Cosmic Rain
light & audio installation

About the project

Cosmic Rain is a project by Ljubljana artist Tilen Sepič that is due to be premiered in Fall 2020. Work tackles the analysis and the visualizations of cosmic rays, the high-energy parts invisible to the naked eye, and come from space, mostly outside of our solar system.

The installation will use the muon detector that was developed on the principles of Cosmic Watch, which is used to detect muons. In physics, these are elementary particles, which are part of the family of leptons. On Earth, muons are formed in the upper layers of the strata when hit by the cosmic rays. Their breaking time is 2,2 microseconds, although muons can be (with the suitable equipment) fairly easily traced on Earth's surface as muons' occurrence, for the horizontally placed detector on the sea surface, is about one muon per square cm per minute.

Technology for these measurements was not made accessible outside of the laboratory, research, or institutional contexts for a long time. In 2017, the MIT made the plan of Cosmic Watch muon detector's free-hardware available online. The detector was developed by professors and Ph.D. students at the MIT Institute, WiPAC (USA) and NCBJ (PL) and was meant for the upgrade of IceCube, a neutrino observatory in Antarctica.

Cosmic Watch is a machine that uses a plastic scintillator as a detection medium and the silicon photomultiplier for light detection. In the muon's passage through scintillator, a weak light pulsation is created, which is then augmented by the photomultiplier that converts it into a computer network. In such way, the muon detectors can be used as ignitors of light, sound or kinetic elements.

Sepič will visualize the natural phenomenon in a minimalist language of light and sound installation. The significantly material representation of cosmic particles in the form of light and sound impulses will equip the viewer for a sensual experience of physical and cosmic events around us, which are unapproachable to our senses.

About the author

Tilen Sepič (1984) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer who works in the field of new media art, light art, light objects design, and projection of light audiovisual installations. Sepič supports opensource and DIY culture. Projects on which he collaborated with Hacking Households team since Biennial of Industrial Design BIO50 are also based on these principles.

In the field of light art, he is regularly active at international light festivals, where public art meets city promotion and the uses of new media and light technology. Recently he displays his light and sound kinetic installations and light-based products. Sepič participated at numerous exhibitions and festivals: Vinterljus festival of lights (Linkoping, SE, 2019), Halifax NS (Canada, 2019), IZIS Festivals (Portorož, 2019), Ventura Future (Italy, 2019), Interference Tunis Light art project (Tunis, 2018), New Budapest Gallery (Budapest, 2018), Centre for Creativity (Maribor, 2018), Collumina light art project, Köln and EVI Lichtungen light festival, Hildesheim (Germany, 2018), Visualia (Pula, 2017), Bella Skyway (Poland, 2015, 2016), Lumina Festival (Portugal, 2013, 2015, 2016), Lighting guerilla (2013, 2014, 2019).

Concept: Tilen Sepič
Production: Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory

Project is developed as a part of konS Platform activities.

Partners #konS: Kersnikova, Aksioma, Projekt Atol, Cona Zavod, @ LJUDMILA, MKC Maribor, LokalPatriot, Univerza v Novi Gorici / University of Nova Gorica / University of Nova Gorica, Mc Velenje.

Project konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art is a project chosen on the public call for the selection of the operations “Network of Investigative Art and Culture Centres”. The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.