On Wednesday January 24th, Hill Auditorium transformed into an expeditionary vehicle that carried us through the solar system. Emmy-nominated artist José Francisco Salgado created a Science and Symphony performance using his phD in Astronomy to translate astronomical concepts into visual arts. The University Symphony Orchestra guides us through outer space, stopping at each planet with the accompanying sound of Holst’s “The Planets,” Weber’s “Concerto in F,” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”.
Hill Auditorium:
Hill Space Odyssey:
The journey began at Mars, “The Bringer of War” with loud, violent sound. Next Venus, “The Bringer of Peace” with light, uplifting harmony…and so on.
Sitting there thinking about these masses so big and so far away, my mind drifted to a place far beyond the Milky Way. Note the amphitheater structure of the auditorium. The wall behind the screen provides a base to the sound and the extends outward to maximize sound projection. The physics of sound in the auditorium is similar to the physics of placing handheld music devices into a bowl to amplify the sound. After you clear out the matter in the cup (tea, dust, coins), the cup so small can make a big difference in how one enjoys music.
If you look closely, the sideways basin structure resembles that off a cup, almost like the auditorium itself is a cup tilted on its side. So if we explore beyond earth, beyond our solar system, into something far larger than what we know, what will we find? We can see and prove microscopic life smaller than us like the little mindless bacteria. We have yet to understand the life larger than us..what if we are in that cup so small
In reference to the Dr. Seuss story Horton Hears a Who, we know there are no whos, but are there Hortons?
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