A Galaxy Of Suns - Bristol Biennial app for iPhone and iPad

NB: This app was created for the 2016 Bristol Biennial in Bristol, UK and can only be activated at certain locations in the city. A separate version of this app that can be experienced anywhere in the world will be available on the App Store after the festival concludes.

A Galaxy of Suns ‘plays’ the stars as they rise and set over 360 degrees of the horizon – for any location on Earth. Operating on a galactic scale, this project is a collaboration across contemporary art, music, astronomy, design and technology. A Galaxy of Suns works with the native potentials of smart device technology to create a unique experience of the cosmos accessible to wherever you find yourself in the world.

Tracking the Earth’s motions through space, A Galaxy of Suns documents in real-time your precise position in relation to the stars, sonifying stellar data to create a sound and visual composition specific to your location in space and time. Using the GPS data automatically recorded by your smart phone and operational without network access, the project works with parameters such as location on the horizon, brightness, size, age and chemical composition of stars, and translates them into sonic and aesthetic variables including rhythm, pitch, volume, panning, colour and light intensity. Whilst it creatively interprets science, A Galaxy of Suns is not an illustrative, literal or educational translation of data. Rather, it is a celebration of beauty and wonder at the ultimately inaccessible and intangible nature of the stars.