CeReNeM Alumni Dr Girilal Baars awarded prestigious Klinger Electroacoustic Residency, Bowling Green State University.
Dr Girilal Baars has been awarded the 2022 KEAR (Klinger Electroacoustic Residency) at Bowling Green State University. Dr Baars who completed his PhD in the Centre for Research in New Music with Prof Monty Adkins, specialises in electroacoustic spatial soundscapes and voice improvisation using extended vocal techniques. Dr Baar’s will be working on his project “Trioxiá”. Dr Baar’s writes,
“Trioxiá” is a project that will sonically illustrate the evolution of human presence in orbit around Earth, beginning with the very first man-made object in space, the Sputnik. Since the launch of Sputnik on the 4 October 1957 space has mirrored large-scale political and social developments on Earth. Originally, space was an arena to demonstrate power during the Cold War, with tremendous investments by both the US and Soviet sides. In time, this led on to the commercial era – providing radio and television broadcasts and overseas calls through satellites. Of course, today space is a highly integrated part of society. Satellites are at the heart of modern navigation, communications, cosmology, weather forecasts, the monitoring of global climate, and so much more. But as the number of assets in orbit grows, so do the risks of collisions and so-called cascade collisions. This has become the highest priority for many space agencies – ensuring that collisions and space debris do not pollute near-Earth space environment, potentially crippling access to space completely.
“Trioxiá” is therefore, also a project with some relevancy to actual space programmes. The space endeavour is often seen as something abstract and intangible. Direct representation of orbits and the evolution of near-Earth space can help communicate the challenges of current space programmes to audiences beyond space scientists. This could make the project of interest for organisations such as the European Space Agency and NASA, who regularly work with artistic expressions in the investigation and promotion of aspects of space.
I have been working on the pieces for several years, it now encompasses close to 6000 individual sounds in individual orbits. The sounds are a mix of documentary and created. The work at the KEAR residency will be to test, mix and finalise the piece in the huge multi-channel system that they have.
