This weekend, we are promised an extra terrestrial adventure of music, art and performance which will place Manchester right at the centre of the universe.
Welcome to Space Live, for one night only courtesy of Radarworks, exponents of the hyper graphic score, featuring avant-garde flutist Gavin Osborn and nominated British composer of the year, Michael Mayhew.
The duo’s Mechanical Air, travels to the moon and back on board the 1968 Apollo 8 flight, filling the Reading Room with a surround sound electro-acoustic score, live flute and vocals.
Mayhew’s visuals, animated by motion graphic artist Johny Byrne, are projected onto the Reading Room’s magnificent dome to create an unforgettable sensory experience.
The experience also takes over Archives+ with David Henckel’s ‘The Sun at Night’ installed into the Performance Space, a dynamic installation utlilising thousands of high-definition images of the sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, compressing one year’s worth of footage of our most precious star into a 30 minute film.
While there is a chance to learn more about space life with guests from the Godlee Observatory, and representatives from the European Space Agency and World Space Week.
Astrophysics Professor Donald Kurtz asks: Are we alone? Are we the only living species in the Universe? Is there a music of the spheres? Do stars sing? What do they sound like?
Listen to DJ Entropy‘s re-mix of the famous ‘Golden Disks’, placed on Voyagers 1 & 2 by Carl Sagan in 1978, and the evening is completed by Die Hexen, the alter ego of performance artist, electronic musician and composer D Lucille Campbell whose electronic soundscape, taking place under the gravitational pull of the Moon, will take you on a hypnotic journey that transcends our time, focusing on the space between life and death, the moment between here and the unknown.
Doors from 6.30pm, the events start at 7pm with an on-going programme of activities before Mechanical Air at 8.15pm and DJs from 9.30pm. Pop-up bar.
