#darkmatterart

Winding up the residency at MSSL Space Lab

It’s taken a few months to digest the experience of being artist-in-residence at Mullard Space Science Laboratory following the Euclid Mission. Reflecting on the multi-layered project I had planned, I asked myself what were the significant outcomes, both in terms of an art/science initiative and the artwork it inspired? Working from September 2018 to September 2019, the aim was to respond to this European Space Agency-led mission through sculpture and print while running a series of creative workshops for the lab staff based in rural Surrey. With funding from Arts Council England, I was able to record this journey on film, documenting the process of integrating philosophical and technical research into a body of work that has effectively crystallised my practice.

Initially I was interested in how the Euclid Mission would alter our perception of the universe as it searched for answers about dark matter and dark energy by mapping billions of galaxies three-quarters back in time to the Big Bang. MSSL are producing the VIS (visible light spectrum) instrument on the 1.2 metre wide telescope destined to be the largest camera in space when it launches in 2022. Peering into the deepest reaches of the cosmos, it will provide a fresh perspective on the evolution and structure of the universe while testing Einstein’s theories about gravity on a cosmological scale.

Admittedly, the complexity of the mission was difficult to take in. The first four months were spent interviewing most of the members of the Euclid team at MSSL (about 13 scientists and engineers) to understand the instrument better through their varied roles. Alongside this, I was invited to watch testing in laboratories and clean rooms as well as component making in engineering workshops. The technical aspects of space science are fascinating – materials, optical experiments, electrical components and the physical quality of the laboratories are at once dazzling and surreal for an outsider. At times there was a dizzying amount of information to take in and I needed to retreat to the library to make notes, little drawings or process thoughts while taking in the idyllic scenery of Holmbury St Mary in the Surrey Hills. In this beautiful and surprising setting for a space science facility, I became convinced the surroundings contributed to the openness and well being of lab staff.

The wood-panelled common room, which adjoins many key areas of the lab, became my base and de-facto meeting room. It was the perfect spot for me, with a wide-ranging selection of science magazines to dive into and where, between meetings, I was able to conduct impromptu conversations with anyone passing through to the canteen or labs. As time progressed these conversations became more friendly and varied – one minute I was learning about plasma physics and the next I was being shown holiday sunset snaps. To be honest, most days I left buzzing with energy and enthusiasm.

From the beginning two things struck me: the enormous amount of data that would be generated via the instrument and the levels of calibration the naked light to which the universe would be subjected after it is collected by the camera CCDs. These areas of interest gradually influenced related personal research and the development of visual responses to experiences at the lab. Alongside these ideas, investigating the concept of dark matter prompted questions about how we were to grasp a new sense of materiality: dark matter is invisible, doesn’t reflect light, is non-luminous yet its mass produces gravity capable of creating structure in the universe. As someone involved with materials and light this was enormously exciting.

The light passing through the VIS instrument will go through about 20 levels of calibration after being transmitted to ground stations for processing. This scrubbing of visual data stimulated questions about what we chose to see and, in turn, to perceive. Photons, travelling billions of years, will be detected on highly polished silicon surfaces showing us faint galaxies formed near the beginning of the universe. The processing of this data will eliminate unwanted information such as cosmic rays streaking though the image which often obscure the field of view. I began to question the purity of the technological viewpoint and turned my thoughts to the construction of perception from a philosophical point of view. This research centred on the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) and quantum physicist/thinker David Bohm (1917-1992). I felt it was important to consider the basis of ‘looking’ itself. The root of observation, essential for artists and scientists, conscious sight is a supremely human sense. Where and how we chose to gaze at our environment dictates much of what we actually see, eventually emerging as thought and, later, knowledge.

In the essay Eye and Mind, Merleau-Ponty (see previous blog Searching the Sky) states that the body is the primary site of all perception. Before we think, we sense. Light, sound and touch are experienced through the human senses that feel the world viscerally before analysing or finding meaning in the sensory. He identifies this primary stage as particularly relevant to artists, claiming that by ‘lending his body to the world’ an artist embodies sensation and meaning by conveying a visual record in his materials. He suggests that science should return to this original state of sensory experience to properly ground thought and move away from seeing the body as ‘an information machine’. I realised that, inadvertently, I had been touching on this through the creative workshops for the scientists. Arranging granules of glass for fusing, layering imagery for cyanotype prints and bending paper sculptures were all extremely tactile activities where eye and mind come together. As an add on to a pinhole camera workshop with artist Olga Suchanova, we constructed a camera obscura in a meeting room, inviting staff to experience the optical phenomenon in darkness. I remember standing with the Euclid instrument, scientist quietly waiting for our eyes to adjust to the fine light piercing through the paper hole. As the inverted image the image of trees and sky gradually appeared on a white board, we remarked on how extraordinary it looked. This comment was from someone who is constructing the most powerful camera in space. For a moment we were hyper-aware of the experience of seeing (see previous blog Sensing).

As the development of my artwork progressed, the words of David Bohm began to influence thoughts and the manipulation of materials. Bohm was interested in how paradigms occur and described perception as a feedback loop of sensory information, abstract analysis and re-testing of our environment. We build up a structure of reality based on consistent experiences. New information disrupts the construction of established paradigms causing science (and the public) to re-see reality. And once we understand a new concept, it is impossible to the original perception in the same way. Our ‘inner show’ depicting reality is suddenly altered. Ever drawn to the properties of illusion and thinking about dark matter, I began to experiment with projecting light through bent glass, casting moving 3D shadows on a studio wall. I recognised this type of perceptual shift in my work: the difference between the physical reality of the glass and the illusory forms of the projection. ‘Truth in Illusion’ became a theatrical installation poking at our reluctance to release old paradigms and reinforce instincts to let fresh information alter assumptions.

The sensory, filtering data and concepts around blind spots threaded through much of my work for the end of residency exhibition at Lumen Gallery in October 2019 (https://www.pettibone.co.uk/mssl-space-lab-residency). The central installation ‘Cosmic Landscape’ explored our expanding view of the universe through the aims of the Euclid Mission in ten metres of fabric and glass. Screen print ‘Found Missing’ relates to the conundrum of dark matter and looking for the invisible. ‘Enfolding’, a lustred glass sculpture, nods to Bohm’s reference to an ‘enfolding and unfolding universe’ and the two-dimensional experience of viewing the night sky. Lab data emerged in several pieces including ‘The Language of Light’ photomontage series where astral data, used to test the VIS instrument, is combined with views from Lizard Point in Cornwall.

Found Missing, screen print, edition of 12

I can honestly say the work genuinely reflects my experience of working so closely with MSSL Space Lab and the Euclid project. The slow burn of continuing ideas, and desire to share this art/science initiative, indicates that the residency will affect me for a long time. ESA have invited me to speak about my involvement with the mission at their headquarters in the Netherlands in February 2020, so perhaps interest in the science sector is growing. It remains to be seen how the lab has been affected: the workshops were well attended and garnered many positive comments and Dr Tom Kitching*, who hosted me, was enthusiastic throughout. I write this as I prepare for a final presentation at the lab tomorrow where I’ll unveil the film I made with Sam Charlesworth and a selection of artwork. Perhaps the experience will be a slow burn for them as well.