New living data music piece by Leyland artist stars two sets of Belisha beacons

Stella Aster — Stella posing with her first published poem, a submission for Pressed Town issue 3

A new piece of art by a self-described neurodivergent queer geek stars two sets of Leyland Belisha beacons.

Stella Aster is the creator of Music by Belisha beacons, a sonic exploration of urban infrastructure. An artist, social researcher and activist from Leyland, Stella’s educational and work background is computer science and software engineering. For art, Stella works mostly in poetry and software.

Stella is also a part-time PhD student, looking at weight stigma in healthcare in Central Lancashire. In the new year, Stella will be working with Healthwatch Lancashire to do research and engagement on the New Hospitals Programme.

In terms of activism, Stella is mostly focused on trans healthcare and community organising. Stella is working on a project to better connect artists, social researchers, activists, and local communities in Central Lancashire, and volunteers in the Bookings team at St. Mary’s Community Centre in Leyland.

In addition to art, work and activism, caring for chosen family is an important part of Stella’s life. Stella believes caring for people is important work, which is under appreciated in our culture and underfunded as a result.

With so much going on, we asked Stella to tell us more not just about Music by Belisha Beacons, but also about wider artistic practice, hopes for the future, and thoughts on the local arts and culture scene.

How did you get into art? Why do you make art?

I used to do art on a bit of a whim, like every now and then I’d get an idea for something and maybe make it. Most of the time I didn’t even realise I was doing art! I just thought of it as ‘oh here’s another idea for something I could do, make, whatever’. So in terms of practice it was mostly about trying things out, teaching myself, and working with materials I understood. That’s probably why I’ve always gravitated to poetry and software, I have a feel for writing verse and code. It took me a long time and a lot of work to start to understand the kinds of things I want to make and why, and then I had to realise that I could start to see those things as art. Now I realise that artistic practice is something I need in my life in order to help me understand and improve both myself and the world around me.

For a lot of my work, my guiding principle is sincerity: how does this help people to shine? how does this enable effortless intimacy? how does this allow us to connect on a deeper level, without barriers? That value, sincerity, is both deeply personal and deeply political for me. It’s rooted in my experiences as a neurodivergent queer geek, and I see it everywhere in the philosophies of anarchism, feminism, and postmodernism.

I was in The Golden Tap in Leyland the other day, and I saw a copy of this year’s Leyland U3A heritage photography project, Perspective on the Past, and in it there’s this great bit where South Ribble Borough Council Leader Jacky Alty is talking about her artistic practice, and she says: “Art can soothe or agitate, challenging our accepted norms or reinforce long held beliefs, and can be a conduit to social inclusion. Art can present economic opportunity, but accessibility and recognition of the value art expression contributes to our communities, must be recognised and barriers to that, removed.” I completely agree, and I see some of my own goals and understandings in her words.

Tell us more about Music by Belisha beacons.

So I’d had a similar idea before, but it was going to be too expensive to do, because it involved a lot of hardware and software to design and build. I was walking back home one night in October or November, and I saw the beacons at a zebra crossing, and realised I could make a much simpler version, so I challenged myself to see if I could build and release a ‘minimum viable artwork’ in a couple of weeks.

Music by Belisha beacons is a living ‘data music’ piece about zebra crossing beacons. If you stop at a zebra crossing and look at a pair of beacons for a minute, sometimes you notice they phase in and out, as one of them is flashing very slightly faster than the other. I built a website that represents the lights as keys on a piano, and plays the sounds of the beacons right now, based on the current time and some recordings I’ve made of them. It’s currently being performed by two sets of beacons in Leyland.

One of the sets of beacons currently performing Music by Belisha beacons Pic: Stella Aster

I made Music by Belisha beacons for a few reasons. First, I just wanted to see what they would sound like. I think they’re really pretty, and I felt so happy when I allowed myself to realise that they are making music. That’s why it’s called Music by Belisha beacons, not Music for Belisha beacons. I didn’t really write it or anything. The beacons are performing it live and I’m just arranging it for piano, with help from some code. In that way it challenges us to examine our relationships with the different objects around us.

One thing I struggled with when making it was getting accurate and precise data about the phase and period of the beacons. I recorded timestamped video footage on my phone, but it only records at 30 frames per second, which means it can’t record precisely enough to stay in time with the beacons forever, and so the music on the website is slowly drifting away from the true music of the beacons. I realised that that was an interesting connection to ideas around maintenance and things like the maintenance of urban infrastructure like roads. Since the initial launch, I’ve started thinking about making this idea of maintenance and these ideas of ‘living art’ and ‘living data’ more integral to the project. I’ll be doing some roadworks soon to get the piano synced up again.

What are your plans and hopes for your future as an artist?

I have a lot of things I’m working on at the moment, and a few ideas lined up for what’s next, so I hope that I’m able to make progress on everything that’s in progress and deliver some more work early next year. I’m currently accepting submission to a journal experiment I’m starting called Open Letters, which people can read about on my website.

My main artistic hope for 2025 is that I’ll continue to connect with other people in Central Lancashire who are also passionate about fighting for a world based on sincerity, care, and consent, and resisting coercion in all its forms. I want to collaborate with other artists, social researchers, activists, and other people in my local communities and across local communities. I’m very passionate about this idea of Central Lancashire, and dissolving the cultural barriers between Preston, Leyland, Chorley, Bamber Bridge, Buckshaw, and all the other areas around us. There is so much going on in our different towns, but too many barriers, including a lack of awareness about all the different groups.

Across our locale we have a community radio station, Black history group, pro-Palestine activists, LGBTQ+ social and support groups, and poetry, photographic, and artist societies. I really believe that with the proper support and initiative, we can make Central Lancashire a place where everyone can thrive, and I see what I do as working towards that goal.

Ultimately everything I do is because I care about the world around me and the people around me, and I want to enable us to live meaningful lives and connect with each other.

What are your favourite cultural destinations and organisations in Preston and South Ribble?

I spend a lot of my time at The Golden Tap in Leyland, and I’ve made a lot of friends there. I even wrote a poem for the place, which is stuck up on the wall above the community bookshelf.

There are two open mics in Leyland, run by Liam Green, at The Market Ale House and at Indigo. I haven’t been to the Indigo one yet, but the one at the Market has been great, all the other performers have been really friendly and talented, and it’s a really welcoming and supportive scene.

I started out with spoken word at the Damson Poets at the Continental in Broadgate, and now I also go to the Chorley and South Ribble Poetry Society at the Shepherd’s Ale House in Chorley, and the Leyland U3A Poetry group at Leyland Library.

There has been some really cool stuff on at SHOP Preston CIC this year, including the return of Charity Shop Rwanda, the first P-Town Mini Zine Fest, and Hans Browne’s Fringe of the Fringe workshop.

The Lancashire Fringe Festival was really amazing this year as well, so many different things happening all at once all across Preston. I’m still mapping out and getting connected with all the different people and places. I made contact with The Brewtime Collective this year and met some really great people in Preston, and I’m looking forward to going to a lot more stuff next year.

What’s your opinion on the local arts scene?

Funnily enough that’s something I’ve been talking about in great detail with a couple of other artists recently! I like to think I try to base my opinions on my understanding of things, and I think something like a local arts scene, no matter how much activity there is, is such a huge thing to comprehend that I can’t fully understand it, not by myself anyway.

But one thing I notice is a lot of isolation and disconnection, and a lack of resilience. It seems like a lot of the work that’s gone on here, and there has been a lot, is just tiny pockets of a few people bubbling up for a little bit and then dissipating. Which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but I wonder how that connects to infrastructure, or our lack of it. It seems really difficult to find all the different things that are going on, connect with other people, and participate in stuff. There’s very few spaces and very little funding, and so access to those things is really competitive. And everyone has to survive under capitalism. Before you can make art you have to survive.

I saw the recent Blog Preston coverage of the Preston Public Space Protection Order, and that that places restrictions on the use of amps and speakers, and I think that is going to affect street performers and buskers. People will be more hesitant to perform in the street if they think they might get fined. It’s a good example of the lack of connection between our decision-
making systems and different groups of people and what each of us want and need. We need to sort those things out, somehow.

How can people find out more and see your work?

You can go to the Music for Belisha beacons website to listen live to the beacons, plus there’s a bit of commentary on the piece itself, and a map showing where the beacons are if you want to visit.

My Stella Aster website is where people can see what I’m working on at the moment and get in touch with me. I’m also on Instagram @stella.aster.92, but my website is my main space.

If anyone would like to see me perform and meet me in person, I’m usually at Damson Poets, Chorley and South Ribble Poetry Society, the Leyland U3A Poetry Group, and the open mics at the Market Ale House and Indigo, and I occasionally drink in the Golden Tap or the Plug and Taps.

I’m really keen to hear from other people in Central Lancashire and the surrounding areas and collaborate, so if anyone wants to get in touch with me, please email me at [email protected].

Subscribe: Keep in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, join our WhatsApp channel and subscribe for our twice-a-week email newsletter. Both free and direct to your phone and inbox.

Read more: See more of what’s on in Preston

This story was made possible by you, our readers, and a host of organisations in the city, through our Crowdfund Lancashire appeal, which unlocked support from the Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund provided by Lancashire County Council. You can see all our coverage and, if you know of an arts project or event in the city we should be covering, you can submit it for our event listings and/or send details to [email protected] for us to cover it as a story on the Blog.

Own a fractional luxury property

Share this:

Related