About Cosmos Residency 2017

Scheduled to take place each summer, COSMOS invites an international artist to create a new audio-visual work developed for, and to be projected onto the iconic Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory during the award-winning bluedot festival.

For COSMOS’ inaugural year in 2017, AND invited Daito Manabe – Tokyo-based Media Artist, DJ, Programmer – and Rhizomatiks Research to be the first artists to develop a site-responsive work for COSMOS.

A key aspect of the commission is the residency – an opportunity for the artist to spend time at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics to work with researchers and scientists. It enables the artist to collaborate with scientists, to experiment with data collected by the telescope, gain a new perspective on the observatory’s research and to visualise the knowledge gathered about deep space.

Find out more about Manabe’s residency in this behind the scenes video:

For 2017, marking the 50th anniversary of the discovery of pulsars in 1967, Manabe used data collected by the telescope to create a generative audio-visual artwork, bespoke for the telescope. Specifically for COSMOS, Arup carried out laser scans of the telescope and created an accurate 3D model of the structure, enabling it to be projection mapped in real-time and with a level of detail not previously possible. 

Following the residency in May, Manabe returned to Japan to work with his Rhizomatics Research team to create the new work that premiered at bluedot festival 7 – 9 July 2017.

COSMOS is a flagship international artists commission and residency for Lovell Telescope. Produced by Abandon Normal Devices, commissioned by Jodrell Bank Observatory, bluedot, SHIFT and Abandon Normal Devices. Supported by the University of Manchester, Rhizomatiks Research, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, and with public funds from Arts Council England.  LiDAR* scans of the Lovell Telescope used in the production of COSMOS are provided by Arup. 

*(Light Imaging, Detection, And Ranging)