Low Sun Listening | A Transennial Installation

We often talk about technology as though its purpose is to keep us connected.

But connected to what?

A screen can connect us to a person, a song, an idea, or an invitation. It can help us find people we would otherwise never encounter. It can remind us about something we might have forgotten.

But sometimes the best thing technology can do is get us to put it down.

That idea has been on my mind as I’ve been developing Low Sun Listening.

Recent research from Murmuration points toward a growing desire among Americans to reconsider their relationship with digital life—to reclaim time, attention, connection, and experiences beyond the screen. Their research on community and connection also points to the importance of shared rituals, outdoor activities, and physical places where people can gather.

This raises an interesting design question:

What if we used technology to move people toward those experiences instead of making the technology itself the destination?

That is the experiment behind Low Sun Listening.

It starts with technology.

There is a playlist.
There is an invitation.
There is an automation.
There is a smartphone.

But the experience isn’t supposed to end there.

Fifteen minutes before sunset, the music starts.

You go outside.

Maybe you walk around your neighborhood. Maybe you sit somewhere with a view. Maybe you meet someone. Maybe you listen alone.

And somewhere else, someone you’ve invited can do the same.

Same ritual. Different horizon.

The technology creates the conditions for the experience, but the experience happens in the physical world.

That distinction matters to me.

I don’t want Low Sun Listening to become another reason to stare at a phone. I want the phone to become the thing that reminds you to look up.

This isn’t an argument against technology. In fact, it requires technology to work.

It’s an argument for being more intentional about what we ask technology to do.

A notification can pull our attention toward a screen.

An automation can also pull our attention toward the sky.

A digital invitation can become a real-world gathering.

A playlist can become a walk.

A link can become a shared ritual.

Technology doesn’t have to replace community. It can help us get to community.

That’s what I’m interested in exploring with Low Sun Listening: how digital tools can be designed not to capture more of our attention, but to help us return some of it to the world around us.

The screen is the beginning.

The sunset is the destination.

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LOW SUN LISTENING

An experiment in using digital tools to return our attention to the physical world.

Data and research referenced from Murmuration, September 2026.