James Turrell's Twilight Epiphany, built in 2012, accommodates 120 people between two levels. It is acoustically engineered to host musical performances and to act as a laboratory for music school students on select days after sunset. Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the structure is equipped with an LED light sequence that projects on to the ceiling just before sunrise and at sunset.

Photo by Drew Tarvin, used under CC BY 2.0 licence

The creator of this installation, Kendall Buster, is trained in both art and microbiology, and this work reflects both aspects of her career. The work – six clusters of semi-transparent shapes suspended with steel aircraft wire from a 75-foot-high glass roof – suggests both clouds and cells seen through a microscope. It was commissioned specifically for the atrium of this building, the Frick chemistry laboratory.

Photo by Conor Lawless, used under CC BY 2.0 licence

Its creator, Josefina de Vasconcellos, has said the work was conceived in the aftermath of the Second World War: 'Europe was in shock, people were stunned. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn't only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting.'

Photo by Tim Green, used under CC BY 2.0 licence

In 2012, the university decommissioned sophisticated microscopes, which would have ended up on the scrapheap but for this project. It grew out of an earlier initiative of anatomy professor and poet Ian Gibbins, in which he worked with artist Catherine Truman in the Autonomic Neurotransmission Laboratory (Truman is pictured with 'The Chandelier', part of the Microscope Project, now installed in the student hub). Three more artists and a writer joined the team, turning the microscopes into sculptures, installations, images, and text aimed at spurring conversation on how we perceive and construct our world.

Image taken from video

The building where this hall is located was built in the early 1700s. For long, the Great Hall was used for courses and lectures. It features paintings and sculptures honoring the university's founders, innovators, academics, and benefactors. These date back to when the auditorium was redesigned to mark the university's 500th anniversary in 1886. The hall is now used for academic ceremonies, and sometimes concerts and lectures.

Photo by ptwo, used under CC BY 2.0 licence