POCAM_Siberia: Encounters at Lake Baikal
POCAM Siberia [2017]: A audio-video composition by Jol Thoms celebrating the deployment of the "Precision Optical Calibration Module" into the Lake Baikal neutrino telescope by students of the SFB1258.Courtesy of the artist
A Meeting at an Unexpected Place
Sometimes scientific and artistic collaborations begin in unexpected places. In the winter of 2017, during an expedition to Lake Baikal in Siberia, two students from the research group of Elisa Resconi met the artist, sound designer, and researcher Jol Thoms. At the southern end of the world's deepest freshwater lake, the Baikal-Gigaton Volume Detector (Baikal-GVD) was being expanded, a large-scale neutrino telescope designed to observe high-energy neutrinos from the cosmos.
The frozen surface of Lake Baikal provides a unique opportunity for scientists to assemble and deploy detector components through the ice to depths of more than a kilometre below the surface. Thomson had travelled to Siberia to document this remarkable environment and the scientific activities taking place there, capturing both the landscape and the technological infrastructure that makes neutrino astronomy possible.
At the same time, the students were preparing to deploy a Precision Optical Calibration Module (POCAM), a novel light source developed for the calibration of future neutrino detectors. When the opportunity arose to install the device in the Baikal-GVD array, Thomson documented the operation on film. The resulting footage later became part of the video work POCAM: Siberia (2019), preserving a unique moment in the development of neutrino-detector technology.
From Neutrino Detectors to Artistic Dialogue
The encounter at Lake Baikal soon evolved into a broader exchange between Thomson and the researchers of SFB1258. During subsequent visits to Munich, it became clear that his artistic practice was closely connected to questions at the heart of contemporary astroparticle physics.
As part of his research, Thomson had already explored the scientific, technological, and environmental dimensions of large-scale neutrino observatories. He had studied the work of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, interviewed leading researchers in the field, and investigated the history and cultural significance of neutrino detection experiments. These interests informed both his artistic projects and his academic work, including a publication in Anthropocene Review Journal (2017).
Creating New Connections Between Art and Research
The chance meeting on the ice of Lake Baikal marked the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between Jol Thoms and SFB1258. Over the following years, Thoms became an important contributor to a growing number of projects exploring the intersection of contemporary art and fundamental physics. What began as an unexpected encounter in one of the world's most remote scientific environments thus grew into a long-term dialogue between art and science, demonstrating how shared curiosity can create new ways of exploring and communicating fundamental research.
About
Jol Thoms is an artist, sound designer and researcher working between Germany and the UK. He graduated with an Honours BA in Philosophy, Art History, and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto (2009), was a Meisterschüler from Contemporary Fine Art from the Städelschule Frankfurt a. M (2013) received a PhD from The University of Westminster in Creative Media (2021). He is currently Studio Lecturer in Goldsmiths’ MA Art & Ecology and MA Art & Politics. He is also a member of the Centre for Art & Ecology.
Among others, Thoms has recently participated in: Ocean Evening – Ocean Space with LAS Art Foundation, Opening Ceremonies of 60th Venice Biennale, (2024); Drift: Art and Dark Matter – Agnes Etherigton Art Centre, CA (2021)/Belkin Gallery, UBC, Vancouver (2021)/Art Museum, U of Toronto (2022); Blind Faith: Between the Cognitive and the Visceral in Contemporary Art - Haus Der Kunst, Munich (2018).
Thoms is the founder of the ongoing lunar sound ritual Radio Amnion: Sonic Transmissions of Care in Oceanic Space. Since June 2021, Radio Amnion continues to commission and send artists voices and soundings 2.5 kms deep in/to the Pacific Ocean during each full moon.
