One of the two Kunst & Bau (Art & Architecture) commissions for the new Graz Center of Physics is Hofstetter Kurt’s work Seeing the invisible to be heard.
In his installation for the university building, Hofstetter, a pioneer of Austrian conceptual and media art, revisits the idea behind his most famous work – the “eyes” previously installed at Vienna’s former South Train Station and now on display at the Schottentor subway station – and combines it with an ongoing physics experiment. Two eyes, which are shown on two separate monitors, look out through the glass façade and across the campus and communicate with their surroundings by blinking. These digital eyes are connected to so-called CosmicWatch muon detectors, which track invisible particles from outer space. When they detect a certain number of muons, the eyes close briefly and emit a soft chirping sound. The chirping of the “muon showers” fills the space around the eyes like a delicate sound cloud, giving voice to these unseen cosmic visitors.
Hofstetter’s piece gives the building a very personal face, engaging in a visual dialogue with passersby and bringing the interior of the university and its research out into the open. At the same time, it invites us to look into the cosmos and explore the complex world of fundamental scientific research and the theory of relativity.