Collaboration between musician and astronomer captures galactic events(Forwarded)

Department of Public Affairs
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada

Contact:
Karen Kelly
News Services Officer, Science and Technology
(416) 978-6974

April 01, 2005

Collaboration between musician and astronomer captures galactic events

Computer animations of astrophysical phenomena set to music score

By Karen Kelly

The swirling galaxies creep towards each other until their bright
epicentres collide, sending ribbons of light into the blackness. It is
both a beautiful and awesome image -- hard to believe that somewhere in
the universe a similar event is unfolding.

Not in a matter of minutes, mind you, but over billions of years.
Professor John Dubinski of astronomy has condensed and animated the
spectacular collision to music, with the help of Toronto-composer John
Farah [http://www.johnfarah.com/]. "My scientific research is based on
numerical simulations of galaxy dynamics and structure formation. I've
developed complementary animation software so people can experience the
complex dynamical evolution of galaxies," Dubinski said. "Adding music
enhances the experience."

The European Space Agency took notice of the Dubinski-Farah
collaboration last fall and is including it in the DVD documentary of
the 15th anniversary of the Hubble space telescope, due out at the end
of April. The documentary will present the history and many achievements
of the Hubble. It will also include incredible imagery and computer
animations of astrophysical phenomena.

"[The ESA] saw my website and liked the stuff I was doing, so I sent
them some of the work in progress that I was doing with John," Dubinski
said. "They liked the animations and the music and so are incorporating
them into the main narrative of the documentary. They're also including
five tracks in a bonus section on the DVD."

Dubinski heard of Farah's experimental music through a friend and
approached the composer with the idea of putting galactic formation to
music. Farah said the big challenge was to find musical common ground
between the two of them. "I wanted something ultra-serious and he wanted
something more light to make it more accessible to everyone," said
Farah, who graduated from the Faculty of Music in 1996. "The images are
quite poetic and it was important to find the right rhythm so that the
music lent itself to the narrative."

Working with a limited budget, the ESA public outreach arm will
distribute the DVD to science media; the media will then take on the
cost of reproducing the DVD and include it as an insert for their readers.

While some may view this artistic collaboration as strange for an
astronomy professor, Dubinski sees it as a natural extension of his
scientific research.

"Scientists and musicians are very similar kinds of people -- they're
both creating things from the synthesis of ideas using some acquired
technological expertise," said Dubinski, who's done similar work for
National Geographic and Japanese public television. "Computer
simulations represent physical reality but have no constraints on time
or space, making it possible to choreograph galaxies and set them to
music if you please."

Farah agreed that art and science overlap: "Music is math. Music can
underscore the deeper poetic truths that exist in nature and reflect
something of natural formation."

IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://www.news.utoronto.ca/img/2005...amorphosis.jpg (19KB)]
Numerical simulation of Andromeda galaxy and Milky Way colliding. Image:
J. Dubinski