Making Music Using Data Stemming from Deep Space

Valery Vermeulen is a Belgian electronic musician, new media artist, researcher at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Antwerp and guest professor at KASK & Conservatorium. In 2001 and 2013, respectively, he obtained a PhD in pure mathematics in the field of algebraic group theory at the University of Ghent and a Master of Arts in music production at the city’s Royal Conservatory.

As an artist, his work covers a broad range of disciplines including algorithmic music composition, (generative) sound synthesis, affective computing, artificial intelligence, biofeedback & psychophysiology, creative evolutionary systems design, astrophysics, theoretical physics, econometrics and data sonification.

In 2021, he released the ‘black hole album’ Mikromedas AdS/CFT 001, which received an honorary mention at the S+T+Arts Prize – Ars Electronica. For The Expo by ArcelorMittal, Vermeulen will showcase his data-driven Mikromedas project, in which compositions are created using data stemming from deep space and astrophysical simulation models. On a conceptual level, it deliberately balances on the edge where scientific knowledge ends and a speculative vision of reality starts to emerge.