The NOVA was unveiled on 12 September 2006 and will illuminate the main concourse of ShopVille-RailCity Zürich until August 2012.

The NOVA from ETH Zürich (Federal Institute of Technology) is a fascinating way to bring science closer to ordinary people. Become a researcher yourself and discover the secrets of material; look into the NOVA and enter the world of algorithms. Watch as countless formulas developed in various fields of research take visible shape as millions of colours in a three-dimensional display.

NOVA is the platform for dialogue between science, art, culture and society. The boundaries not only between the individual scientific disciplines but also between categories and hierarchies disappear and give way for a holistic, universal approach. The NOVA is a continuation of the process that ETH Zürich initiated on the occasion of its 150th anniversary: to actively participate in the concerns of society and science and serve as a bridge to better understanding and dialogue between them.

The NOVA consists of 25,000 light spheres that can be controlled individually, each fitted with 12 LEDs (light emitting diodes). Together they are capable of generating more than 16 million colours and can be fed with new information at a refresh rate of 25 images per second. Either two-dimensional figurative or three-dimensional abstract content can be displayed.
Thus, the NOVA can not only visualise data but can also display still and moving image sequences. The station’s old group meeting point has been replaced by a new glass cube with a touch screen to actuate the light spheres.

At the console visitors can now hear NOVA sounds composed by Marcus Maeder – through specially positioned amplifiers from Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG that concentrate the sound in a narrow radius around the console. Furthermore, visitors can also use the console to compose their own sounds that they can simultaneously listen to on the console and watch on the NOVA.
Become a researcher yourself: discover the secrets of material and how thousands of light spheres transform mathematical formulas into visual images. Each and every day. For the next three years. A moment of tranquillity and wonder as you pass through ShopVille-RailCity Zürich.