Can we dream of democratizing quantum computing and communication, much like radio technology flourished through grassroots and amateur communities 100 years ago? 

Picocosmos is a live-transmission sculpture that broadcasts the sound of single photons at 87.7 MHz to the universe. As quantum technology advances, photons—particles of light, will be the carriers of information. Their quantum nature means the precise moment a photon is emitted, its direction, and its polarization are fundamentally random—not due to any lack of knowledge, but as an intrinsic property of reality itself. The behavior of single photons offers immense potential for applications like quantum cryptography and key distribution. Nevertheless, photons suitable for quantum communication are ephemeral, existing on extremely short timescales before being lost. 

What if the future data of our civilization is recorded on or communicated through these fleeting memory units? To store a backup in the universe, Picocosmos conceives translating lost photons into analogue radio frequencies—capable of travelling vast distances between planets and galaxies, maximizing access and even searchable by any extraterrestrial entities. The sculpture represents a speculative device that imagines this additional feature to the satellite-based quantum networks and quantum repeaters. Quantum memory from single photons at 894 nm, stored in warm atomic Cesium-133 vapor (in conjunction with atomic clocks), are transduced into an audio signal if a photon ceases to exist, which is then encoded onto an FM radio signal and broadcast across the universe at frequencies between 30 and 300 MHz At the receiving end, information about the lost photons can then be retrieved with antennas along with their sonic form—something that cannot otherwise travel or be accessed in outer space.

Artistic direction and production: Edy Fung 
Single photon source: Xavier Barcons Planas (DLR/TU Berlin) 
Quantum communication research: Benjamin Maaß, Leon Meßner, Elizabeth Robertson, Prof. Dr. Janik Wolters (DLR/TU Berlin) 
Data sonification and sound composition: Erik Natanael Gustafsson 
Visual communication: Andrea Bjurström 
Adviser on quantum theories and technologies: Dr. Axel Gagge, Dr. Alexander Nico-Katz, Emma Sokoll
Adviser on radio technologies: Dr. Harun Šiljak
Special thanks to: Martin Rauchbauer, Jonathon Keats, Paul Purgas, Prof. Dr. Mads Haahr

With support from: Goethe Institut Studio Quantum, Zeitgeist Irland 24, Swedish Arts Grants Committee Realized in successive iterations with support from Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt (Berlin, 2024), Art Transparent Foundation (Wrocław, 2025), and esc medien kunst labor (Graz, 2026)

Edy Fung (GB) is an artist, researcher, curator, and musician whose practice inquires into the material conditions and technological paradigms of contemporary society, including the philosophy of information, history of science, and machine intelligence. She creates sound art and intermedia art projects that incorporate text, installation, transmission/radio, video, archival materials, digital artefacts, electroacoustics, and performance. 

Picocosmos brilliantly helps to untangle the dawn of quantum communication by finding ways in which it rhymes with the history of radio—a famously open technology which was widely adopted one hundred years prior both through professional and amateur means. The work acts as its own radio station, presented as a transparent tangle of components that interpret quantum data and transmits it as audio. There is a saying that goes “If you believe that you fully understand quantum mechanics, then probably you don’t understand quantum mechanics”. Given the mystery, discovery, and the lack of mental models, the artist finds a role in reconfiguring the familiar to create meaning out of something that is difficult to communicate. By tying together these disparate eras they propose an approach to the future with optimism informed by the past.