Picocosmos (2024-)
Can we dream of democratising quantum computing and communication, much like radio technology flourished through grassroots and amateur communities 100 years ago?
Picocosmos is a live-transmission sculpture that broadcasts the sound of single photons at 87.7 MHz to the universe.
Photons will be the carriers of information. According to quantum mechanics, the moment a photon is emitted—when an electron falls from its excited state back to the ground state—is considered truly random, inherently spontaneous, and unpredictable. The behaviour of single photons offers immense potential for applications like quantum cryptography and key distribution. Nevertheless, photons suitable for quantum communication are extremely ephemeral, existing on picosecond timescales before being lost.
The future data of our civilisation may be recorded on these fleeting memory units, perhaps reiterated through quantum repeaters. Picocosmos conceives translating picosecond-old photons into radio pulsars—searchable, durable, and capable of travelling vast distances between planets and galaxies. This self-built sculptural device adds a new dimension to satellite-based quantum communication networks. Quantum memory from single photons at 894 nm [1], stored in warm atomic cesium-133 vapour (in conjunction with atomic clocks), are transduced into an audio signal, which is then encoded onto an FM radio signal and broadcast openly across the universe at frequencies between 30 and 300 MHz [2]. At the receiving end, information about the photons can be retrieved, along with their sound—something that cannot otherwise travel or be accessed in outer space [3][4].
Picocosmos is made possible through data from the Institute of Optical Sensor Systems at the German Aerospace Center.
Possible Format:
→ Installation (Interactive)
→ Live radio transmission
→
Participatory workshop
→
Radio sound-walk
→
Print on paper
→
Digital Zine
→
Audio (WAV, 46 minutes)
Supported by Goethe Institut and Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Possible Format:
→ Installation (Interactive)
→ Live radio transmission
→ Participatory workshop
→ Radio sound-walk
→ Print on paper
→ Digital Zine
→ Audio (WAV, 46 minutes)
Supported by Goethe Institut and Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Footnote
[1] But what exactly is a single photon? The artist also asked this question to physicists and to depict it in sketches.
[2] The line with a lambda sign (symbol of wavelength) allows the audience to experience the actual length of a photon of a radio wave 3.4m long, being transmitted live.
[3] Audible real-time in the exhibition with any FM radio receivers. Despite the sound is used to explore the subjects about the inaccessible, invisible and intangible—the very essence of quantum properties, an exact contrary to posthumanist approach is proved necessary: an artform for a degree of scientific explanation which does not benefit from seeking to decenter from anthropocentric lens and include non-human agents, but serves as a relatable translation capable of human understanding and sensing. Reflecting the human condition, the sonification of phoons incorporates folk influence and portrays photonic data slowed down between 69 and 13 889 times than real time.
[4] A limited number of envelopes with liners tinted with pattern-free photonic randomness can be found; attached inside a photocopy of Spiral of Lightning in a Thunderstorm (1886) by Charles Moussette, and a note to invite a quantum encrypted message to be transmitted to the universe.
[Spiral of Lightning in a Thunderstorm] Artist_ Charles Moussette (French, active 1880s) Date_ May 12, 1886. (Creative Commons)
Work title: Picocosmos
In collaboration with German Aerospace Center (DLR) – Institute of Optical Sensor Systems and Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF)
Year of production: 2024
Size of the work: Dimension varies
Material/Medium: Sound of randomly emitted single photons (46 minute-loop), DIY FM-radio transmitter, handblown glass, optical fibre, copper, plastic, electronics, vinyl of lambda sign, photo, paper, prints
Adviser: Benjamin Maaß, Elizabeth Robertson, Leon Meßner, Janik Wolters, Harun Šiljak, Axel Gagge
Single photon source: Xavier Barcons Planas
Data sonification and music composition: Erik Natanael Gustafsson
Visual Communication: Andrea Bjurström
Project funding: Goethe Institut, Swedish Artists Council; In-kind support: Haus der Kulturen der Welt