- Author
- Ana Prendes
The artist and composer reflects on his research into cosmological theories of the universe’s fate, his recordings of the Laboratory’s sonic realities, and how we might sense our cosmic ends through embodied meditations
Between 2024 and 2025, artist and composer Robin Meier Wiratunga was in residence at CERN as part of Connect, the collaboration framework between Arts at CERN and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
Working closely with scientists, Meier’s practice blends machine learning with insights from animal intelligence. His installations, sound works, and performances are conceived as constellation-like scores, where musical patterns emerge as ‘thinking tools’.
At CERN, Meier Wiratunga worked closely with theoretical physicists to explore cosmological theories about the end of the universe. On timescales of trillions of years, he explored several leading hypothesis: the cold, entropic fade of heat death; the sudden re-collapse of a Big Crunch; the runaway expansion of a Big Rip; and the possibility of a quantum vacuum decay that could trigger a reconfiguration of the laws of physics in an instant.
In this interview, Meier Wiratunga shares how these hypotheses shape his artistic research. He reflects on the poetic resonance between cosmic instability and sand dune, metastable structures that exist at the verge of collapsing, and describes his extensive field recordings into the hidden acoustic environments of CERN: the steady hum of the Data Centre, the rhythmic pulse of the particle beams, and the deep resonance of the beam dump facilities.
These recordings become the basis for Sea of Noise, a work-in-progress sound piece and performance premiered at ZKM Karlsruhe in March 2025. Drawing analogies between the structure of the Higgs field and the acoustic topographies of sand dunes, the experience invites audiences into a hypnose-inspired sonic environment to sense our cosmic (and personal) ends.
Meier also recounts his participation in Uncertainty: The CERN Art and Science Summit, where he spoke with Swiss artist Gianni Motti, who had been in residence at the Laboratory two decades earlier. Their conversation evolved into an intergenerational exchange on how the two artists engage with the abstract knowledge and vast infrastructures of fundamental science.
Robin Meier Wiratunga was in residence at CERN as part of Connect, the collaboration framework between Arts at CERN and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, which fosters dialogue between artists and scientists within the Laboratory’s context.
