A research group at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) has contributed its work and expertise to a new exhibition focusing on climate change.

The exhibition, Songs for the Storm to Come is an entirely new artwork that has been made for the HOME gallery in Manchester that addresses the geographic, social and psychological transformation brought about by climate change, specifically rising sea levels.

The DⱯRK research group is a dynamic new research community at SODA with a focus on occulture. Group members Dr Neil Bruce, lecturer in Sound Design, and PhD candidate Matteo Polato were asked to contribute to the project by producing cymatic content for the artist Mikhail Karakis.

Neil explains: “Cymatics involves the visualization of sound waves in a physical medium, such as through water or sand. As part of our research, we conducted tests and trials on a variety of materials, including corn starch, coffee, couscous, and iridescent powder, aiming to create visually striking responses to Mikhail’s compositions and recordings.

“We also explored different methods for generating cymatic resonances, or ‘seeing sound’, such as using a Chladni plate, trays of water, and bubbles. Resonance is a central focus of our research and aligns with the research objectives of the DVRK research group at SODA.”

DⱯRK is a new dynamic research community driven by meaningful research connections and a passion for creative excellence. Through art and creative practices, the primary research focus for DⱯRK is to investigate occulture, the paranormal, magic, esoterism and counterculture.

The group uses insights from occulture to create innovative research outputs which are impactful beyond academia through pioneering new and alternative cultural and social understandings of the world.

They aim to achieve this through reusing and remediating physical and metaphysical technologies to invent new and peripheral forms of storytelling, developing innovative methodologies; and to explore the practices and discourses of subcultural and countercultural movements to refigure hegemonic epistemologies and develop new ways of thinking.

The exhibition with HOME was an exciting journey for the new research group to be a part of as Neil explains: “To be part of the installation launch at HOME was a fantastic to opportunity to experience the whole of Mikhail’s vision and see how our cymatics contributed to the essence and resonance of the piece. We are also grateful to Mikhail to have given us the opportunity to speak at the event about our motivations and the connection with the research happening here at SODA.”

Songs for the Storm to Come will run from Sat 12 Oct – Sun 5 Jan at HOME.