A brand new immersive solar system sculpture trail is set to open in Derry-Londonderry next year, bringing the wonders and complexities of space right down to planet Earth.
The incredible 10km Our Place in Spacewalking installation will take visitors on a journey through the solar system without leaving the ground.
The sculpture trail will make its first appearance on the shores of Lough Foyle in Derry~Londonderry in April 2022, staying for two months.
It then moves to Divis and the Black Mountain in Belfast, Cambridge in England, then back to the Ulster Transport Museum and North Down Coastal Path in Northern Ireland.
Our Place in Space is centred on an epic-scale model of the solar system designed by a team led by New York-based artist and children’s author Oliver Jeffers, who is originally from Northern Ireland.
The immersive sculpture trail will feature various 4m high sculptures, including scale models of the sun and each of the planets in our solar system.
Both a visitor attraction and an immersive learning experience, it will be able to be explored in person and from anywhere in the UK via an interactive augmented reality (AR) app as well as a far-reaching programme of learning activities and special virtual events.
Its purpose is to invite exploration of what it means to live on Earth in 2022 and consider how we might better share and protect our planet in future.
From creating a star to writing a symphony for the universe, from inventing a new form of transport to connecting with space watchers in Vietnam, Our Place in Space will ensure a look at the solar system will never be the same again.
The playful experiment will ask what’s the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’? Which side are we on: are we ‘us’ or are we ‘them’, and if we look at ourselves from the vastness of outer space then should there be any ‘sides’ at all?
The installation has been commissioned as part of the Unboxed creativity festival taking place throughout the UK in 2022 and is a collaborative effort of Northern Irish talent.
Oliver Jeffers worked with the Nerve Centre, a leading creative media arts centre based in Derry~Londonderry, as well as award-winning composer, producer and sound artist, Die Hexen, leading astrophysicist Professor Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast and many others, to develop the concept.
The exciting collaboration will get people outside to contemplate the scale of the solar system and will be installed for everyone to explore entirely for free.
The accompanying programme of digital events, learning activities and virtual events will also be open to everyone.
