CLOUD CHAMBER

A 15 minute piece for violin and live subatomic particles, by Alexis Kirke and Electroshop (with technology by Nick Fry).

Premiere 11th Feb 2011 with John Matthias on violin, and Cathy McCabe on "Atomolin" (video and photos of it below).

From Discovery News: "Now composer Alexis Kirke of the University of Plymouth's Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research, has collaborated...to create a duet between a live violinist and radioactive subatomic particles produced inside a cloud chamber...in the duet, a camera above a cloud chamber follows the particle tracks and converts them into synthesized music, which accompanies the violin.... An amplified version of the violin part was also sent to an [electric] field system positioned near the particles. Thus Matthias' playing creates a variable force field in the chamber, influencing the way the particles behave. This ensures that the duet between cosmic rays / radioactive particles and violinist is as dynamic as possible."

Featured in Wired, New Scientist Online and CultureLab, BBC World Service, The Guardian, Discovery News and Discovery Channel Canada, and O Globo. Cloud Chamber was commissioned and premiered by Peninsula Arts.

Info Sheet available here.

SoundCloud Audio of premiere.

The first video is the background video, the second is a mini-documentary including set-up, a talk, some of the premiere, and interviews. Beneath these two are some photos.

Cosmic Rays

Cloud catcher and Radium

Performance Photos

Pre-concert talk: