Dates confirmed for Derry’s 10k Our Place In Space trail 2022 as volunteers sought

The major installation is being designed by artist and children’s author Oliver Jeffers, and incorporates a 10km three-dimensional sculpture trail along Derry’s Foyle. It has now been confirmed that it will be in place in Derry for a month, from April 22 until May 22, 2022.

Our Place in Space also involves an interactive AR app, and major learning and events programmes. It will be free and open to everyone, and will run along Bay Road Park and River Foyle.

The Nerve Centre, producers of Our Place in Space, are seeking volunteers to take up a range of positions. Executive Producer David Lewis says: “We really want as many people as possible to become involved in Our Place in Space not just to enhance the experience for others but to have an unforgettable experience themselves. We have a variety of volunteering positions available across lots of different areas in each of the places where the Sculpture Trail will exhibit with commitment requiring as little as two hours a week.”

Volunteering positions with Our Place in Space in Derry include Local Legends to help welcome and inform visitors, Backpack Heroes to support school and community group tours of the interactive planetary experience, and Green Team to take on litter picks and clean-ups before and after the trail is installed. Those interested should email: [email protected]

Helping Oliver Jeffers is leading astrophysicist Professor Stephen Smartt, and the project features music by award-winning sound artist Die Hexen. From April 2022.

It will travel from Derry to Divis and the Black Mountain, Belfast and to the Ulster Transport Museum and North Down Coastal Path in NI, as well as a riverside location in Cambridge later in the year.

An Our Place in Space app will be available on Apple and Android devices and will allow users across the world to take a walk through our solar system, experiencing the planets in augmented reality and considering 10,000 years of human history. Users will collect space souvenirs, as well as launching a personalised star into space.

Oliver Jeffers says: “Our Place in Space is a playful experiment that asks: What is the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’? Which side are we on, and if we look back at ourselves from vastness of outer space – alone on our tiny planet – should there be any ‘sides’ at all?”