Playing the Cosmic Strings by Mikael Owunna is a commission sponsored by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. It is both the title of the below image showcased on the side of Heinz Hall to celebrate the building’s 50th anniversary as the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the title of a series of educational and artistic programming that Owunna will organize during the 2021-22 season to introduce Pittsburgh to the vibrant world of African cosmologies and their understanding of the scientific and spiritual purpose of music.

Mikael Owunna is a queer Nigerian American multi-media artist and engineer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Exploring the intersections of visual media with engineering, optics, Blackness, and African cosmologies, his work excavates and celebrates the ancient origins and future cosmic destinies of humanity.

Owunna’s work has been exhibited across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America and been collected by institutions such as the Nasher Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Equal Justice Initiative; Duke University Pratt School of Engineering; and National Taiwan Museum. His work has also been featured in media ranging from the New York Times to CNN, NPR, VICE, and The Guardian. He has lectured at venues including Harvard Law School, World Press Photo (Netherlands), Tate Modern (UK), and TEDx. Owunna has published two monographs: Limitless Africans (FotoEvidence, 2019) and Cosmologies (ClampArt, 2021). Owunna’s multi-media practice also includes film, and in 2021 he directed the dance film Obi Mbu (The Primordial House): An Igbo Creation Myth with Marques Redd.

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Photo by Nick Caito

Inspired by Uwa Okoso (West African Igbo String-Wave cosmology), the image Playing the Cosmic Strings explores the origins of the universe and music. In this model, the universe emerges out of a Primordial Androgynous Blackness. A portion of this Blackness - Atu Chukwu (the divine mind-force or dark energy) - manifests in the guise of Ududo-Okwa-Nka (a sacred spider), who spins Ete Ofu (the first cosmic cotton/dark matter) into Akwa Ete (a grand spiral-string egg). This egg subsequently breaks to form Ete Oghele (a web of infinite string patterns or particles). The Cosmic Spider is a rich, multidimensional symbol. From one viewpoint, it is an ancient Igbo mnemonic metaphor for the Milky Way Galaxy, which possesses the shape of a gigantic spider when viewed from an aerial position, and its strings are a metaphor for the vibrating loops of energy that form the physical structure of the world. This cosmology is presented in miniature form in the recreational game (meaning both a pleasurable diversion and a “re-creation,” repetition of creation) of Ikpa Owu Aka (string hand game), in which children make angular loops of string around their fingers. In this way, they learn how to mimic and invoke the vibrating strings that form the basic energy patterns of everything from the most distant stars to the smallest atoms. Arising from this cosmology and its integration into everyday life, music in the Igbo sensibility is understood as all of the sonic harmonies emanating from the subtle, spirit vibrations of the infinite strings everywhere in creation, including those consciously produced by human beings.

Playing the Cosmic Strings features Marques Redd, multi-media artist and frequent collaborator with Owunna, as simultaneously the Cosmic Spider and a child playing a string game. Looming large on Heinz Hall over passersby below, he reaches out and beckons all viewers to reach back. To join the game, everyone must strive to penetrate into the higher realms of creation, which can only be reached through pure energy and pure spirit sound. Just as the Creator does, we must learn to play the cosmic strings.

Behind the scenes image of Owunna photographing Redd