Art, science, and audience participation: crossroads for emergence

This article reflects on how in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic re¬strictions, Farout Artistic Research (FAR), in co-creation with composer Dr. Sergio Luque and astrophysicist Dr. Francisco Colomer, designed and created an immersive performance in which new music, astronomy and audience participation intertwine. The point for the creative process was: How can we trust our perception if we don’t know what we are looking at?; and through artistic research and transdisciplinary thinking, a second question arose: What perspectives and new insight emerge if we open up the performance and include the audience as an active and reflective knowledge entity? In this context, the authors explore the creative tendencies and the intricate design processes of emergence, focusing on the transdisciplinary nature of the performance, embedding the concept of emergence in an interactive symbiotic artistic/scientific performance. The article explains how this exploration is what allows for reflection, new insights, and creation of new knowledge, both from the creators’ and the audience participation’s perspectives.