EA:RTH Research Seminar: The Isle: A Sonic Anthropology of a Nuclear Physics Laboratory

The Isle is a collective an practice-based research about the Laué Langevin Institute (Grenoble, France), an international scientific facility dedicated to research and experiments using neutrons. At the initiative of the sound artist Pali Meursault, a collective of anthropologists, filmmakers and sound artists (Sophie Houdart, Xavier Quérel, Jonathan Larcher) observe and follow the staff working in different “zones” of the institute – reactor technicians, instrument operators, visiting scientists, and site maintenance workers – looking over their shoulders and listening with them to the instruments and the spaces. In operation since 1967, the Laué Langevin Institute’s experimental nuclear reactor produces neutron beams that pass through a multitude of instruments, for applications ranging from fundamental physics to the physics of matter and particles, and even biology. The instruments – some of which are the only ones of their kind in the world – make it an international hub where scientists from diverse fields and nearly every country come together to conduct research limited to the civilian sector. In the worlds of physics, where vision and visualizations are central (Galison 1997), how do we “listen” to the infinitely small? How can we describe a neutron research infrastructure through sound? What parallels can we observe or imagine between the instruments of microphysics and our techniques in cinema?