Artist CHANG Yung-Ta’s work has previously collaborated with Prof. Dr. Niels Hovius at the Hualien Taroko National Park and he created the artwork project《Scape.unseen_model-T. The work was commissioned for the Taipei Biennial (2020), and was exhibited in Taipei, Hualien and at the Centre Pompidou-Metz (France).

Building on this great collaboration, we hope to once again foster interdisciplinary exchange between scientific research and artistic creation with an installation that is both unique and meaningful.

"The Helmert Tower, standing within the GFZ campus as a monument to Germany’s geodetic exploration of space and time, has played a crucial role in history and remains one of Europe’s important coordinate reference points. The roof, once part of the tower and later removed during renovation, now rests beside it. By chance, I discovered the wooden arched structure inside the tower’s roof to be strikingly beautiful, and its mechanical opening system equally fascinating. I felt it absolutely needed to be revealed to the public, and this sudden spark of inspiration led me to choose it as the site for my work.

In discussions with Dr. Niels Hovius, I became particularly interested in one of GFZ’s projects—the GRACE-FO mission, a satellite program for climate monitoring. Two satellites orbit Earth at an altitude of about 490 km, maintaining a distance of roughly 220 km. As Earth’s surface mass changes—through mountains, glaciers, or water shifts—the satellites must continuously communicate, accelerate, or decelerate in unison to preserve their separation and fulfill their task. As an artist, this seemingly technical process captivates me: two twin satellites, silently journeying together in space, engaging in wordless dialogue, holding their distance with precision, and sending their data back to Earth. To me, this act is filled with poetry, solitude, and elegance.

I have always been fascinated by the communication and translation of data signals between devices and machines. In this project, I will use GRACE-FO satellite data—such as coordinates, distance, altitude, and acceleration—and transform it through LLM models and machine learning algorithms into a light-and-text installation. At its core is a slender circular display made of 264 sixteen-segment LED units, showing dialogues and symbols generated from the satellites’ data. The LLM training draws both from scientific records of the GRACE-FO mission and from the playful language of internet memes, anthropomorphizing the satellites’ exchanges into textual conversations and dynamic imagery. With every update and download of new satellite data, the work will continuously evolve, never repeating itself, embodying an ever-unfolding state of computation and imagination.

The title ELIAS emerges from the initials of Echoes of Light in A Silent Space, mirroring the naming of GRACE-FO (The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On).

In biblical tradition, Elias—the prophet Elijah—embodies one who listens to the voice of the heavens. Within this work, the name becomes a metaphor for light breathing in silence: the quiet pulse of radiance that moves through space like an unseen vibration.

ELIAS is both an echo of light and the silent language exchanged between two satellites — a dialogue without sound, unfolding in the stillness between distance and connection."

We are honoured to invite you to the inauguration of an installation by artist Chang Yung-Ta in our Historic Library on Telegrafenberg (14473 Potsdam) on 26 November at 4pm. 

Programme: 
• Greetings by Prof. Maik Thomas, Director of the GFZ Department Geodesy 
• An introduction of the installation ELIAS by creator Chang Yung-Ta 
• Science and Art: A conversation between the artist Chang Yung-Ta and scientist Niels Hovius 
• Reception