When art collides with science and technology, magic happens. This cross-disciplinary, creative collision is at the heart of everything ANAT does, most notably in our flagship residency program, ANAT Synapse.
ANAT Synapse is a residency program that involves Australian research organisations hosting artists in residence to undertake a period of creative research and practice. The program brings artists and researchers together in partnerships that generate new knowledge, ideas and processes beneficial beyond both fields.
Since its genesis in 2004, ANAT Synapse has enabled research collaborations between more than 100 artists and their collaborative research partners and host organisations. We have facilitated crossovers between numerous artistic and scientific disciplines over the years – between sound design and ecology, new media and data science, poetry and astrophysics, and many, many others. All genres of practice and fields of study are welcome.
Elissa Goodrich, Bubble Notation, 2025, visual editing by Michael Carmody for Waves and Bubbles, Elissa Goodrich.
2026 ANAT Synapse Residency
ELISSA GOODRICH + PROF. RICHARD MANASSEH, SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is delighted to introduce Elissa Goodrich as the exceptional ANAT Synapse 2026 artist in residence.
In partnership with Professor Richard Manasseh’s fluid dynamics team at Swinburne University of Technology, department of Mechanical and Product Design Engineering, this residency focuses on how fluid dynamics (bubble clouds) and new music and sound art converge, diverge and enhance our understanding of nature’s processes and human manipulations of it. Titled Turbulent Trajectories: Bubbles in ocean waves and seafloor curtains the project examines how, even at humanly undetectable scales, nature’s bubbles manifest both violence and empathy in their formings and endings. Inspired by and using super-computer modelling to track and predict bubble formations relevant to climate change. Fluid dynamics and acoustics of bubble trajectories in ocean waves and in vertical seafloor curtains (which protect marine life from hazards) will especially be investigated.
Currently, clouds of bubbles formed by breaking waves, which contribute 30%± of the oceans’ absorption of humanity’s CO2 emissions, are poorly understood. The bubbles’ fascinating sounds and trajectories in warming oceans offer powerful prompts for the artistic investigation and music composition. Elissa uses hydrophonically recorded data and the actual audio-recordings and equipment to interpret scientific materials as original music, including experimental graphic notation. The resulting new music, in turn, offers the scientists a creative way of hearing and viewing their research.
Elissa Goodrich, photograph Lea Kivivali.
Composer/sound artist/percussionist Elissa Goodrich’s abiding interest is in collaboration. Her compositions sit between contemporary classical and jazz improvisation. Her works play in festivals across the globe. Elissa’s sound, music and dramaturgy for theatre includes long-time collaborations with Australian-based directors and writers. Since 2015 her practice involves collaborating at intersections of climate science and new music with Australian artists and scientists, and as commissioned composer/sound artist for scientific and arts organisations in Europe.
Prof Richard Manasseh.
Prof. Richard Manasseh is a mechanical engineer with a PhD in fluid dynamics. He investigates fluid waves and their interactions, including sound, atmospheric and water waves. His research is applied in oceanography, atmospheric physics, and the space, minerals, biomedical, water, food and defence industries. In 2022 he was ranked in the top 2% of researchers globally for lifetime output in mechanical engineering acoustics and in 2024 was elected a Fellow of the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
The 2026 ANAT Synapse residency program is supported by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and the Department of Mechanical and Product Design Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology.
ANAT Synapse Residencies
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