In the long history of human arts and sciences, the two have often found inspiration in the other. While science today seeks to uncover the dark mysteries beyond our current comprehension, visual artist Valentina Berthelon and musician Tobias Freund have begun to create a series of audiovisual pieces including ‘Dark Matter_Dark Energy’ and ‘History of Darkness’ which seek to share the experience of exploring these unknown forces lurking in the universe.

Berthelon writes in depth about the inspiration and development behind the series “Recent Arts” which includes Dark Matter_Dark Energy and their newest piece, the The History of Darkness:

The History of Darkness is an audiovisual project I've been developing in collaboration with musician Tobias Freund. It takes you on a trip into a universe of astronomical images. I use old photographs, drawings and diagrams of the cosmos to create big format collages and video installations.

Visual representations of the universe, ranging from ancient woodcuts of the Earth's creation, to hand painted manuscript illustrations, offset prints, photographic images to contemporary HI definition visualizations of galaxies, have the power to show stages of our evolving self-awareness as a species. They also give a better understanding of how the universe works and our position within it.

Astronomical Spectroscopy measure the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light and radio, which radiates from stars and other celestial objects. A stellar spectrum is one of the most fundamental and important astronomical tools available. By examining the lines in the spectrum of a star or galaxy, we can determine such important properties as temperature, chemical composition, velocity of approach or recession, pressure, and rate of rotation. A spectrum is observed when light from an emitting source, such as a star, passes through a dispersing element such as a prism and is broken up into its component colors, or wavelengths.

This video piece was made up using dozens of stellar Spectrum images. It is the playful result from the interaction between the Spectrums of stars, planets, comets and satellites that reveal a part of their essence through light. Using a video software called VDMX these Stellar spectrums are animated in real time reacting to an incoming audio signal, they are redefined by "the waves of music”. Through Filters in the audio waveform, color and movement will be affected creating pictorial atmospheres. Because this piece was created in real time, every sequence of this animation is unique and unrepeatable.