A Catalyst Conversation: Sonic Light, Visiting Starfield, Connecting the Spheres

Stars have a life cycle: they’re born, they pass through middle age, and they die. The birth of a star determines much of how it lives that life. For that reason, researchers study star-forming regions: the interstellar clouds of gas and dust that are both the raw materials and environment for star birth.

A conversation to explore the fascination we all have with our relationship to the celestial sphere. Featuring:

Andrew S. Yang Manship Artist in Residence

David Ibbett Composer and Director of the Multiverse Concert Series, Resident Composer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The night sky inspired Celestial Sphere, one of Paul Manship’s most important sculptures. The work is a guide to the heavens, an idealization of the Cosmos, created in 1939 as a symbol of dialogue and peace. Andrew S. Yang shares, “During my residency at Manship I have been researching one of Paul Manship’s iconic work, Celestial Sphere (1939), a large sculpture representing 66 different constellations drawn from various cultures.  Permanently installed at the United Nations in Geneva, it is intended to convey a sense of both cosmic and geopolitical harmony. I am developing a piece called Terrestrial Sphere to re-interpret Manship’s work as one looking inward, focused on the ecosystems of planet Earth that acknowledges animals as ecological agents rather than simply symbolic forms. I will talk about my site-specific, research-based approach through this and other projects that entangle the terrestrial with the cosmological.”

Andrew S. Yang has been an Artist in Residence at the Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester. Andrew works across the sciences, art, and history to examine humans’ relationships with nature and culture. He is a biologist and brings his scientific inquiry to his art projects.

Composer David Ibbett has sonified (light->sound) the light of black hole galaxies as musical notes and chords, woven into a dramatic electro-symphonic score that reveals a hidden universe beyond the scope of our eyes. The richness of science is experienced through the universal language of music. "We believe that to change the perception of science is to change the perception of reality and our society.”

About Celestial Sphere:

The representation of the heavenly constellations is derived from Babylonia and Assyria: the Greeks and Latins added their names and gave the constellations a local significance in some cases and I have adhered as closely as possible to the ancient forms. Thus the star, Aldebaran, which represents the eye of Taurus, dictates the character of the design, as is also the case of Regulus, Leo's Heart, and so with all the constellations. The forms and attitudes of the figures have been made to correspond firstly with the positions and the meanings of the emblems themselves. After that the inter-relationship of the constellations was designed to create a harmonious ensemble.

About Manship Artists Residency:

The Manship Artists Residency is situated in what was once the summer residence and studio of Paul Manship, the sculptor of Prometheus, the fountain at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Manship and his family of artists drew inspiration in part from both the landscape and the Cape Ann community, and hosted some of America’s greatest visual, performing, and literary artists and scientific thought leaders.