In This Room. Everywhere.

‘In this Room. Everywhere’ was part of the Dark Matters exhibition for Science Gallery Melbourne late 2023.

Alicia Sometimes & Andrew Watson (Singular Polarity)

‘In this Room. Everywhere.’ is a unified and immersive sound experience connecting visitors throughout the gallery. Using video, sound, poetry and scientific narratives from researchers about one of the biggest mysteries of the universe.

With generous contributions from Professor Alan Duffy, Dr. Ben McAllister and Dr. Grace Lawrence.

Do you feel connected to the wider universe?

Dark matter is a story of movement – its presence becomes apparent by how it impacts other things. It tells stories about structures – about how the hot early universe cooled and formed. Dark matter is everywhere. In this room. Everywhere. Every day we go about our lives unaware that invisible traces of the universe pass through our bodies: neutrinos, gravitational waves, cosmic rays, infrared radiation, ultraviolet radiation, microwaves and dark matter. We may know more about what dark matter is not, rather than what it is. Make your presence felt in this live visual and sonic sculpture exploring scientific narratives around dark matter. Even the smallest motions can affect other entities in significant ways.

What do you know about dark matter?

Singular Polarity is the combined force of Alicia Sometimes & Andrew Watson.

Alicia Sometimes is a poet, artist and broadcaster. She has performed her spoken word and poetry at many venues, festivals and events around the world. She is director/co-writer of the art/science planetarium shows, Elemental and Particle/Wave. In 2020 she created an audio documentary for Radio National’s Science Friction called 'How do you solve a problem like Dark Matter?' She is currently a SGM ‘Leonardo’.

Andrew Watson is a video artist, director, multi-instrumentalist and sound designer. His video art practice involves manipulation of real-world filmed elements manipulated into visceral imagery representing both the artistic and scientific. He was co-producer, video artist and composer for Particle/Wave. Watson has performed in many venues around the world. Andrew composed the soundtrack for the short film, ‘Gravitational Lensing’ (Alicia Sometimes, words; Sar Ruddenklau, visuals) on indirectly detecting dark matter.

Thanks also to Leo K Fincher-Johnson for recordings at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, Jackie Bondell and The ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics; Aaron Quiskamp for sounds from The ORGAN Experiment; Rod Dowler and team at ANSTO; Steven Goldfarb at CERN; Aaron Cuthbert, Simon Davies and David Coles.