Sky Ear is a one-night event in which a glowing “cloud” of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky.

The cloud is built on a non-rigid carbon-fibre lattice, embedded with one thousand glowing helium balloons and several dozen mobile phones.

Each balloon contains 6 ultra-bright LEDs (which mix to make millions of colours). The balloons can communicate with each other via infra-red; this allows them to send signals to create larger patterns across the entire cloud as they respond to the electromagnetic environment. People using phones at ground level can also influence its colour by calling into the cloud (flying up to 100m above them). They are able to listen to distant natural electromagnetic sounds of the sky (including whistlers and spherics). The action of callingthe cloud causes disturbances in the electromagnetic fields andfeedbackwithin thesensor network creating ripples of light remioniscent of rumbling thunder and flashes of lightning.

For full archive infromation, including photos, videos and development process please see the event website