Cosmic Garden

Light-animated Mural for GLEAM Light-Art Festival

Cosmic Garden is an audio-visual meditation on the transformation of starlight into conscious life on Earth. Together, a soundscape and light-animated mural narrate a tale of epic proportions.

Our journey begins deep within the sun’s fiery core, where immense gravitational forces give birth to photons. After hundreds of thousands of years winding toward the sun’s surface, a photon extends outward at light speed towards Earth, where green leaves hungrily await. Microscopic powerhouses called chloroplasts act as miniature nuclear reactors, transmuting photons’ pure energy into sugar and oxygen, on which people and other animals depend. In a beautiful dance of interconnection, we reciprocate with each exhalation, transforming oxygen into carbon dioxide to replenish our botanical companions’ breath. This delicately balanced harmony took billions of years to evolve sentient life on Earth.

Custom Sound - Two soundtracks, composed and arranged by the artist, accompany the mural animation. One is an ambient soundscape with electronica, vocals and synths. The second is a spoken-word soundtrack with botanical-related poetry and scientific ruminations on photosynthesis.

Community Collaboration - The artist solicited spoken-word contributions from Madison-area poets. Those offerings were edited and incorporated into the soundscape's spoken-word track. Special thanks to Erin Schneider for organizing various word-related events and gatherings related to Cosmic Garden.

Commissioned for: GLEAM at Olbrich Botanical Gardens

Installed: August 2023

Materials: dye-sublimation on vinyl, dmx LED par lights, soundscape, electronics