Metamorphic Sonicahedron

The Metamorphic Sonicahedron is an interactive sound art installation framed through myth and cosmic narrative. The Sonicahedron is imagined as an extraterrestrial spacefaring probe of uncertain origin, whose purpose remains elusive. The installation aims to embody qualities of mystery, otherness, and intelligence beyond the human.

The narrative draws inspiration from NASA’s Voyager 1 probe and its Golden Record, which carried sounds and images of Earth into interstellar space. In this context, the Sonicahedron is conceived as having encountered these signals during its travels. Intrigued, it descended to Earth, guided by the record’s embedded coordinates of our sun. Emerging in a community garden on the West coast of Ireland, it became an observable and interactive presence that responded to local environments and human activity.

Within this mythic framing, the installation situates itself between science and imagination. The Sonicahedron functions less as a machine and more as an imagined intelligence, using sound as a medium of communication and co-creation with its earthly participants. It listens, responds, and reshapes its surroundings into its own morphic sonic field. This field is never static, it is expressed as real-time generated experimental music echoing natural processes and human activity alike. In this way, the work operates both as an autonomous sonic entity and as a collaborative, open-ended performance space where audience members can be co-creators in the sonic field.

The concept draws on several key influences:

• Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and Carl Jung’s collective unconscious. Together, they inform the idea that the Sonicahededron through the medium of sound and its sonic field can surface common themes within the collective consciousness. Energetic imprints of participants are also sensed by the Sonicahedron as though it were tuning in to wider fields of memory and resonance.

• Stanley Kubrick’s monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey10 is an enigmatic object appearing at pivotal moments in human evolution. Similarly, the Sonicahedron is envisioned as a recurring presence. In future installations, it may appear at undisclosed locations with minimal notice, evoking curiosity and mystery.

• M.C. Escher’s Metamorphoses: Conceptually, Escher’s visual exploration of continuous transformation is similarly influenced in the sonic morphology of the installation. The Sonicahedron translates metamorphosis into sound: an ongoing process blurring boundaries between pattern and change, repetition and emergence.

This piece was created in UCCs Music Department, 2025.

Behind the scenes