THE CONDUCTOR
2024
Transforming live planetary lightning strikes into a live musical score and performance.
The Conductor connects audiences to planetary lightning events, transforming atmospheric data into sound and image. By rendering these immense natural forces perceptible, I reframe lightning not as a fleeting spectacle but as part of a continuous global system of energy exchange. The work extends my exploration of invisible infrastructures, here turning to the atmosphere itself as a stage where nature’s power becomes audible and performative. Both data-driven and theatrical, The Conductor situates viewers within a live choreography of signals and strikes, collapsing distance between remote storms and the immediate experience of their rhythms.
Collect this work ︎
Live performance with seven percussion instruments in reverberation chamber.
Single-channel audiovisual installation. Live data-driven score for seven percussion instruments. Variable dimensions.
Toner powder on cartridge paper, 21x29.7cm (8.27x11.69 inches).
The Conductor translates the world’s lightning strikes into sound and image. Using real-time data collected by a global network of sensors, every electrical discharge on Earth becomes a beat, struck by one of seven percussion instruments. The result is a live graphic score that transforms planetary weather into a live performance.
I was drawn to the immediacy of this connection between distant events and the present moment. What happens in a storm over South America or the Pacific can be felt and heard in a gallery in Manchester. The work collapses geography and scale, allowing us to experience the planet as a single vibrating system.
Like earlier projects, The Conductor explores how raw data can alter our perception of the world. In this case, the signals are fleeting and unpredictable, forming a score that is never the same twice. What we hear is not just weather but a living system made tangible.
I was drawn to the immediacy of this connection between distant events and the present moment. What happens in a storm over South America or the Pacific can be felt and heard in a gallery in Manchester. The work collapses geography and scale, allowing us to experience the planet as a single vibrating system.
Like earlier projects, The Conductor explores how raw data can alter our perception of the world. In this case, the signals are fleeting and unpredictable, forming a score that is never the same twice. What we hear is not just weather but a living system made tangible.
The Conductor, Castlefield Gallery installation, 2025. Photos: Jules Lister
Programme for the live performance at Sounds From the Other City, 5 May 2024
The Conductor, video explainer
Invitation to performance at Sounds From the Other City
PRODUCTION CREDITS
The Conductor was developed between February 2023 and May 2024 with a team of musicians, sound artists, acoustics engineers, and costume designers as part of an artist's residency at Energy House 2.0 at the University of Salford. The Energy House is a remarkable engineering project which attempts to channel extreme planetary climate conditions into two purpose-built chambers, helping designers develop new forms of low carbon and net zero housing for the future. The residency was organised by the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool as part of the LOOK Photo Biennial, and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, and generously supported by Friends of Energy House Labs. Lightning data gathered from the Blitzortung network of over 10,000 lightning sensors across six continents.
Percussionist: Jennifer Walinetski • Technical Consultancy & Support: Joe Fowler • Data Capture: Joe Gibson • The Conductor Costume Design and Production: Maisie Drewery-Harris • Audience Guide Costume Design and Production: Georgina Harris and Liz Lock • Documentation: Sam Parker • Graphic Score Design: Mishka Henner
Mishka would like to extend his thanks to the following for their support and generosity during the Energy House 2.0 Artist's Residency and production of The Conductor: Lindsay Taylor, Richard Fitton, Sarah Fisher, Helen Wewiora, Matthew Pendergast, Max Gorbatskyi, The Friends of Energy House, Katherine Foster, Daniel Wong-Mcsweeney, Tim France, Mark Carlin, Siân Roberts, Steve Jones, Daniel Williamson, Leanne Hardacre, Mark May, Anestis Sitmalidis, Craig Tattersall, Roger McKinley, Rowan Pritchard, Stephanie Fletcher, Luke Cambridge, Max Radivan, and Sophie Hastings.