MoonBus’ ability to achieve its mission lies partly in its configuration as both research facility and art installation within the same space; prototypes can be used and/or integrate with art programming and other facets of the bus and its services directly from the test bench. Driven by unbound imagination, MoonBus is a lab facility and cultural venue that, powered by its own functional artistic adoptions of exclusive, industrial technologies, creates an accessible and tangible glimpse into conserving a pre-apocalyptic biosphere in a post-apocalyptic world through captivativating, awe-inspiring interactive art.
The Outer Space Treaty.
"The exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples, irrespective of their level of economic or scientific development."We have not truly lived up to this ideal, although people have worked for decades to make this a reality.Forces such as colonialism and racism and gender inequality have actually excluded many people from the benefits of space and caused us to believe that space is for the few or the rich or elite. But we cannot afford this attitude, because the world is engaged in a vital mission to improve life for everyone." — 1967
My sonic work has been to present immersive, spacialised, harmonic soundscapes that elevate the music to its most cutting-edge form and relay information unseen. Rooted in Pythagoras’ Music of the Spheres, MoonMusic’s narrative extends from the belly of ancient history through the modern era from Messiaen’s Canyons to the Stars (1972), GE’s childrens’ 45” LP radio-wave interference derived ‘Sounds of the Stars’ (1964).
MoonMusic, presented in a similar format to Mileece's prior installations, will be MoonBus’ first interactive art piece. MoonMusic is interactive, interspecies and interplanetary music; a constellation of the unique, generative signatures of life and the cosmos, moment to moment through entirely bespoke, hand-coded sonification and 'datafication' systems. MoonMusic offers a counterpoint to a culture saturated in standardised, anthropocentric muzak, opening our ears to a listening cosmos.
PiP is my hardware interface that drives my spacialized, ‘aesthetic sonification’ system, a real-time harmonic synthesis engine. At its core, PiP captures and transforms the bio-electrical currents of plants into binary data (OSC) for artistic and eventually scientific purposes.
MoonBus’ inaugural year will focus on resuscitating the relics of interstellar communication research undertaken by scientist and engineer L. George Lawrence, and replicating the primary setup of Lawrence’s RBS (remote biosensor system). Originally conducted in the Los Angeles region by Lawrence during the 1960’s, Lawrence claims to have discovered plants may be acting as intergalactic bio-sensors, receiving a sort of binary information from star constellations he called ‘biograms’. It will interface with my own hardware and software aesthetic sonification system, PiP, hopefully enabling any such star transmissions to be aesthetically sonified.
Bio-communication was largely initiated by Cleve Backster, whose lifelong and continuing research in plant response mechanisms began as he stumbled across the dramatic effect of his intention to burn a leaf of a Dracenea plant, during an improvised experiment to teach FBI agents how to use polygraph machines for lie detection.
MoonBus’ rare Cactus Conservatory which, fitted with PiP, generates harmonic sonics modulated by their own livingness, interactions with participants and Earth’s geomagnetic signatures modulate over the course of the moon’s cycle. Any interstellar signals detected by the RBS feature as sonified counterpoint accompanied by generative biograms, (Lawrence’s term for visualizing/mapping interstellar communication) and projections to enhance their interpretation and the overall aesthetic experience. MoonBus captures, records and transmits its sonification and visualisation data as OSC and live (VR) streams includung its field environments and microscope displays.
MoonBus’ first moon energy technology experiment will explore the implementation of ‘MoonCell’; an aesthetic, uncomplicated modular electrochemical energy generator that uses plant-based ethanol as its source fuel (derivative of traditional alkaline fuel cells). MoonCell’s first use will be to power PiP allowing it to be run by an isolated, portable power solution.