Graduation project
Caught in Listening to Rocks
Jennifer Carniel
A book and installation about how NASA uses sound to study rocks on Mars draws attention to how scientific tools and methods are designed.
The methodology of ‘listening’ to rocks arises from an obstacle and the determination to overcome it. Due to the physical distance that prevents direct contact, planetary scientists who control NASA’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface discern the hardness of rocks by listening to the subtle sounds generated when a laser strikes them. Their study of rocks is conducted from within a control room. Acknowledging these scientific images and methodologies as proxies for proximity highlights the vast gulf that separates us from Mars, and how knowledge of remoteness is mediated by elaborate indirect methods. Caught in Listening to Rocks is intended as a mirror placed on Mars but directed towards Earth, drawing attention to a human obsession with remoteness.