A new show exploring the Solar System through the vibrant sounds of the Caribbean premiered last night.
The show is the result of a collaboration between astronomers and musicians from the UK and the Caribbean who used rhythms and instruments to represent planets and stars.
Created by researchers from the universities of Portsmouth and Newcastle, the University of the West Indies, and a blind musician from Trinidad, the project is all about transforming the way we experience the Universe.
It was designed to be accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired, but is also aimed at anyone who's looking for a fresh and exciting way to learn about the cosmos.
'Caribbean Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System' premiered on YouTube and at an in-person event in Trinidad. It reimagines a previous project by swapping Western-European musical styles for authentic Caribbean sounds, narrated by a local voice actor.
Dr James Trayford from the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation and Dr Chris Harrison from Newcastle University co-lead the project, Audio Universe , which developed the show.
Dr Trayford is the lead-developer of the software used to produce all of the sound. He said: "We've developed a computer code which can read in a dataset and turn it into sounds based on choices made by the user. This is similar to how we might try to visualise data, using graphs and charts to understand it better.
"To make the Caribbean show, it was a case of taking the same data as the original show, but expressed using Caribbean rhythms, harmonies and instrumentation, including steel pans, guitars and maracas."
Professor Shirin Haque, an astronomer at the University of the West Indies, said: "In the West Indies, we are short of resources to support the education of children with disabilities.
"I invited Dr Harrison to meet with teachers, community leaders, and members of our research group to consult with us on producing accessible education resources in our local region. I could not be more delighted that one result of this visit was the creation of this new show!"
During his visit, Dr Harrison met Arron George, a blind Trinidadian musician, who said: "When I first heard the Audio Universe's original show, which uses sounds representing stars appearing and planets orbiting, I felt awe, wonder, and a deep sense of hope.
"As the first blind student in the Caribbean to successfully pass physics and chemistry at CSEC level, I overcame countless barriers in pursuing science. There were no facilities or tools designed for someone like me, and I often had to create my own way forward.
"These sounds opened up the Universe to me in a way I could never experience visually, revealing its wonders in a form I could truly appreciate. But I couldn't help thinking,what if we made this Caribbean-style? Imagine replacing glockenspiels with steel pans, layering vibrant Caribbean rhythms, and infusing our culture into the experience. It would not only reflect the beauty of our region but also make the cosmos accessible and relatable to all who learn differently."
Thanks to Arron's guidance and recordings, Dr Trayford and Dr Harrison worked on producing a new Caribbean-style soundtrack to accompany their original Tour of the Solar System . But the process wasn't without its challenges.
Dr Trayford added: "Music is very cultural and will influence how we hear sonification. One of the biggest challenges we had to overcome was the greater emphasis on rhythms and percussion instruments in Caribbean music, compared to the emphasis on tuned instruments and harmonies in Western-European music.
"We had to think creatively about adapting our approaches, but ultimately gained new ideas we can take away from this cultural crossover. It was wonderful learning from Arron, and benefitting from his perspective on sonification."
'Sonification' is a term for presenting data using non-verbal sound, but is much less common than data visualisation techniques.
Dr Harrison said: "We are researching the best methods to represent data with sound, as an alternative to standard visual methods such as bar charts and pie charts. One application of sonification is to create immersive educational experiences, enjoyable for everyone, and which is also accessible to those who can not see or struggle with visual methods of communication."
Although sonification is growing in popularity, this work is believed to be unique, in adapting a sonification-based show to reflect the importance of different musical cultures. The team intends to build on this work, and consider how what they have learnt can be expanded to other musical cultures and help inform a more inclusive approach to sonification development.
This project was supported by funding from United Kingdom Research and Innovation grants and the Royal Astronomical Society. The Simons Foundation supported the workshop and travel for Dr Harrison's visit to Trinidad.
