At the invitation by Michael Hoch (head of Art@CMS ORIGIN and scientist-artist-educator at KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), the composer Karlheinz Essl visited CERN - the European Centre for Particle Physics - from August 16th to 19th, 2023. During his exploration of the CERN campus with its large accelerator infrastructures and impressive massive experiments or detectors, he met and discussed with various professionals like theoretical physicist Sir John Ellis or accelerator engineer Django Maglunki and Manfred Krammer (head of CERN PH department).
Michael Hoch (CERN), Mark Boland (Univ. of Saskatchewan) and Karlheinz Essl (mdw)
During his visit, Karlheinz Essl also made field recordings of CERN and the city of Geneva with special binaural head-mounted microphones that capture the sound as 3D spatial audio. From this material, he compsed two soundscapes that serve as acoustic portraits of these places:
C.E.R.N. (Create Electromagnetic Radiation Now)
Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different locations at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, between August 16 and 18, 2023.
Released: 18 Aug 2023
1) the CERN Control Centre (CCC), where all accelerators and detectors are monitored
3) a walk through the CERN Campus and some office buildings at night
4) the sound of ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment)
G.E.N.F. (Generally Exclude New Friends)
Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different locations in Geneva between August 17 and 19, 2023.
Released: 20 Aug 2023
1) pedestrian passage under the bridge where the lake becomes the Rhône river
2) terrace in the historic center with a great view of the city
