Request for historical data › sound art installation, Nuit Blanche Paris 2026

[aker]

Hello everyone,

I'm Adrien Revel, technical director at AKER. I'm writing on behalf of artist Marie-Luce Nadal to request access to Blitzortung's historical lightning data for a non-commercial sound art installation.

The project is called "Skin Of the Sky" and premieres June 6, 2026 at the Église Saint-Laurent in Paris during Nuit Blanche. The concept: members of the public call a phone number and confide a wish to the sky. Their voice messages are then spatialized inside the church, triggered and positioned by real lightning strike coordinates. Using an azimuthal equidistant projection centered on the church, each strike maps to a physical direction in the nave. Storms over Sweden send voices from the north, storms over Brazil from the south-west, and so on.

What we find beautiful is the kinship between our projects: Blitzortung is built by a worldwide community of volunteers mapping the electrical activity of the sky; Skin Of the Sky collects anonymous voice messages, the emotional activity of people looking up. Both are participatory, open, and built on collective contribution.

What we need: access to a few days of global archived strike data for offline playback. We do not need real-time access.

Regarding the external project criteria:

• Non-commercial: public artwork, free admission, co-produced with the City of Paris
  
• Original use: lightning data drives spatial sound, not a map or weather tool
  
• Freely accessible to the public
  
• Blitzortung.org credited as data partner in all signage and communications
  
• No redistribution of raw data, used only within the physical installation
  
  

We'd be glad to share documentation and footage with the community afterward.

And if anyone here would like to participate, the phone line is open now: call +33 1 59 58 00 99 and confide a wish to the sky. Your voice could end up traveling through the church, carried by one of the lightning strikes you helped detect.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the remarkable network you've all built together.

Adrien Revel

[GeezerD]

Hello Aker.

Of course, the simplest way to do this to obtain a receiver and become part of the network.
Having a receiver gives you rights to the data.
I don't know your use of the data is governed: due diligence would be required on your part.

[aker]

Hi GeezerD, thanks for your reply!

We'd actually love to join the network with a receiver at some point, that would make total sense for future iterations of the project. For this first premiere in June though, we're on a tight timeline and would need to access a few days of archived data fairly quickly.

Would you happen to know the best way to get in touch with an admin or project coordinator who could help with this kind of request? We'd be happy to discuss the terms and make sure everything is properly handled on our end.

Thanks again,
Adrien

[cutty]

Hi GeezerD, thanks for your reply!

We'd actually love to join the network with a receiver at some point, that would make total sense for future iterations of the project. For this first premiere in June though, we're on a tight timeline and would need to access a few days of archived data fairly quickly.

Would you happen to know the best way to get in touch with an admin or project coordinator who could help with this kind of request? We'd be happy to discuss the terms and make sure everything is properly handled on our end.

Thanks again,
Adrien

https://www.blitzortung.org/en/contact.p...ribution_6

[aker]

Hi cutty,

thanks for the pointer. We actually already sent an email to blitzortung@gmx.org few month ago but haven't heard back yet. We understand the team is busy and this is a volunteer project.

As a moderator, would you be able to help relay our request, or point us to the right person? We're on a fairly tight timeline with the June 6 premiere coming up.

Thanks a lot,

Adrien

[cutty]

Hi cutty,

thanks for the pointer. We actually already sent an email to blitzortung@gmx.org few month ago but haven't heard back yet. We understand the team is busy and this is a volunteer project.

As a moderator, would you be able to help relay our request, or point us to the right person? We're on a fairly tight timeline with the June 6 premiere coming up.

Thanks a lot,

Adrien

Adrien, I understand...
However, I can only advise that such approval, and access can only come from Dr. Wanke... and I cannot give out personal contact information.  You might try another attempt... there are several reasons the data is restricted, primarily misuse of strictly hobbyist class data, totally unofficial... but also because of server load on private servers that handle upwards of 1-2 million VLF signals an hour...on a slow day... and pull the strokes out of the mash... the data files become huge.

Mike

[aker]

Hi Mike, thanks for the context and for taking the time to explain.

Good news: Egon actually got back to us by email, and we're now in direct contact to sort out the data access. The forum thread definitely helped move things forward, so thank you and GeezerD for your guidance.

We'll make sure to share footage of the installation with the community once it premieres in June!

Adrien

[cutty]

Hi Mike, thanks for the context and for taking the time to explain.

Good news: Egon actually got back to us by email, and we're now in direct contact to sort out the data access. The forum thread definitely helped move things forward, so thank you and GeezerD for your guidance.

We'll make sure to share footage of the installation with the community once it premieres in June!

Adrien

 excellent... I thought he might...