Abstract
Abstract. The ultra-low frequency analogues of sound waves in Earth's magnetosphere play a crucial role in space weather; however, the public is largely unaware of this risk to our everyday lives and technology. As a way of potentially reaching new audiences, SSFX (Space Sound Effects) made 8 years of satellite wave recordings audible to the human ear with the aim of using it to create art. Partnering with film industry professionals, the standard processes of international film festivals were adopted by the project in order to challenge independent filmmakers to incorporate these sounds into short films in creative ways. Seven films covering a wide array of topics and genres (despite coming from the same sounds) were selected for screening at a special film festival out of 22 submissions. The works have subsequently been shown at numerous established film festivals and screenings internationally. These events have attracted diverse non-science audiences resulting in several unanticipated impacts on them, thereby demonstrating how working with the art world can open up dialogues with both artists and audiences who would not ordinarily engage with science.
Highlights
Public-engagement projects which see artists and scientists collaborate together in some way have become increasingly popular, with growing evidence that such projects, through a variety of methods, contribute to the development of society (Malina et al, 2018)
Phase one targeted filmmakers, aiming to engage the independent filmmaking community with the sounds present in the near-Earth space environment and enable the creation of creative short films inspired by and incorporating these sounds. This was tackled by running an international short film competition which challenged filmmakers to use the sounds as key creative elements
We note that filmmakers were more successful at infiltrating art events (71±14 % of all their events) than the scientist ones (29 ± 15 %), though this difference was not strictly statistically significant when accounting for multiple comparisons (p = 0.021, αBonf = 0.017). It was an individual short film or subset of the collection of shorts which was exhibited at events rather than the full anthology film (p = 8.8 × 10−4), which we struggled to convince film programmers to incorporate into events despite advice from film industry collaborators that this might be an attractive proposition
Summary
Public-engagement projects which see artists and scientists collaborate together in some way have become increasingly popular, with growing evidence that such projects, through a variety of methods, contribute to the development of society (Malina et al, 2018). Phase one targeted filmmakers, aiming to engage the independent filmmaking community with the sounds present in the near-Earth space environment and enable the creation of creative short films inspired by and incorporating these sounds This was tackled by running an international short film competition (adopting standard film festival practices through partnering with film industry professionals) which challenged filmmakers to use the sounds as key creative elements. It was through these relationships that phase two of SSFX was possible, which aimed to exhibit these films to wide and diverse audiences, exposing them to this area of space science research and positively impacting these non-traditional audiences. Uating the backgrounds of the audiences that attended these events and what impacts resulted from them
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