Light Night Leeds: We Are Stardust

Sound artist James Hamilton

Creative Coder Chris Ball

Funding – Cultural Collections and Galleries, University of Leeds Libraries.

Research – We Are Stardust is inspired by research at the University of Leeds by Dr. Alison Young, Stephen Hawking Fellow, and Conall Kavanagh PhD researcher in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Adam Koval PhD (University of Edinburgh). The work of Dr. Florence Bell, whose work played an important role in uncovering the structure of DNA, was central to the development of this artwork. Images from Florence Bell’s notebook and thesis held in Cultural Collections and Galleries at the University of Leeds have been used in this piece.

© We Are Stardust, Daksha Patel 2026

Artists

Daksha Patel – visual artist

Chris Ball – creative coder

James Hamilton – sound artist

With many thanks to:

University of Leeds, School of Physics and Astronomy:

Dr. Alison Young, Stephen Hawking Fellow

Conall Kavangh, PhD researcher

University of Edinburgh

Adam Koval – PhD researcher

Astrophysics Code:

Phantom: 2018-2026 Daniel Price, Alison Young, and

Phantom developers https://github.com/alisonkyoung1/phantom

Cultural Collections and Galleries, University of Leeds Libraries:

Florence Bell – notes and thesis

NASA Cosmic cliffs of Carina Nebula Complex:

Producer – Greg Bacon; Director- Frank Summers; Visualization: Greg Bacon, Ralf Crawford,

Joseph DePasquale, Leah Hustak, Danielle Kirshenblat, Cristian Nieves, Joseph Olmsted,

Alyssa Pagan & Frank Summers Images: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScl

NASA Raining Loops sun flares video:

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Video and images courtesy of NASA/GSFC/SDO

NASA Concert Helios Sun video:

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center