COSMOSONIC is an audiovisual modular installation with Augmented Reality elements. It is an art project that connects the Earth, the Sun and the Moon through science and technology, using scientific data provided by NASA, the sonification of electromagnetic waves, and the imagination and creative composition of artists – Elektro Moon Vision in collaboration with Iranian sound artist Ali Phi.
The project allows you to imagine sounds in the surroundings of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun, and in the visual layer, through Augmented Reality technology, it allows you to have a look at e.g. the “dark side of the moon” – invisible from the Earth or technologically advanced objects and devices placed in Earth orbit.

The universe is constantly vibrating waves and particles in constant motion. Everything exists in relation to each other in certain proportions and structures based on absolute harmony. A Higher Order, or Harmony of the Universe, was strongly believed in by Pythagoras and the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who described the uniform laws of the universe as “heavenly harmony.” This cosmic order, which is a perfect expression of Absolute Harmony, can be noticed both on the visual plane – geometry (spatial relations) and colors, and on the phonic plane – the consonance of sounds.

Different space objects make their own unique sounds. These are not “sounds” in the strict sense, because sound waves do not propagate in space. On Earth, sound reaches our ears by vibrating air molecules. In deep space, in the large empty spaces between stars and planets, there are no particles to vibrate. No sounds can be heard in space, because the space between planets and stars is similar to a vacuum, so mechanical waves, including sound waves, do not propagate there. However, this does not mean that it is a quiet place.
Sounds exist in space in the form of electromagnetic vibrations. Electromagnetic waves, i.e. light, radio waves, radar waves and microwaves propagate in a vacuum. We can register them and convert them, through sonification, into mechanical waves, i.e. transform them into sounds audible by the human ear. In this way, very interesting, though sometimes disturbing, sounds are created.

Almost all types of astronomical objects emit radio radiation.
The strongest sources of such emissions are pulsars, nebulae, quasars, and galaxies. And what’s going on in our immediate vicinity?

The sun and the moon are the brightest celestial bodies in our sky and we think we know them perfectly well. But do we know what sounds they make?

COSMOSONIC was designed for MUSIC.DESIGN.FORM Festival of the Philharmonic in Szczecin, North Poland and presented there from 21st to 25th Sept 2022 in four places around the awarded space of the Philharmonic.

Photos by Bartek Barczyk