NEO: Near Earth Observatory

Turning the Kunsthaus Graz BIX facade into a live window on near-Earth space, driven by real NASA, moon-phase and ISS data.

2026Interaction & Data Design · Group project with Julia Trummer & Anja KljajićProcessing, NASA Open APIs, Skyfield, Data Visualization

Interactive InstallationData VisualizationGroup Project

NEO turns the Kunsthaus Graz "Friendly Alien" and its BIX facade, a grid of illuminated rings built into the building's skin, into a window onto near-Earth space.

The Kunsthaus Graz "Friendly Alien" building at night, its BIX facade of illuminated rings glowing against the sky.

The idea

The Friendly Alien has come with a message: we are not alone in space, and Earth is constantly surrounded by movement. Meteors and near-Earth objects pass by all the time, often without us noticing. NEO isn't about fear, it's about curiosity. It invites people to look up, pay attention and remember that Graz is part of something much bigger.

Live data

Three live feeds drive the facade: NASA's Near Earth Object API, tracking how many objects pass per day along with their size, distance and speed; a moon-illumination API reporting the real percentage of the moon currently lit; and an ISS position and pass API (via Skyfield), tracking the station's location in real time.

On the facade

Meteors fly across the BIX facade's grid of rings, and the moon cycles through its actual current phase, both rendered directly from the live feeds, so what plays out on the building is always tied to what's really happening in the sky above it that day.

Close-up of the Kunsthaus Graz BIX facade at night, showing the grid of illuminated rings mid-pattern.

Street-level view of the Kunsthaus Graz building at dusk, the BIX facade glowing above the glass ground floor.

Live demo footage of the NEO visualisation running on the Kunsthaus Graz BIX facade.

A second clip from the same one-day demonstration.

Reflection

NEO was a one-day university demonstration, projected onto the real Kunsthaus facade to test whether live space data could read clearly at that scale and distance. The strongest part of the concept is the reframing: an unfamiliar dataset (near-Earth objects, moon illumination, ISS passes) translated into something a passerby can read in a glance, motion across a landmark they already know.