Jodrell Bank Observatory

Established in 1945 by Sir Bernard Lovell, The Jodrell Bank Observatory has played a key role in the research of meteors and was deeply involved with the tracking of international space probes at the start of the Space Age. It boasts the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world, the Lovell Telescope, which stands at an incredible 89 meters high and 79 meters wide.

The site is home to the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, providing a place of learning and research for students, engineers and astronomers from The University of Manchester, and also features the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre which welcomes curious visitors throughout the year.

COSMOS is a collaboration with The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire East Council as part of SHIFT and Abandon Normal Devices, that launched in July 2017. Scheduled to take place each summer, COSMOS invites an international artist to create a new work developed for Lovell Telescope, showcased during bluedot festival.

The commission includes a residency at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, enabling artists to collaborate with scientists and researchers, experiment with data collected by the Lovell Telescope and others, and gain a new perspective on the observatory’s research. It offers artists and scientists a unique, new opportunity to connect and to visualise the knowledge gathered about deep space.

AND presented COSMOS19 artist Julie Freeman’s work I̶n̛t͘e͟rf̕e̢ren̵ce, COSMOS18 artist Addie Wagenknecht’s work Hidden in Plain Sight and COSMOS17 artist Daito Manabe’s work Celestial Frequencies.