Muon Murmur

LEDs, microcontroller, Gieger-Muller tubes, speakers, wood, plastic.

Muon Murmur, Craig Newswanger/Resonance Studio, 2025

This artwork reveals the unseen nature of energetic particles that occur constantly in our everyday existence. Some particles emanate from objects in our environment. We still don't fully understand where the highest-energy cosmic rays come from — possibly supernovae, black holes, or even exotic sources like dark matter interactions. Many of these particles travel very...very...very far to reach us.

Cosmic rays that strike atoms in our atmosphere and initiate a chain of secondary particles, called muons, that constantly rain down on earth. On average about 10,000 muons pass through your body every minute of every day.

Muon Murmur detects and visualizes occurrences of background radiation and Muons.

Background radiation is the natural, low-level radiation present everywhere in our environment from both naturally occurring sources and some man-made elements. These particles are shown as single flashes with single notes.

Muons are displayed with bright segments of color with a loud musical chord.

Photos and videos: Resonance Studio