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Ocular Mediation
Interdisciplinary Research in Art, Science and Perception
Experimental Science Laboratory
Large tank stratified water - pycnocline
Introduction
Reflections on Humanising Data
Between Wonder and Delight
Rather than seeking to illustrate scientific ideas, this research gradually became an investigation into how artistic enquiry can reveal recurring behaviours, relationships and perceptual questions across very different scientific domains. What began as an exploration of translating scientific data through sound evolved into a broader enquiry into perception, experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Through conversations, collective experimentation and interdisciplinary exchange, the research evolved in unexpected directions, from handbell ringing and mathematical patterns to laboratory investigations and material processes. As the enquiry developed, the emphasis shifted from translating scientific data towards exploring perception, emergence and the relationships that can be revealed through artistic experimentation and dialogue across scientific disciplines.
The first interdisciplinary meeting bringing together artists, scientists and the Sonic Intangibles team to explore the original Ocular Mediation proposal
Research Journey
Ocular Mediation began as a proposal for an Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) award, a programme supporting artists to explore new directions beyond their established practice through research and experimentation. The proposal asked whether recurring patterns and behaviours might be observed across vastly different scales, focusing initially on cosmic, neuronal and microbial networks.
Working alongside the Sonic Intangibles team, I invited scientists from these three fields to join the research, creating an interdisciplinary environment in which artistic enquiry and scientific knowledge could develop through dialogue, experimentation and collaboration. Rather than seeking to establish direct equivalences between disciplines, the project remained intentionally open, allowing new questions and unexpected directions to emerge through the research process.
This marked an important shift in my thinking, from looking for similarities between disciplines towards asking how artistic enquiry and perception might reveal recurring behaviours across very different forms of scientific observation.
Certainly. I think this version is more measured and keeps the emphasis firmly on your research rather than on the views of any individual.
Internatio
Certainly. I think this version is more measured and keeps the emphasis firmly on your research rather than on the views of any individual.
International research formed an important part of the project, providing opportunities to meet researchers and experience different approaches to interdisciplinary practice.
A visit to Professor Ille Gebeshuber at the Vienna University of Technology introduced me to an internationally recognised nanotechnology scientist whose enthusiasm, generosity and genuine enjoyment of research were as inspiring as the laboratory itself. Her openness to discussion reinforced the value of curiosity, collaboration and experimentation as shared qualities across both art and science.
Attending Ars Electronica in Linz, whose theme that year was Panic, offered a different perspective. The festival brought together artists, scientists and technologists to address environmental concerns, political issues and the communication of scientific knowledge through a wide range of creative and interdisciplinary approaches. Experiencing these debates broadened my understanding of the wider cultural and social contexts in which art and science intersect.
Conversations with researchers, including physicist Helena Ubach during the final stages of her doctoral research in Barcelona, further enriched these reflections. Through these exchanges, I became increasingly aware that approaches to interdisciplinary collaboration—and particularly to the sonification of scientific data—vary considerably across the scientific community. While some researchers see creative practice as opening new possibilities for communication and engagement, others are understandably cautious about artistic interpretation of scientific data. Reflecting on these different perspectives helped clarify my own direction. Rather than seeking to translate scientific datasets directly, the research increasingly focused on artistic enquiry as a means of exploring perception, relationships and the questions that emerge through dialogue across disciplines.
I think this version is fairer because it doesn't imply that Helena personally held one position or another. Instead, it acknowledges that she was one of several researchers whose conversations contributed to your thinking, while the observation about differing attitudes is presented as something you encountered more broadly during the project.
nal research formed an important part of the project, providing opportunities to meet researchers and experience different approaches to interdisciplinary practice.
A visit to Professor Ille Gebeshuber at the Vienna University of Technology introduced me to an internationally recognised nanotechnology scientist whose enthusiasm, generosity and genuine enjoyment of research were as inspiring as the laboratory itself. Her openness to discussion reinforced the value of curiosity, collaboration and experimentation as shared qualities across both art and science.
Attending Ars Electronica in Linz, whose theme that year was Panic, offered a different perspective. The festival brought together artists, scientists and technologists to address environmental concerns, political issues and the communication of scientific knowledge through a wide range of creative and interdisciplinary approaches. Experiencing these debates broadened my understanding of the wider cultural and social contexts in which art and science intersect.
Conversations with researchers, including physicist Helena Ubach during the final stages of her doctoral research in Barcelona, further enriched these reflections. Through these exchanges, I became increasingly aware that approaches to interdisciplinary collaboration—and particularly to the sonification of scientific data—vary considerably across the scientific community. While some researchers see creative practice as opening new possibilities for communication and engagement, others are understandably cautious about artistic interpretation of scientific data. Reflecting on these different perspectives helped clarify my own direction. Rather than seeking to translate scientific datasets directly, the research increasingly focused on artistic enquiry as a means of exploring perception, relationships and the questions that emerge through dialogue across disciplines.
I think this version is fairer because it doesn't imply that Helena personally held one position or another. Instead, it acknowledges that she was one of several researchers whose conversations contributed to your thinking, while the observation about differing attitudes is presented as something you encountered more broadly during the project.
International Research
International research formed an important part of the project, providing opportunities to meet researchers and experience different approaches to interdisciplinary practice.
A visit to Professor Ille Gebeshuber at the Vienna University of Technology introduced me to an internationally recognised nanotechnology scientist whose enthusiasm, generosity and genuine enjoyment of research were as inspiring as the laboratory itself. Her openness to discussion reinforced the value of curiosity, collaboration and experimentation as shared qualities across both art and science.
Attending Ars Electronica in Linz, whose theme that year was Panic, offered a different perspective. The festival brought together artists, scientists and technologists to address environmental concerns, political issues and the communication of scientific knowledge through a wide range of creative and interdisciplinary approaches. Experiencing these debates broadened my understanding of the wider cultural and social contexts in which art and science intersect.
Conversations with researchers, including physicist Helena Ubach during the final stages of her doctoral research in Barcelona, further enriched these reflections. Through these exchanges, I became increasingly aware that approaches to interdisciplinary collaboration - and particularly to the sonification of scientific data - vary considerably across the scientific community. While some researchers see creative practice as opening new possibilities for communication and engagement, others are understandably cautious about artistic interpretation of scientific data. Reflecting on these different perspectives helped clarify my own direction. Rather than seeking to translate scientific datasets directly, the research increasingly focused on artistic enquiry as a means of exploring perception, relationships and the questions that emerge through dialogue across disciplines.
Participants from the Sonic Intangibles programme exploring ideas through discussion, drawing and collaborative enquiry during the first workshop.
Sonic Intangibles
Sonic Intangibles is an interdisciplinary research programme exploring how sound can contribute to research, communication and public engagement by bringing together artists, scientists and researchers from diverse disciplines.
Ringing the Data: Local residents participating in an experimental handbell ringing exploring approaches to interpreting scientific datasets.
Laboratory Research One
A significant turning point came through the Sonic Intangibles programme, where regular discussions with astrophysicist Dr Chris Harrison, co-leader of the project with Professor Paul Vickers, and sound artist and composer Jorge Boehringer formed part of the research dialogue. Chris introduced research comparing neuronal and cosmic networks, and reading these papers prompted me to think beyond visual similarities, asking how artistic practice might investigate recurring behaviours, structures and relationships across very different scientific domains.
At around the same time, hearing church bells in my local community led me to discover campanology and the mathematical structures underlying handbell ringing. This unexpected connection suggested a new way of exploring scientific material through sound, rhythm and collective participation.
With the generous support of marine biologist Gary Caldwell, who shared microbial datasets and bell-ringing charts, I began developing practical experiments using handbells as a structured, participatory way of engaging with scientific information. Working with local residents, musicians and collaborators, I explored how scientific datasets might be experienced collectively through ringing rather than represented solely through visual means.
These investigations culminated in an experimental laboratory session at Newcastle Culture Hub involving members of the Sonic Intangibles team, scientists and invited collaborators. Together we explored handbell ringing alongside suspended mesh, moiré patterns, light and vocal sound as different approaches to investigating relationships across scientific disciplines. Rather than illustrating science, the research sought to create experiences that encouraged reflection on resonance, participation, translation and perception.
The handbell investigations continue to evolve beyond the laboratory. I have recently been invited to participate in an Interdisciplinary Sonification Knowledge Exchange Event, providing an opportunity to return to this strand of the research. I am currently working with a local handbell ringing group to explore Gary Caldwell's algal datasets through live handbell performance and to make recordings using historic church handbells. These continuing collaborations extend the research through shared enquiry, careful listening and collective participation, while remaining grounded in artistic exploration rather than the direct translation of scientific data.
Extending Laboratory Research
Large Tank Pycnocline Experiment Science team
Small tank stratified water and pycnocline - Irene Rogan
Laboratory Research One brought together neuroscientist Claudia Racca, marine biologist Gary Caldwell and cosmologist Tassia Ferreira in a collaborative programme of interdisciplinary enquiry. Each participant contributed specialist knowledge and perspectives from their own field within an exploratory space that I had brought together through the DYCP project. The investigations were intentionally simple, serving as shared points of enquiry rather than discipline-specific scientific research, allowing artistic observation, dialogue and experimentation to become central to the process.
Although I had originally planned to undertake a series of practical investigations, my role within the laboratory became one of observing, documenting and reflecting through the developing framework of Ocular Mediation. Reflection on the laboratory processes became an important part of the enquiry itself.
Following the laboratory session, I continued the practical investigations independently, developing a series of experiments exploring density stratification, pycnoclines and buoyancy. These investigations marked a significant shift in the research and laid the foundations for my continuing Upwelling research.
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Laboratory Research One brought together neuroscientist Claudia Racca, marine biologist Gary Caldwell and cosmologist Tassia Ferreira in a collaborative programme of interdisciplinary enquiry. Each participant contributed specialist knowledge and perspectives from their own field within an exploratory space that I had brought together through the DYCP project. The investigations were intentionally simple, serving as shared points of enquiry rather than discipline-specific scientific research, allowing artistic observation, dialogue and experimentation to become central to the process.
Although I had originally planned to undertake a series of practical investigations, my role within the laboratory became one of observing, documenting and reflecting through the developing framework of Ocular Mediation. Reflection on the laboratory processes became an important part of the enquiry itself.
Following the laboratory session, I continued the practical investigations independently, developing a series of experiments exploring density stratification, pycnoclines and buoyancy. These investigations marked a significant shift in the research and laid the foundations for my continuing Upwelling research.
Current Research Directions
My ongoing research is currently developing along two interconnected, but distinct, strands.
Upwelling
An exploration of oceanographic processes, density stratification, internal waves and material behaviour through laboratory experimentation, installation and observation. This work investigates movement across invisible boundaries and the dynamics of separation, exchange and emergence. Current explorations have been shaped through conversations with Dr Magda Carr and by research into the Argo programme, whose global network of autonomous floats quietly records long-term changes throughout the world's oceans.
IIMAGE
Patterns Across Scales
An interdisciplinary investigation into recurring characteristics observed across astrophysics, neuroscience, microbiology and oceanography. Rather than seeking direct equivalence between systems, this research explores how similar patterns of organisation, emergence, flow and transformation become visible through different forms of scientific observation and artistic enquiry.
Image from Luotamaaton residency
Nurmes Island Finland
Emerging Collaborations
Research often develops through conversation as much as through experimentation. Alongside practical investigations, I have begun a series of dialogues with researchers and practitioners from different disciplines, exploring how ideas can evolve through exchange, curiosity and shared enquiry rather than predetermined outcomes.
Professor Ille Gebeshuber
Professor Ille Gebeshuber (Institute of Applied Physics, TU Wien) and I have begun an exchange of images and reflections, creating an ongoing visual dialogue through which observations from art and science can be shared.
Maja Bugge
Cellist Maja Bugge has expressed interest in exploring connections between fluid dynamics and musical practice. We hope to discuss and consider how qualities such as resonance, flow, emergence, turbulence and wave behaviour might offer new ways of thinking about relationships between physical processes and sound, rather than attempting a literal translation of scientific data into music.
Professor Ille Gebeshuber: examining Plant galls in the
gardens of Vienna
Future Directions
The next stage of this research is to continue developing collaborative relationships across art and science while extending the practical and conceptual investigations begun through Ocular Mediation. Ongoing conversations with Gary Caldwell, Claudia Racca and Tassia Ferreira continue to shape the evolution of the project, as practical experimentation and interdisciplinary dialogue open new lines of enquiry. Building on the Upwelling research, future work will continue to explore perception, emergence and the hidden dynamics of natural systems through collaboration and experimental practice.