A Public Artwork for Accelerator Park
This new public artwork for Accelerator Park has been created by artist Charley Peters in collaboration with local schools and community groups. The project celebrates Cambridge’s legacy of scientific discovery through a visual language of abstract symbols. The design takes inspiration from retro scientific diagrams, early computing graphics, and vintage textbooks — imagery that feels both familiar and timeless. Translated into large-scale, laser-cut aluminium panels, these abstract motifs layer and interconnect, flowing across the fence like a continuous rhythm. Suggesting atoms, planetary movement, data streams, and networks of knowledge, the artwork evokes the energy of scientific progress across many disciplines. Workshops with pupils from Icknield Primary School and members of the Sawston community played an important role in shaping the design. The children’s drawings revealed how young people view science as playful and interlinked, while the community responses brought clarity, symbolism, and reflections on how science shapes everyday life. Together, these perspectives have been distilled into Peters’ artwork — a composition that is both dynamic and enduring. Quantum Frequency transforms Accelerator Park’s boundary into a landmark that reflects science not only as a discipline but as a shared human endeavour — connecting history, community, and imagination.
On the Title: Quantum Frequency
The title Quantum Frequency reflects both the scientific inspiration behind the artwork and its role as a connective landmark for Accelerator Park. In physics, “quantum” refers to the smallest measurable unit of energy — a reminder that great discoveries are built from the smallest building blocks. “Frequency” speaks to rhythm, resonance, and shared wavelengths, suggesting the ways in which knowledge, ideas, and communities come together. Together, the two words convey a sense of dynamism and transformation — an artwork that honours the legacy of scientific progress while embodying the shared curiosity, imagination, and voices of those who contributed to its creation.
About the Artist
Charley Peters is a British artist whose work explores abstraction, technology, and visual culture, examining how screen-based imagery reshapes our ways of seeing. Drawing from the legacies of modernism while responding to the hyper-saturated visual language of the internet, video games, and algorithmic logic, she approaches art-making as a grounding, embodied act — one that slows time and creates space for reflection on how we construct and navigate reality in a fast-paced digital world. Her projects have been shown internationally and she has created major commissions for organisations including Meta, ITV, Wembley Park, and Hospital Rooms. Based between London and Lewes, Charley is passionate about using creativity to connect people, ideas, and communities. www.charleypeters.com / @charleypeters
