We present the result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the California College of the
Arts, San Francisco and 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 Toulon, 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 300 m 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.