Motivated by a sense of wonder in the everyday and a curiosity to reach beyond the comprehensible, my work embraces the celestial and the subatomic as a means of encounter with the opposing cosmic and quantum scales of the universe.

I find the world of particle physics and its abstract theories fascinating. The idea that a photon theoretically explores the entire universe, before hitting my retina, is poetic and adds to the awe I feel about how the simplest of experiences hide amazing interactions. Even if I don’t have a firm grasp on the science, it has led me to look at everything around me with new eyes and consider the many unseen forces at play. I am indebted to the scientists who have shared their knowledge with me and I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to visit laboratories and observatories to gain valuable personal insight.

I enjoy using unpredictable material processes and creating imagery that emerges through translating ephemeral and subatomic realms to the visual. The materials I choose resonate with the relevant context of each work and I am excited to discover things for myself through DIY experiments and the use of simple technology. This might involve building a cloud chamber to reveal cosmic ray activity, using magnets to express energy fields, effecting chemical reactions such as copper patination, growing crystals under polarising filters or stretching bubble membranes into very thin sheets to describe theories of higher dimensions where space acts very like a soap film in trying to minimize surface area.

Highlights of my practice include leading the Laboratory of Dark Matters project which took eight artists over one kilometre underground to meet scientists searching for dark matter, launching a cloud chamber in a high altitude balloon and creating The Breath of Stars, a work which interacts directly with cosmic rays to display video animations. A recent honour has been inclusion in the exhibition Cosmos: the art of observing space at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol (24 Jan – 18 April 2026).

The influence of science in my practice began with ecological concerns at the human disconnect with the natural world and impending climate change. I was making work that explored a contemporary urban experience of nature and a nostalgia for a time when humans lived in unity with nature. Focusing on concepts of paradise as a state of being at one with a natural order, I questioned if ‘paradise’ could be found in prosaic everyday experiences. I began visiting roads, streets, and even an industrial estate named Paradise, to see if the name influenced my perception of place. I went in a heightened state of awareness, looking for something beyond what is seen on the surface.

Feeling the need to look deeper into the patterns and structures of what was around me, I turned to particle physics to discover the building blocks of the universe. I found an alternative origin story and a cosmic, subatomic and quantum world equal to any ancient mythology in its fantastical nature. I was astonished to learn that around 95% of the universe is dark to us, formed of unknown and possibly unknowable dark matter and dark energy. All the matter we do know, all the stars and all the galaxies, everything that we can interact with, makes up just a tiny fraction of the universe.

From this revelation, I thought about all the activity that was going on around me that I couldn’t see. I was excited to discover more about this mysterious unseen world and bring these impressions into my practice.

Another significant influence was learning about geometry and patterns in nature at the Princes School of Traditional Arts where the tutors believe there is a spiritual relationship found in the structures of the universe. I was drawn to Plato’s description of the dodecahedron, as ‘a fifth construction, which the god used for embroidering the constellations on the whole heaven’. Plato describes a primitive chaos from which the universe took shape, where the four elements of fire, earth, water and air formed from a turbulent mix of ‘being’, ‘space’ and ‘becoming’ to be assigned by their characteristics to the platonic solids. The dodecahedron is described as holding the stars in the heavens, just as dark matter is now believed to do by pulling matter into its gravitational field. I use the dodecahedron as a motif for the universe in many works, either in its 3D form or flattened out to the pattern of the net used in its construction.

In scientific visualisations of dark matter, familiar patterns emerge, echoing between the smallest and largest scales that govern the structures of our universe. The fronds of dark matter spanning galaxies could be the spreading branches of trees or the veins under our skin, invoking a visceral response to their organic form. I was given simulated images of dark matter by The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) which I transformed from digital to analogue via deep etching twelve aluminium plates which together form the net of a dodecahedron. The title of this work, The Forms, refers to the realm of abstract thought Plato suggests is where ideals reside, outside the limitations of the physical world, and where, if anywhere, paradise might be found.

The Forms 2017 Etched aluminium, 275 x 160 cm

My particular fascination with cosmic rays came about after visiting the dark matter research facility at Boulby Underground Laboratory in the North East of England. The scientists here retreat deep underground to get away from the continuous influx of particles from outer space which can interfere with their very sensitive dark matter detection experiments. This subterranean experience was the catalyst for Laboratory of Dark Matters, a research, residency and events programme that occupied Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects, London, for a month and subsequently toured to Cleveland Mining Museum. Through conversations at Boulby it was clear that artists and scientists question the world we share in very similar ways through experiment, analysis and imagination. Both perspectives can change our view of reality and where science may feel overwhelming, art can offer an emotional response.

Unlike dark matter, cosmic rays offer a more tangible connection with outer space as they have mass and can be made visible using a simple cloud chamber. With guidance from Alan Walker from the University of Edinburgh I built my own cloud chamber and never tire of watching the mesmerising condensation trails appearing. It is astounding to see how much invisible activity is going on around us, beyond what our immediate senses tell us is there. I offer demonstrations and DIY cloud chamber workshops, which I developed to share the simplicity of the process that enables the extraordinary to be revealed.

During a Chisenhale Art Place residency I built a human size interactive cloud chamber experience, Scales of Intangibility. This bodily engagement with particle trails was to bring alive how entangled we are with the far reaches of the universe.

Visitors entered a dark chamber lined in black velvet, to ‘capture’ video projections of particle trails onto hand-held screens made from solid, reflective or translucent materials. Particle trails would appear randomly and visitors could move to position a screen to ‘capture’ a trail as it shoots across the space. The experience highlighted the prevalence of invisible particles bombarding us all the time, passing through what we think of as solid matter.

Scales of Intangibility 2018 (still) Video projections, mixed media 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 m

The velvet chamber was also used to film the video work Soft Borders which examines cosmological boundaries and the permeability of our own bodies. This work was influenced by a theory proposed by cosmologist Jean-Pierre Luminet that considers a universe, shaped like a dodecahedron, that is a finite shape but has no boundaries. This incomprehensible concept is also described in Dante’s Paradiso as the inner and outer concentric spheres of the heavens appear to both surround and be surrounded by each other.

Dance artist Paola Napolitano was filmed in the velvet chamber, performing sequences of movements relating to the choreographer Rudolf Laban’s notation system based on the geometries of the platonic solids, as projections of particle trails move across her body.

It can be slightly unnerving to think that our bodies are continuously permeated by particles, fired into our world by high energy collisions in space, which may be potentially damaging to our cells, but also remarkable to consider the journey these particles have made before they pass through our skin.

Soft Borders 2018 (still) Video 06:12 min

It is a moving experience to be under a truly dark sky, gazing up into a possible infinity, trying to comprehend the magnitude of the cosmos. Our ancestors mapped the stars and the shapes and patterns they drew across the darkness became familiar anchors for navigation, informed mythological stories in all cultures and aligned celestial cycles with the fortunes of everyday life. Sadly, the rich history of stargazing is being lost to a population bathed in the yellow umbra of artificial illumination leaching into the night sky, obscuring our view of the constellations, shrinking our universe and severing our relationship to the stars.

I created the suspended sculpture Pentacoronae, following a dark skies residency in Grizedale Forest, to highlight the detrimental effects of urban light pollution. It uses imagery of city lights printed on metallic c-type photographic paper, obscuring etchings of fictional star maps and screen printed dark matter visualisations. Through this work the viewer is encouraged to seek darkness, stargaze, wonder and map their own stories across the sky.

Pentacoronae 2018 Etching, screenprint, metallic c-type on paper, 210 x 120 cm

While experiencing the dark skies of Northumberland during a residency at Allenheads Contemporary Arts, which has its own astronomical observatory, I was thinking about what was hidden in the darkness between the bright points of the constellations. Imagining unseen ‘pyrotechnic’ displays as cosmic rays collide with the edge of Earth’s atmosphere I decided I wanted to film at the altitude where peak cosmic ray activity takes place. About 15km up, secondary particles that I see in my cloud chamber are smashed into existence. Even if I wasn’t able to visibly capture this activity I wanted to physically record in this space. However, following conversations with The UK High Altitude Society and Imperial College Space Society, it was agreed we would collaborate to launch a cloud chamber in the payload of a high altitude balloon and try to film particle activity at altitude.

The cloud chamber would need to be light but able to withstand high turbulence, very low pressure which might make it explode and freezing temperatures which would deaden the batteries. The Space Society students set about designing and building the chamber which was going well, but on the night before the launch, the chamber cracked during some adjustments and a new chamber had to be hurriedly procured with no time to undergo the rigorous testing necessary to be confident of its durability.

The hardest part of high altitude ballooning is retrieving the payload. This is done using telemetry signals from the balloon which are picked up on a laptop while chasing the route of the balloon by car as it descends. It is very much a collaborative endeavour. Launch day was long and nerve wracking, but ultimately thrilling when the payload was successfully recovered from a field of horses and bemused landowner.

We discovered that during the bumpy launch, the camera inside the payload, which was set to film any activity in the cloud chamber, had been knocked out of position and stopped recording. There was no video evidence of cosmic ray activity, but the balloon had reached an altitude of over 37 km, high enough to see the blue curve of the Earth’s atmosphere against black space. Outward facing cameras in the payload had recorded amazing in flight video which I subsequently used in the work Aóratos, which translates as ‘unseen’.

Aóratos 2019 (still) Video 10:00 min

I find the crossover of speculation between science fiction and theoretical physics intriguing, especially when seemingly impossible predictions are proved correct, such as the discovery of black holes.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity, written in 1915, predicted the existence of black holes, but for years it was thought they were the stuff of fantasy. We now know that these bizarre objects exist throughout our universe in all shapes and sizes and have, incredibly, been presented with images of them. Einstein’s theory is also consistent with the possibility of gravitational tunnels known as wormholes. However, to traverse space by means of a wormhole would require vast amounts of negative energy, a hard concept to grasp and not something usually found on Earth, yet in the ongoing political climate, psychologically in no short supply.

I had the opportunity to create a site specific installation in Allenhead’s Blacksmith’s forge, this was a perfect setting for a ‘wormhole’.

Referencing rituals that employ the cleansing power of fire, visitors to Aóratos were invited to burn offerings of ‘negative energy’ to power the ‘wormhole’.  Special paper tokens filled with colour changing chemicals were provided to write negative associations on and place in the forge fire. Visitors would then ascend stairs to an upper level, pass through a portal curtain and enter a video installation conceived of journeying through hidden landscapes, distorted spacetime and alternative perspectives. The exit from the installation was via a door onto another level at the back of the forge, so people left at a different place to where they entered, having been cleansed of negative thoughts and embarked on a short journey through a speculative universe.

Aóratos  2019 Burning tokens of negative energy

One of the dangers of human space travel is cosmic radiation. Without the protection of Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere, life on this planet as we know it, would not be possible. The fleeting trails I see in my cloud chamber are evidence of the few particles that do make it to the surface of the Earth, but in space, levels are extreme.

To further explore the intimate connections between earth and space and the impact cosmic rays have on everyday life and human technology, I made the film Cosmic Chiasmus: crossing the universe. Cosmic rays go through a violent process of creation, transformation and decay. Created during super nova explosions or by phenomena we are yet to discover, they travel from distant galaxies, striking the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere to create secondary particles that shower down upon us. Some particles collide and silently interact with atoms and technology on Earth.

Not only is all life physically permeated by cosmic rays with the potential for nuclei collisions, but some cascading particles smash into atoms of nitrogen and combine with oxygen to create radioactive carbon-14 which enters our atmosphere. Plants absorb it during photosynthesis, and it is incorporated into their carbon skeleton. While plants and animals are alive, carbon-14 is continually replenished as the organism takes in air or food. When an organism dies, no more carbon-14 is absorbed and that which is present starts to decay at a constant rate. By measuring the radioactivity of dead organic matter the current carbon-14 content of an organism can be determined and the time of death established.

It is an incredible journey that cosmic rays make, blasted across space, spiralling along magnetic field lines to end up entangled with carbon in our bodies.

Cosmic Chiasmus: crossing the universe 2021 Video 05:25

Also travelling across space are the electromagnetic waves of radio and television broadcasts.

92 Years Measured in Light is a very personal work made just after the pandemic, reflecting on the human experience of time in relation to the vastness of the Cosmos. There is a star, similar to our sun, with planets orbiting in a motion comparable to how the planets orbit here in our solar system. This star, in the constellation of Puppis, is about 92 light years away. The time it has taken the first radio and television signals travelling at the speed of light to reach this prospective home-from-home is roughly the same time as the lifespan of my mother who was born around the time of these early broadcasts.

The folded sections in this work emulate the raster pattern of early TV signals which were sent in segments and must be reassembled on arrival to make sense of the message. The artwork includes fragmented images from this historical period viewed from one direction, and a chart depicting the star from the other. It is an interesting thought to consider what alien life forms might make of these messages travelling across the universe, should they be able to interact with them.

92 Years Measured in Light 2021 Screenprint, dye sublimation print on polyester, pencil, mounted on paper, 120 x 48 x 3 cm

There is a lot of radio noise in space to compete with, as vast galaxies, millions of light years across, emit powerful radio waves. Radio galaxies are candidates for the origin of the rare, extremely high energy cosmic rays occasionally detected, that are accelerated across the universe, spiralling along galactic magnetic field lines with energies beyond anything we can produce on Earth. Studying where cosmic rays come from helps us to understand the structure of the universe and reveals deep connections across matter at every scale.

I was excited to make a work that interacts directly with cosmic rays. For this I required a more sophisticated method of detecting particles than using a cloud chamber.

Scintillator detectors work on the basis that when a charged particle passes through a scintillating material, part of its energy is absorbed and re-emitted as photons creating a flash of light that can be observed and recorded. I followed a YouTube video of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and National Center for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) based undergraduate-level physics project to make two scintillator muon detectors. Muon’s are secondary particles that make it to Earth’s surface after the primary particle decays on impact.

The detectors are the drivers behind The Breath of Stars, a digital video work which is activated in real time by cosmic rays. Two detectors are necessary to work in coincidence mode, isolating just those particles coming from space and ignoring all the background radiation.

The kaleidoscopic video animations, which appear for every cosmic particle detected, are created by mirroring footage of cosmic ray trails filmed in my cloud chamber. Cosmic Rays arrive randomly in showers and this can be witnessed by the sudden flurries and silent gaps of the video imagery.

The Breath of Stars 2023 Cosmic ray detectors, Live video projections, minicomputer, wood

Eager to further my research into Earth’s magnetic field, I was given permission by the British Geological Survey to visit Hartland Magnetic Observatory in North Devon and Eskdalemuir Observatory in Dumfries and Galloway. I learnt that the magnetic field is a complex system, mainly generated by the rotation of Earth’s molten core but also influenced by its rocky crust and the interaction of solar weather with the magnetosphere.

The observatories are isolated places, embedded in rock and history. It was valuable to see the instruments, buildings and materials used, and these have informed my work. The Azimuth Obelisk (of sedimentary knowledge) is a reimagining of a concrete obelisk, erected in 1955 at Hartland Magnetic Observatory, as a permanent azimuth mark from which to monitor the drift of the magnetic north pole. Measurements are taken via a theodolite through a north facing window in what is known as the Absolute Hut. My sculpture echoes the hidden history of Earth’s wandering magnetic field, which has been secreted by magnetic minerals in the strata of sedimentary rock over millennia. To make the piece, hundreds of works on paper were painstakingly hand-torn, layered and stacked, expressing the passage of time at both geological and human scales.

The Azimuth Obelisk (of sedimentary knowledge) 2023 Paper, aluminium, Snowcrete, oyster shells, patinated copper  30 x 30 x 270 cm  Image credit: Benjamin Deakin Photography

The Absolute Hut (of action potential) was created as a companion piece, with a north facing window from which to view the Obelisk sculpture. The hut was conceived from a combination of features, impressions and functions of observing buildings and instruments used for meteorological and magnetic observations. The high apex roof was tiled with translucent paper featuring topological contours of suminagashi marbling in shades of verdigris, referencing the copper roofs of the observatory huts. The north wall was signified with moss, and patterns of plasma cut copper shapes embodied the fluid motion of Earth’s magnetic field and the pulsating alpha waves of the human brain when subjected to magnetic fields.

The Absolute Hut (of action potential) 2023 Wood, moss, paper, copper, mixed media, video installations, 200 x 300 x 375 cm Image credit: Benjamin Deakin Photography

In a wider context, the hut operates as a sensory hub, like a brain, where a range of actions and processes are running concurrently. Videos housed within the hut celebrate the remarkable ability of birds and animals to sense the magnetic field as a means of orientation.

Wintering Light, featuring migratory pink footed geese, filmed at RSPB Snettisham on the North Norfolk coast, as they left the mudflats at dawn in noisy family groups, was projected onto a two-way screen installed as a window in the hut to allow viewing from both sides.

Wintering Light 2023 (still) Video 04:49 min Image credit: Benjamin Deakin Photography

A two channel video installation, Radical Pair, relates to magnetoreception and celestial observation used by birds, bees and even magnetotactic bacteria. Screen one, imagines what it might be like to have the sensory powers of a bird, speeding over water and through woodland following a visual cue to a magnetic field line; while in a second screen, imagery is edited in concentric circles to mimic the geological structure of the Earth.

Radical Pair 2023 (still)  Two channel video 04:48 min Image credit: Benjamin Deakin Photography

A further work, interference, comprised of a 12 mini screen video display, showing rotating images of the human brain, filmed using a plastic model and polarizing filters to create pulsating birefringence colours. The array is installed alongside a printed narrative that speculates on the outcome of a Caltech experiment that found evidence of the human brain’s sensitivity to Earth’s magnetic field, and research suggesting the possibility of one animal’s brain transmitting information to another brain by triggering action potentials via a magnetic field to share thoughts and emotions.

Interference 2023 (still) Repurposed in-car monitor screens, text print on polyester, video 16:47 min, narrative 326 words Image credit: Benjamin Deakin Photography

The Earth’s magnetic field is quite a weak force requiring sensitive equipment to detect it, yet it provides valuable protection to life on Earth. It’s interaction with the solar wind has been very visible recently as the sun reaches peak activity in its 11 year cycle, lighting up skies with the aurora borealis much further south than is usual. Auroras may be beautiful to witness but belie the potential damage to satellites and electric grids from a violent solar storm. As human infrastructure becomes increasingly reliant on satellite technology for communication, military strategy, and data gathering, we become vulnerable to societal catastrophe.

The escalating number of satellites and thickening shell of space junk orbiting Earth could weaken Earth’s protective magnetic field. Pollution and over utilisation of low orbit space not only gambles with disaster but also disrupts the view of the night sky, integral to many cultures and vital for astronomers. The impact of space weather on technology and non-human navigation is examined in the multiscreen installation Orbital. The risks are real and predicting solar activity is difficult. The work draws attention to the urgent need to assess the precarious relationship between technology, the power of the sun and the protection offered by our home planet.

Orbital 2024 Video 05:44 min, short throw projector, two way screen, repurposed in-car monitor screens, board, 122 x 200 x 55 cm

From my initial pursuit of paradise in the everyday to contemplation of the mysteries of the cosmos, I have gained an awareness of the interconnectedness of the universe. This consciousness embraces human and non-human experiences and relationships across space and time that I am so fortunate to be able to acknowledge.

The development of new technologies and scientific theories in the last microseconds to midnight of the evolutionary clock have profoundly changed human perception of a physical reality. The volume and complexity of information available, which reveals constructs that our senses may have no hope of experiencing directly, opens wide vistas of incomprehensibility. I find this both daunting and exhilarating.

In an increasingly dematerialized world, physical presence brought to bear through an artwork can be a method to feel grounded in an abstract universe while also offering a space for contemplation. I create artworks to process my own responses to the unknown and to share the thrill of being mystified and in awe of this remarkable universe.

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www.susaneyre.co.uk

All images copyright and courtesy of Susan Eyre

Art, Cosmos, Creativity, Nature, Science