In the frame of a year-long artistic residency at the Yale Quantum Institute in 2019, artist and technologist Spencer Topel and quantum physicists Kyle Serniak and Luke Burkhart collaborated to create Quantum Sound, the first-ever music created and performed directly from measurements of superconducting quantum devices. Using analog- and digital-signal-processing sonification techniques, the team transformed GHz-frequency signals from experiments inside dilution refrigerators into audible sounds. The project, produced by Florian Carle, was performed live at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut on June 14, 2019 as a structured improvisation using the synthesis methods. At the interface between research and art, Quantum Sound represents an earnest attempt to produce a sonic reflection of the quantum realm.

• June 6, 2023 - Institute of Photonic Sciences - Barcelona, Spain
• November 19, 2022 - Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research - Plymouth, United Kingdom
• [Album launch] April 14, 2022 - Yale University, New Haven CT, United States
• November 7, 2019 - New Lab, Brooklyn NY, United States
• [Live broadcast] June 19, 2019 - WKPN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport CT, United States
• [Premiere] June 19, 2019 - Firehouse 12, New Haven CT, United States
• [Preview] June 11, 2019 - Yale Quantum Institute, New Haven CT, United States

How did the creative team of Quantum Sound make the superconducting quantum devices sing? You can find the technical details and a precise description of the composition in chapter of the book “Quantum Computer Music: Foundations, Methods and Advanced Concepts” by Miranda, E. R. (Editor), Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, Summer 2022.
Read the arXiv version of the chapter