Kunsthal Aarhus. Photo: David Stjernholm

Helios

Installation
Series of weavings, 220×95 cm
Video, 13 minutes
Generative algorithm, duration infinite
(2024)

The sun is the gravitational center of the installation Helios. The installation features a video of colorful spectroscopic recordings of the solar surface alongside weavings based on scientific diagrams of sunspots, woven in solar-dyed and plant-dyed yarn. A generative text algorithm on a screen continuously composes an evolving solar fabulation.

A muse for the works in the installation is the Irish-British astronomer Annie Maunder. In the 1890s, Maunder worked as a “human computer” at the solar department of the Royal Observatory in London. Her “butterfly diagram,” which maps the ebb and flow of sunspots, is famous. But over time, her name has disappeared from historical records and scientific papers.