VALERY VERMEULEN

Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 is the concept-driven, new electronic album from Dr. Valery Vermeulen featuring music produced using data from one of the most enigmatic, exotic objects in space – black holes. With this album Vermeulen augments electronic music, art and science in previously unexplored ways.

Black holes were first theoretically discovered and proposed in 1916 by German physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzchild. Their possible existence resulted from an exact solution Schwarzchild had found of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity published a year earlier. Being a long-contested concept, the existence of the first black hole, Cygnus X, was confirmed in 1971. Four decades later, in February 2016, science made another huge leap as the first merger of two black holes was observed by the LIGO – VIRGO telescope. This discovery announced a new exciting era in observational astronomy based on gravitational wave detection.

Using the latest technology, Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 connects these fascinating scientific evolutions to the realm of electronic music. Having worked on previous astrophysics related musical projects, Vermeulen had the first idea for the album in 2016. It was not until 2018 that these conceptual ideas became a reality when Concertgebouw Brugge (BE) commissioned a new musical piece and live show for their Cosmos Festival. This work ultimately resulted in the album Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001.

The six-track album is produced using data streams generated by various simulation models of astrophysical black holes and observational data of regions in space with extreme gravitational fields.

Data used for the realization of Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 includes gravitational wave data, data generated by black branes (i.e. higher dimensional generalizations of black holes), neutron star data, data from white dwarfs and trajectory data of elementary particles near black holes.

As a mathematician and artist, Vermeulen effectively designed and programmed new innovative data sonification, i.e. the means to translate data into sound and music, systems and techniques. These were used to transform black hole data and their associated mathematical models into engaging, moving and multidimensional sound experiences.

The scientific aspect of Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 was realized in collaborated with several academic partners including the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Alabama University (US), the Alabama Holography Research Group (US), the Institute for Theoretical Physics of KU Leuven (BE), the Centre for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics of KULeuven (BE), the Department of Mathematics of the University of Antwerp (BE), quantum cosmologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Hertog, Prof. Dr. Matthias Kaminski, Dr. Casey Cartwright, Dr. Ileyk El Mellah, Dr. Bart Ripperda, Dr. Fabio Bacchini and Prof. Dr. David Eelbode.

Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 resides within a bigger project entitled Mikromedas. Mikromedas is a data-driven audio/visual project in which compositions are produced using data from space, deep space, and astrophysical simulation models. More info on this project via https://www.valeryvermeulen.net/works/mikromedas/.

The realization of Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001 was made possible via a co-production with Concertgebouw Brugge (BE) and Baltan Laboratories (NL).

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