Particle Shrine

Invisible messengers from deep in the universe surround us.
These messengers are known as cosmic rays, and billions shower Earth every second, in a random way currently beyond human comprehension.

These subatomic particles are passing through you at this very moment…blazing close to the speed of light, blasted from supernovae and other astrophysical phenomena far beyond our galaxy.

By learning about them, we can learn about our origins.

Particle Shrine makes these invisible forces, visible.

Utilising new, bespoke technologies, this installation transforms the never ending stream of cosmic ray energy into various outputs – generative 360 compositions, vibrating surfaces, projections and lighting design.

These outputs are controlled in real-time by 5 bespoke cosmic ray detectors inside the installation, as well as by live readings from a neutrino observatory in Japan called Super Kamiokande.

It’s an environment that’s unique each time you step inside, a place where you could ponder these curious forces, and hopefully, experience a sense of connection to the cosmos in the process.

The goal is to create a sense of presence to these vital yet hidden forces around us. To provide an immersive, tangible feeling around particle physics.
Sonification and the use of MIDI in this process is crucial to achieving this.

As far as I’m aware, an installation and technological process of this nature has not been used before in this way, therefore making it highly innovative and unique.

So far, Particle Shrine is the only use case of this technology, but I have plans to use this system to create other installations which utilise live cosmic ray data and sonification, but with alternative outputs.