BioSphere/DataSphere

Between 2021 and 2024 artist Nigel Helyer worked with an interdisciplinary and multi-agency, team of scientists researching the environmental productivity of the Tasman Fracture Marine Park, a 43,000 square-kilometre marine reserve extending from the southern coast of Tasmania. The BioSphere|DataSphere exhibition presents a series of creative interpretations of the wide range of scientific data generated by field research. Audio data collected by a submerged monitoring buoy is transformed into sculptural forms and animations that reveal diurnal fish choruses. Sea surface temperature data, sourced from decades of satellite imaging, is converted to create an animated musical sound map of Tasmanian waters. DNA sequences extracted from the scats of marine predators, collected on remote islands are used to generate musical scores that sonify the complex prey and predator food webs — and a photo montage presents the artist’s reflections on a field trip to the remote Maatsuyker Island to tag and monitor migratory yula/Short-tailed Shearwaters.