Laboratory

Investigation 01

Resonance and Pattern

Handbell Ringing Experiment

Context

These laboratory sessions form a practical strand of the Ocular Mediation research, developed in dialogue with the Sonic Intangibles programme.

I invited marine biologist Dr Gary Caldwell, cosmologist Dr Tassia Ferreira and neuroscientist Dr Claudia Racca to take part in a series of laboratory investigations exploring patterns and behaviours across different scales. Working alongside members of the Sonic Intangibles team, including Dr Chris Harrison and Dr Jorge Boehringer, we used simple material systems, handbell sequences, layered mesh, and stratified water, to open shared questions about structure, relationship, disturbance and perception.

Gary Caldwell contributed microbial datasets that became the starting point for the first laboratory investigation, in which handbell ringing was used to explore ordered relationships through sound. The sessions that followed remained open-ended, prioritising collective observation, dialogue and the insights that emerge when artistic and scientific approaches meet.

Contributor's Note

Dr Gary Caldwell, on the Algal data

I propose to convert data from one of my Stage 3 undergraduate dissertations (Ms Tasha Salah) into two sets of campanology rules.

This is the background to Tasha’s research. There is growing interest in investigating whether human lifespan extension is pharmacologically achievable, with several candidate drugs identified. Rapamycin is widely used in chemotherapy and organ-transplant rejection prophylaxis. It has also been shown to restore regenerative capacity within cells. Tasha’s project was to determine whether exposure to rapamycin over a range of doses could extend the ‘life span’ of microalgae cultures, in essence, looking for an ‘eternal’ algal cell. She exposed cultures of Chlorella to rapamycin over a 14-day period and took cell counts as well as measures of the alga’s photosynthetic health.

The cell count data is shown in the upper graph. Each coloured line is a separate rapamycin dose ranging from 0.1 up to 100 micromolar. There are two control treatments (0), one with a solvent and one without. Rapamycin is insoluble in water so it has to be dissolved into what is termed a carrier solvent – in this case a chemical called DMSO. The carrier then allows the rapamycin to be dispersed in the water.

Tasha’s data are complex and tell a very interesting story that follow a pattern of hormesis (crudely, that which does not kill me makes be stronger). Lower drug levels did improve the culture while higher levels were toxic. It is this two-tone response of the algae that gives the data complexity and, in my view, makes it suitable for the campanology exercise as the order of the treatments change through time. I envisage each rapamycin dose to correspond to a separate bell, so that as time elapses the order that the bells are rung changes.

The second graph is the output of a statistical model that was fed the photosynthesis health data. All the funny terms on the right-hand axis are each a different measure of photosynthesis health – the meaning of each parameter isn’t needed for this exercise, but the reason why I want to include this is that it presents a different picture to the cell data. I view the photosynthesis data through a lens of ‘entropy’. In biology, entropy is a measure of molecular disorder. Living organisms are highly ordered, low-entropy systems that constantly combat increasing entropy by importing energy (e.g., food, sunlight) and exporting disorder as heat. I felt that these data could be interesting to include as they involve a series of times when the data converge and diverge, creating a wavelike pattern. If this pattern can in turn be reflected in a shifting of the timing between bell rings it could present a quite dramatic performance, almost akin to a pattern of breaths being taken. I like this analogy as moving from left to right along the graph you see the cultures growing (data diverging), then they become stressed (data converge), they recover (data diverge again) before finally almost all treatments have died and the data converge for the final time. I like the breathing analogy as it speaks to the fight for life as well as providing echoes that 50% of our oxygen comes from algae.

This is also partly why I answered carbon when you asked me which tone I personally would find meaningful. Entropy plays into this too as life resists entropy by creating order from chaos, with the need for carbon being the unifying principle across all lifeforms. Algae are ‘born’ and have to capture carbon through photosynthesis to grow (fighting against entropy), and when they die entropy wins and the carbon is release and returned to its chaotic state.

Local handbell ringers testing the algal data sequences (Cumbria)

Dr Jorge Boehringer, Dr Chris Harrison, Dr Gary Caldwell, Elizabeth Sharpenson and Irene Rogan ringing the algal data (Newcastle Culture Lab)

Context

Questions emerging from the handbell investigations concerning structure, interconnected systems and material behaviourAlongside the handbell investigations, I explored suspended layers of mesh as a simple experimental system for observing how patterns emerge through movement and disturbance.

Layers of organza, net curtain and reclaimed mesh were suspended and gently disturbed, producing continuously shifting moiré patterns that changed with movement, light and viewing position. Rather than illustrating scientific concepts directly, the experiment explored whether processes such as disturbance, emergence, layering and changing relationships might offer another way of thinking about characteristics encountered across microbial, neuronal and cosmological research. The laboratory session, undertaken with members of the Sonic Intangibles team, encouraged discussion about how simple physical experiments can open new perspectives on complex scientific ideas.

Laboratory Session

Present: Dr Gary Caldwell, Dr Jorge Boehringer, Dr Chris Harrison Artist Irene Rogan, Mucsician Elizabrth Sharpenson. The mesh became a material through which disturbance, connectivity and structural response could be explored.

Response

Dr Tassia Ferreira

Cosmologist, on the mesh dialogue

I feel that you add so much art to my research. When you mention a new medium, I am quickly able to bring it back to my research, in a way I wouldn't have thought possible. I'm very thankful for you making me see things differently - otherwise I have a really hard time communicating my research.

It is interesting to see untraditional mediums — meshes, sounds, internal waves — that aren't common in my field as a cosmologist, and how scientists from different fields interpret them and connect them to their own research. I was able to look at a simple mesh, the way our fingers or bodies distort it, and picture how celestial bodies interact with spacetime.

Hearing the different interpretations from Claudia and Gary allowed me to see into their research and understand we're not so different at all. Processes like "perturbation" get translated into "stimulus" in neuroscience — the physics or biology is different, but we can understand each other without the scientific formalism, just by focusing on the art. We started out looking for patterns between datasets across different scales, but I find a pattern in the way we work, the way we think, the way we look at problems. It can seem obvious that all scientists are alike, but that's not clear in our day-to-day work and analyses. This pattern is clear to me now, and it wouldn't have been possible without Irene's intervention.

Dr Claudia Racca

Neuroscientist, discussuion on the mesh experiment

Separate discussions with Dr Claudia Racca introduced perspectives from neuroscience. As the conversation returned to the mesh experiments, Racca produced an initial sketch of a synaptic pathway — the material's layered structure suggested to her a way of thinking about architecture as built up in layers, echoing synaptic organisation. As discussions progressed, she extended this into a fuller sketch of synaptic progression, considering the mesh materials and their suitability for a large-scale installation referencing neural pathways.

The Hand Bell Ringers

Cumbrian handbell ringers and University of Newcastle scientists test the data

Traditional handbells from Broughton-in-Furness.
These bells were not available for the laboratory session, so small colourful bells were used instead. They will be used to create and record the sound for the September presentation and this webpage.

Investigation 02

Disturbance and Emergence

Moiré Mesh Experiment

Experimental Laboratory with Dr Jorge Dr Gary Caldwell and Dr Chris Harrison participating in the Moiré Mesh experiment at Newcastle University Culture Lab

Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Gravitiatonal lensing

Spacetime grid diagram

Gravitational well render

Claudia's sketch of synaptic progression towards the development of an installation

Irene Rogan

Artist - development. of ideas following discussions

Immediately following these discussions, I sketched ideas for discussion incorporating our thinking around the mesh and the contributions from Tassia and Claudia. My initial thoughts had been to create a physical structure using mesh to form a tunnel-like passage, referencing Claudia’s ideas around synaptic progression. The passage would lead through a doorway into another room, where the work would continue with cosmology-inspired ideas, using mesh, light and event horizon-inspired images. I also began to consider sound and ways of moving through the work, creating an experience of passage between spaces while drawing on characteristics identified through persistent homology across scales—connections, voids, boundaries, branching and changing relationships.

Concept development following laboratory dialogue

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Concept development following laboratory dialogue.

Investigation 03

Excursion

This phase of the work brought together neuroscientist Claudia Racca, marine biologist Gary Caldwell and cosmologist Tassia Ferreira in a collaborative programme of interdisciplinary enquiry.

Context

Present

Dr Gary Caldwell - Marine Biology, Dr Tassia Ferreira - Cosmology, Dr Claudia Racca - Neuroscience, Irene Rogan - Artist

The graduated cylinder with the blue and red layers and pencil.

The excursion explored water, density, layering, suspension and observation across marine biology, cosmology and neuroscience.

The day began with slides, dyes and microscope observations. After lunch, the work shifted to the tanks, where stratified water was created, a pycnocline and we explored buoyancy and other fluid dynamics-related tests.

What stayed with me was the tension between documenting and participating. Observing and participating with the work, it became a form of learning in itself, and the experience became the starting point for my own experiments with water and tanks in the studio.

Small scale experiements with dyes L: Dr Tassia Ferreira R: Irene Rogan

Small scale experiemtns with dyes Foreground : Dr Cluadia Racca Rear Dr Tassia Ferreira

Moving to the tank

Developing the pycnocline

Developing the Pycnocline in the large tank Dr Gary Caldwell

Water tank close-up

Dye entering tank

Claudia working tank

Tassia working the tank - Claudia's model boat

Buoyancy — an object responding to the density conditions

Ice — introducing a new material/temperature condition

Plunger — actively disturbing the water

Claudia's observations

Amber/bubbles

Coloured cluster I

Coloured cluster II

Green orange

Palette

Projection

Buoyancy test - the beauty of glass, water and light

Observations from the Interstitial Spaces of the Laboratory

Alongside the documented experiments, these images are a departure — moments caught in passing, off to the side of the formal record, where something in the light, the material or the moment itself asked for a second look.