UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Please join Penn State School of Music and School of Theatre faculty member, Mark Ballora, on Monday, Jan. 26, for the first in a new brown-bag Lunchtime Lectures series featuring innovative projects that integrate arts and design research with science and technology.
Ballora will be presenting his project in a talk titled, "Music of Science: Auditory Display and Sonification,” in the Arts and Design Research Incubator in 16 Borland Building.
These events, sponsored by the Research Office of the College of Arts and Architecture, begin at 12:10 p.m. and end at 1 p.m. The Lunchtime Lectures, which will take place every other Monday throughout the spring (Feb. 9, Feb. 23, March 23, April 6, and April 20), are free and open to the public.
Future presenters include Scott Wing (Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture), Andy Belser (School of Theatre), Bill Doan (School of Theatre), and Kimberly Powell (School of Visual Arts).
About Mark Ballora's project
Scientific data as music/visualization of data is an accepted form of discovery and communication in the sciences. Yet the use of the ears to understand information is becoming increasingly acknowledged as an alternative or complementary means of rendering data. The ear’s sensitivity to dynamic changes, and its ability to follow multiple dimensions of musical counterpoint, make this emerging area of investigation a particularly exciting fusion of art and science.
Ballora has written articles describing uses of sonification (rendering scientific data-sets with sound) in the areas of cardiology and computer network security. His sonifications of astronomical and physiological datasets have been used by percussionist/ethnomusicologist Mickey Hart as part of performances of the Mickey Hart Band, and on the band's albums "Mysterium Tremendum" and "Superorganism," as well as the film "Rhythms of the Universe," which Hart conceived with cosmologist George Smoot.
About the Arts and Design Research Incubator
Operating within the A&A Research Office, ADRI provides seed funding, technical support, and workspace to high-impact arts and design research projects that, although often in their initial stages, have a strong probability of attracting future external funding. In keeping with goals outlined in the college’s strategic plan, ADRI projects are typically collaborative and interdisciplinary in nature, push methodological boundaries, link research and teaching, make innovative use of technology, engage with university-wide research initiatives and priorities, and have the potential to garner national and international recognition. ADRI also coordinates and hosts a range of programming designed to foster and support innovative arts research and its broad dissemination.
For more information, visit the ADRI website: sites.psu.edu/adri