Starting 4 th June, each Friday for the next 4 weeks Cooltsalon’s Instagram will be documenting the progress of Frange d’interferenza, a new land & sound art project from our collaborator Luca Serasini (Cooltzine vol.1, vol.4) and Massimo Magrini (Bad Sector).

The project will culminate in a live video performance for our Instagram mid-September (exact date TBA)

Frange d’interferenza (Interference fringes) merges astrophysics and art. It is a site-specific project around the VIRGO laser interferometer in Cascina, near Pisa, built to detect gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are a consequence of the theory of General Relativity, published by Albert Einstein in 1916. They are ripples in the fabric of the spacetime that propagate at the speed of light, and are produced when huge masses are accelerated or deformed. This happens in many astrophysical scenarios, including supernova explosions or the gravitational interactions between black holes or neutron stars. Gravitational waves are completely different from light, the main “messenger” used so far to study the Universe, and were only first detected in September 2015.

Inside a cultivated field near the interferometer artist Luca Serasini will “draw” the interference fringes as they are produced by the antenna demonstration model, in dimensions varying between 8 and 18 feet in length. The resulting land art installation is to be visited in silence, alone, prompting reflections about the immensity of the universe, the intensity of its presence and the flow-waves that this brings us.

In addition, the installation will be accompanied by an immersive soundscape designed by artist Massimo Magrini, available via downloadable app and activated only when near the installation, thus controlled by the location and movement of the visitor within the space. The soundscape will be constructed from sounds of the interferometer – “template” signals (models of those that are attempted to be picked up with the interferometer), and from those actually detected in recent years – as well as recordings of some vital signs, e.g., echocardiography of the two artists.