Kepler–37

Title
Kepler–37
Composer
Melissa Grey & David Morneau
Date Created
2016
Instrumentation
benjolin synthesizer
blindfolds
Description
Kepler–37, the star for which this project is named, is orbited by four small exoplanets, which were discovered when scientists sonified data captured by the Kepler space telescope. Careful listening revealed the smallest exoplanets on record.

Being unable to see either the settings of the benjolin synthesizer or each other, Grey & Morneau must rely on active listening and a practiced musical telepathy to confront the inherently chaotic nature of benjolin’s circuitry and shape its sounds into a coherent performance.

Used here as a physical constraint to deprive one sense (sight) in order to amplify others (hearing and touch), the blindfold is laden with symbolic meanings. Justice wears a blindfold as a symbol of impartiality: an ideal that treats everyone as equal regardless of gender, race, or appearance. In tarot readings, a blindfold may be interpreted as a willful blindness that skews perception and reduces clarity. Research indicates that the assumption of “gender-blindness” or “color-blindness” in one’s treatment of others can become a blindfold to one’s inherent biases, impeding or ignoring the pursuit of equality.
Publisher
greymorneau
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Is Part Of
Photon Ecstasy
Linked resources