HALO

Developed after their Collide residency, HALO is a large-scale immersive artwork conceived as an “experiential reworking” of the raw data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN. Reminiscent of the detector's architecture, HALO takes the form of a ten-metre-wide cylinder-shaped structure that is surrounded by vertical piano wires standing four metres tall.

The structure houses a 360-degree screen on which visitors can observe data projections generated by a series of slowed-down particle collisions that ordinarily occur almost at the speed of light at the ATLAS Detector. As they hit the screen, the animated data points also trigger small hammers to hit the surrounding vertical piano wires, producing vibrations that resonate throughout the artwork. This multisensory experience invites us to consider the philosophical problems of our mediated understandings of science and nature while submitting ourselves completely to what Semiconductor names their "technological sublime".