This article is part of designboom’s POSTHUMAN UTOPIAS chapter, presented in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL, a cultural platform focused on Indian architecture, design and creative intelligence. The chapter also looks at how a cern tesseract sculpture turns abstract physics into something visitors can see and touch.
Ask most people what CERN does, and they will say physics. The European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva does run the Large Hadron Collider and helped invent the World Wide Web. It also invites artists to work alongside its scientists. Through residencies, commissions and exhibitions, the laboratory has brought in Tomás Saraceno and Ryoji Ikeda, among others, to make physics easier to see and feel.
Making four dimensions visible: the cern tesseract sculpture
We picture three spatial dimensions with ease. A fourth is much harder to imagine. Julius von Bismarck’s kinetic sculpture Round About Four Dimensions, completed in 2023, offers a physical way in. It is built as a four-dimensional tesseract, the equivalent of a cube, and it shows how such a shape casts a three-dimensional shadow as it turns.
This cern tesseract sculpture is made from aluminum, stainless steel, brass, polymers and electronics. Its 32 edges expand and contract under software-programmed control. The form appears to swallow its own center and then turn inside out. Benjamin Maus, who co-created the work with Julius von Bismarck.
Arts at CERN says the rotation is a projection of a four-dimensional motion that people cannot fully grasp. The cern tesseract sculpture makes that abstract idea concrete. It was commissioned by Arts at CERN, the laboratory’s education and outreach centre.
For a closer look at how cosmic phenomena become visible, read MOONS reveals hidden stars from Chile’s Paranal Observatory, which shows how instruments reveal what the eye cannot see.
Sound and light from the collider
The LHC accelerates protons to nearly the speed of light. Its experiments generate enormous volumes of data. ALICE studies the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where a state called quark-gluon plasma forms. ATLAS, a general-purpose detector, records what happens inside the collider when particles collide.
The artist group Semiconductor took on that data stream in HALO. Audemars Piguet commissioned the work with CERN, and the group had spent a residency at the laboratory in 2015. HALO, completed in 2018, is a cylindrical, walk-in installation. Its shape echoes the tube-like form of the ATLAS detector.
Rather than show the detector itself, HALO slows the flood of ATLAS information into sound and flashes of light that a person can follow. The piece was shown at Art Basel in 2018. It turns data that would otherwise be unreadable into something a visitor can experience with their body.
Residencies and what comes next
Commissions are only part of the program. CERN also runs residencies that give artists access to its machinery, research facilities and scientists. Julius von Bismarck is among the resident artists whose commissions are shown at the CERN Science Gateway.
In April 2026, CERN and the Nobel Prize Museum announced the recipient of the Collide Stockholm international residency award. The winner is Lithuanian-born artist Emilija Škarnulytė. CERN describes her practice as rooted in “the exploration of infrastructures that mediate between the visible and the invisible, the human and the post-human, the present and deep time.” Her meditative moving images and audiovisual installations examine hidden systems that shape the natural world.
The work continues in public view. The CERN Science Gateway exhibition, running from 7 October 2023 to 10 January 2027, shows commissions by resident artists including Yunchul Kim, Chloé Delarue, Ryoji Ikeda and Julius von Bismarck. The third CERN Art and Science Summit, titled The Hybrid Nexus, takes place on 19 and 20 November 2026 and focuses on the links between particle physics, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence. Updates appear on the program’s account, @artsatcern.
Why the collaboration matters
These projects share a common goal. They ask what lies beyond human perception, whether that means the smallest particles, dimensions we cannot enter or the systems that run quietly around us. Artists turn those questions into shapes, sounds and spaces that visitors can enter.
For another sculptural take on blending modern technology with ancient ideas, see Max Lehman’s colorful sculptures blending future tech and ancient art, which pairs bold color with a similar sense of wonder.
The result goes beyond explanation. A cern tesseract sculpture that folds itself inside out does not solve a physics problem. It does shift how a viewer thinks about the limits of their own understanding. That shift may be the most useful thing a collaboration like this can offer.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Julius von Bismarck’s Round About Four Dimensions sculpture?
Round About Four Dimensions is a kinetic sculpture by Julius von Bismarck, completed in 2023, built as a four-dimensional tesseract. As it turns, the shape casts a three-dimensional shadow, and its 32 edges expand and contract under software-programmed control.
What is HALO, the installation by the artist group Semiconductor?
HALO is a cylindrical, walk-in installation completed in 2018 by the artist group Semiconductor, with Audemars Piguet commissioning the work with CERN. It translates data from the ATLAS detector into sound and flashes of light that visitors can follow, and it was shown at Art Basel in 2018.
Who commissioned the Round About Four Dimensions sculpture at CERN?
The sculpture was commissioned by Arts at CERN, the laboratory’s education and outreach centre. It was co-created by Julius von Bismarck and Benjamin Maus.
Who won the Collide Stockholm international residency award?
Lithuanian-born artist Emilija Škarnulytė won the Collide Stockholm international residency award, as announced by CERN and the Nobel Prize Museum in April 2026. CERN describes her practice as focused on hidden infrastructures that mediate between the visible and invisible.
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