Lightcurve
A telescope tuned to A♭ minor.
The Work
Lightcurve is a real-time sonification of imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope. A scanning gantry walks across deep-field photographs of nine objects. Every twelve seconds it stops on a new point and reads the patch of light beneath it. That patch becomes a three-note phrase. The piece runs continuously and never repeats.
The work was conceived for the gallery: a long unhurried cadence, a wide stereo field, and a slow image cycle that rewards extended attention. It is also intended to function in the browser, on headphones, as a stable accompaniment to other work.
The Mapping
Each property of the sampled patch is bound to a specific musical parameter. The mapping is fixed and deterministic: a given patch of light always produces the same sonic shape.
The pitch material sits in A♭ minor pentatonic. Drone voices follow the same scale, retuned softly by the dominant hue of each frame.
The Data
Fourteen images cycle in fixed order, drawn from the public archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute:
- 01. NGC 3132 · Southern Ring Nebula
- 02. WR 124 · Wolf-Rayet Star
- 03. Stephan's Quintet
- 04. Carina Nebula · NGC 3324
- 05. SMACS 0723 · Deep Field
- 06. NGC 7320 · Compact Galaxy Group
- 07. Tarantula Nebula · 30 Doradus
- 08. Cassiopeia A · Supernova Remnant
- 09. Pillars of Creation
- 10. NGC 6072 · Planetary Nebula
- 11. M57 · Ring Nebula
- 12. M1 · Crab Nebula
- 13. HH 211 · Protostellar Outflow
- 14. NGC 604 · Star-Forming Region
Each image is held for ninety to one hundred twenty seconds before cross-fading to the next. The framing is randomized within the cover bounds at every load, like a telescope repositioning.
The Apparatus
Lightcurve runs entirely in the browser via the Web Audio API. Three voices carry the piece: a modal resonator that rings under each strike, a granular processor working a slow drone bed, and a stereo delay network with eight non-integer taps. None of the voices play in a sequencer's sense — they drift, and respond to the changing image.
Nothing is pre-recorded. Nothing is sampled. What is heard at any moment is a function of what the gantry is reading, right now.
The Artist
Joshua Borsman is an artist working in sound, kinetic sculpture, and generative systems. Recent work includes Sounding (2026), a continuous sonification of Pacific Northwest ocean weather, and Morticia's Lullaby (2025), a live sonification of a corpse flower bloom at The Spheres in Seattle. His practice spans gallery, public, and digital environments.
Notes for Listening
Use headphones if you can.
On iPhone, the side mute switch will silence the piece — flip it off (no orange showing). iOS treats web audio as ringer audio, not media playback.
There is no end state. The piece runs as long as the tab is open.
Colophon
Set in Helvetica Neue and ui-monospace. Synthesis via the Web Audio API. Imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope, courtesy NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
The code, audio synthesis, visual artwork, and accompanying text are © 2026 Joshua Borsman. All rights reserved. Permitted without permission: viewing the work at its public URL, sharing the URL, and citing the work with attribution under fair use. For exhibition, reproduction, commercial use, or any other use, contact the artist via joshuaborsman.com.