Chemical Free (?)

‘Chemical Free (?)’ is a collaboration between David Ryan and Italian composer Nicola Sani and the electronic music ensemble SampL from Padua University. Its title ironically plays on the labelling of food stuffs in Italy (as being ‘chemically free’) and the impossibility of that reality. Its subject matter, however, and its research questions revolved around the relationship between sound and image, and questions around how an arts-based approach might use scientific material. For my part the research questions would be: What kind of imagery can explore both the production and communication of scientific practices and research? How can such practices inform creative musical and visual practices? Nicola Sani and I decided to work separately, to follow our own ‘poetics’ in response to the material, agreeing on the basic idea of exploring both macrocosmic and microcosmic structures for the work. My own approach for the video was to avoid a simple, didactic explanation of science, but to try and capture something of a) the environment of scientific research (in the 1st part) b) the nature of the microcosmic materials they work with (making the invisible visible), and c) The inescapable fact of the chemical nature of matter (natural landcape). So a) examined the actual environment of laboratory practice in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Padua; b) explored the actual materials developed by two professors at the University in visualizing chemical structures; c) used imagery from Solfatara near Naples, a volcanic landscape emitting sulphur, a natural, visibly chemical landscape. The work was performed at Padua Pollini Theatre (2014); Piccolo Teatro Arsenale, Venice Biennale (2015) and at Musica Nova, Halles Scheerbeck, Brussels, Belgium.