Denk Signals
Denk Signals was developed through a residency at Kuenstlerische Tatsachen in Jena in summer 2024.
Science is often a visual practice. Looking through the microscope, visualising data, observing experiments. The sonic qualities of research environments are rarely considered. Through this residency, Shaw attempted to approach the practices of science through listening, recording the diverse, and often unwanted signals of environments, experiments and phenomena using a range of tools and technologies.
The result is Denk Signals, a series of artworks which respond to the sound and datascapes of different research situations. Sound and data collected includes the passage of electricity running through muscle, the tiny bubbles produced by artificial photosynthesis and the movement of micro-organisms in water.
At the Fazialis-Nerv-Zentrums Electromyography (EMG) data was collected, measuring small electrical signals which connect the human brain to muscle. This data is played back through an array of spark gaps in the Trafo basement. In a former electrical substation, these tiny signals from the human body are amplified to high voltage creating an interplay between sound and light.
Denk Signals - TRAFO, Jena, Germany [Video: Eugénie Desmedt, 2024]
Shaw also collected a large amount of audio from interviews on the subject of artistic research from the KT archive. Using a variety of algorithmic processes, the sound work presented in the 2nd floor Buro (change name if needed) uses randomness and chance to navigate a sizeable corpus of recorded audio. The result is a never ending conversation on the possibilities of arts and science collaboration and artistic research.
Denk Signals - TRAFO, Jena, Germany [Image: Alexandra Ivanciu, 2024]
In collaboration with the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Shaw attempted to record the sound of artificial photosynthesis using an underwater microphone. This presented itself as a challenge, the rotation of the vortex mixer was much louder than the reaction itself. The sound collected was converted to data and is played back through a pair of plasma speakers which activate rotating, repurposed fluorescent tubes in the stairwell. Photosynthesis is the transformation of light to chemical energy. In this piece, electrical energy charges the surrounding air particles resulting in an output of sound and light.
Denk Signals - TRAFO, Jena, Germany [Video: Tim Shaw, 2024]
Tim Shaw worked with 4 institutes during his residency at KT 2024.
The generous team at the Fazialis-Nerv-Zentrum allowed Shaw to work with the various technologies associated with the functional and aesthetic issues of facial paralysis.
The Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry (IOMC) facilitated the recording of artificial photosynthesis. This was conducted with the kind support of Prof. Kalina Peneva and Konrad Hotzel.
Dr. Laura Sperl kindly offered her research interest in time perception and media, specifically how manipulating media changes the way we experience the passing of time.
Prof. Peter Frenzel and Olga Gildeeva Schmitz generously facilitated the engagement with geological research at the Institute of Geoscience, including the collection and recording of ostracods.