Dr Melanie King & Dr Claudia Mignone – ‘In Praise of Raw Data’
With performances and sound curated by Clementine Blue.
Opening Event: Thursday 27th February 2025, 6-9pm.
Exhibition Continues: Friday 28th February – Tuesday 4th March 12-4pm. Saturday and Sunday 12-6pm.
This exhibition is a result of an ongoing collaboration between artist Dr Melanie King and Dr Claudia Mignone – an astronomer and science communicator at INAF – Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics.
This exhibition highlights the beauty of raw astronomical data and artefacts resulting from cosmic interactions with telescope sensors. These features include over-exposed cores of stars which resemble black holes and six pointed spikes around stars, which are an artefact of the James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror and struts. In this project, King and Mignone have considered the construction of astronomical images and raw data artefacts that are often removed from astronomical images for public outreach purposes.
Astronomical images in the digital media ecosystem are highly mediated, for example – colours are added to images taken in different filters to reflect different chemicals present in a galaxy or nebula. In this project, King and Mignone have been speaking to Alyssa Pagan and Joseph Depasquale, visualisation specialists at Space Telescope Science Institute to learn more about their image editing processes. In addition to this, the pair spoke to Mark McCaughrean (Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency) about his extensive work with astronomical imaging. King and Mignone have discussed their research at the 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education held by the International Astronomical Union in November 2024.
This project comprises several colour printing processes and sustainable printing techniques, which mimic the digital imaging processing techniques. These processes include risograph prints, produced at Park Press Margate. In addition to this, King produced sustainable screen prints using oak gall inks and recycled papers made in collaboration with photographer Clare Hewitt, botanical ink maker Carolyn Morton and paper maker Danielle Phelps. King has also been working on duotone cyanotypes using botanical toners in her Ramsgate studio. As King’s work considers the intimate connection between the cosmos, ecology of earth and materiality, the artist was keen to use sustainable printing processes to limit the impact of her work on the environment.
Mignone has experimented with digital astronomical imaging composites, in addition to multiple acetate images that represent astronomical images in different colours. These images show the same object taken in various filters, which are used to produce an installation in the gallery. The experimental printing processes and installations aim to draw attention to artefacts resulting from astronomical telescopes, in addition to the printing processes themselves.
This project comes out of Dr King’s practice-based PhD research “Ancient Light: Rematerialising The Astronomical Image”, which was completed at the Royal College of Art in June 2024. Dr Claudia Mignone has contributed to King’s doctoral research, and the duo have previously worked together to produce artworks for the Waterman’s Art Centre and Central Saint Martins.
Dr Melanie King is a working-class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. Melanie is now based in Ramsgate, Kent. She is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University.
King is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. She has recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency.
Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. She intends to highlight the intimate connection between photographic materials and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching several sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice
Dr Claudia Mignone is an astronomer and science communicator, originally from the south of Italy. She is currently based in Rome, where she works in science communication and public engagement at INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics. She is passionate about storytelling, informal science learning and social justice, and researches new approaches to scientific narrative and unconventional outreach opportunities for astronomy.
She holds a degree in astronomy from the University of Bologna, Italy and a Ph.D. in cosmology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Having studied the universe on the largest scales, she decided to engage full time in science communication, to share the wonders of astronomy with the public. Prior to her return to Italy, she worked for ten years in the Netherlands communicating the European Space Agency’s science missions, including Rosetta, Gaia, Planck, and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Private view: Thursday 27thth January, from 6pm