today anyway now have a short movie and
so you can actually see the movement of
the molecules and also hear the sound
which is also generated by the system
in the last part of my talk I want to
talk about a few offshoot from the dance
room spectroscopy project it’s been a
gift that keeps giving and many other
things have grown out over the last few
years and the first is a piece called
hidden fields which is a full-length
dance performance and even dance
performance might take you later located
such as this not surprisingly we had a
lot of interest from dancers in adultery
spectroscopy and I ran a series of
workshops at the arnolfini and to
explore what could be done with it
odometer piece and that led to this
performance I’m not going to a great
deal about got a few more images which
this image is from the cover of Leonardo
which is the MIT press his publication
on the Arts and Sciences here’s a short
not another project molecular music in
my baby really I’ve led on this one
where instead of putting dancers in
simulation we put musicians in
simulation and instead of driving it
using these energy avatars we’ve
actually used the sound of the music
driving simulation I find this very
interesting of course music sound is
movement as well its vibration molecules
vibrate as well so we could do some
really interesting things to kind of
link those together and we’ve worked
with some great musicians like Nicola
Benedetti very very famous violinist a
trio and Charles Hazelwood to use a
classical conductor in this case working
the Charles isn’t with all styles which
are amazing improvising ensemble the
current state of this research is in the
system called nano sim box and this is
pushing the educational angle of the
system it’s always been an educational
tool I think in terms of understanding
molecules but this is specifically aimed
at schools and it’s a mini version of
Dancing spectroscopy geared towards the
you can make them bigger and smaller and
you can change the temperature some of
them are like matchsticks then other
ones are like fat like can inflate
brownie
[Music]
I’m just being great it’s all about
atoms and molecules
you can have fun with it so like when
you make things bigger and smaller you
and we’re we’re taking this next is into
virtual reality these photos are very
hot off the press these are just from a
couple of weeks ago where we’re in the
Barbican in London they’ve always been
very supportive of this project and they
gave us a residency for a week and to
start to put together a virtual reality
version of Dancing spectroscopy already
there we’ve got to users in a single
virtual reality space working moving
molecules and interacting with them and
we hope to expand this up to 8 users
thank you very much great to be here
today [Applause]