We will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Astronomical Society with as guest of honor Yaël Nazé, astrophysicist who came to talk to us about “Women astronomers” on the November 23th , 2023 at the Plainpalais community hall in Geneva.
We will present with sound artist Julie Semoroz our brand new short film ASTRA projected in video mapping on the facade of the room.
Doors open 6:30 p.m. – free event – as part of the Les Créatives Festival.
Thank you Ludivine Flóra Cornaglia Filippusdóttir for the invitation. All the information on: projet-astra.ch
ASTRA, 12min27, 2023
ASTRA is an audiovisual creation resulting from a commission from the Geneva Astronomical Society to celebrate the 100 years of existence of the institution.
On this occasion, astrophysicist Yaël Nazé came to present her work during a unique evening which closed with the work ASTRA by artists Sophie Le Meillour (visual) and Julie Semoroz (music). This composition was presented during an audiovisual mapping projection on the interior facade of the Plainpalais community hall (Pitoëff) during the Les Créatives festival, in November 2023.
In this audiovisual work designed specifically for the interior facade of Pitoeff, the artists sought to give a distinct character to each species of planet, whether real, newly discovered or purely imaginary. They thus created a set of scales aimed at expressing the void and its extent, as well as gravitational forces and weightlessness, thus creating an experience that almost borders on vertigo. ASTRA highlights the temporality of the universe by using contrasts between light and dark, evoking an interstellar wind with its temperature variations. This creates a sort of dialogue between life and death, while exploring the process leading to the birth of massive stars.
The artist Sophie Le Meillour invites the public to immerse themselves in a living cosmos, inviting them to explore what she defines as “the cells of the universe”. Her work, located between the microcosm and the macrocosm, explores the interstices between real and virtual matter. She offers a world in perpetual metamorphosis, where textures and various materials come to life through her numerous artistic creations. For this particular work, her inspiration draws from works published by the SAG and the research of Yaël Nazé The artist uses drawing, video and painting, skillfully interweaving them.
To complete her research, she invited sound artist Julie Semoroz to create a tailor-made composition. The artist mainly used sounds from field recordings that she recorded during her numerous travels. Many of the sounds and frequencies in the ASTRA piece come from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which ESO is a partner. ALMA is a network of receivers and antennas that capture waves coming from the universe. By measuring these waves, astrophysicists attempt to reveal the formation of stars and distant galaxies, down to the origin of planets and the constituent elements of life. The artist also used open source sounds from NASA, including recently recorded earthquakes on Mars and various sounds from space missions.
