Art and Astrophysics in Conversation with KM3NeT Deep in the Mediterranean Sea.

We present the result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration between Donald Fortescue of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and researchers from the KM3NeT Collaboration. The project involved creating an analog sound producing instrument which was installed within a standard KM3NeT pressure resistant glass sphere housing along with sound and video recording equipment. The instrument, titled “Bathysphere”, was deployed in the sea for the first time adjacent to the ORCA array of KM3NeT off the coast of France on September 23, 2021. One outcome of this project is the video work “Below the Surface”. It incorporates sound and video recorded from within the “Bathysphere” as it floated on the surface of the Mediterranean and then as it dived down to 300m depth. As the “Bathysphere” dived, the analog instrument it contained quietened. The sound in the dive portion of the video is created from the sonification of data from the KM3NeT array that was recorded during the deployment of the “Bathysphere”. “Below the Surface” highlights the extraordinary environment in which the KM3NeT array is being created and operates. The data sonification illustrates the potential of this method of data representation to connect with viewers in a deeply physical way and offers new perspectives on the data collected by KM3NeT.