HELP US TO CREATE ART PROJECTS ON THE MOON, AND SUPPORT ART/SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE!
Sculpture designed by multi-awarded artist Frederik De Wilde (TED ideas worth spreading global talent search finalist, Ars Electronica Grant Winner, Best European Collaboration Award Between an Artist and Scientist, ...).
Special requests / exclusive items:
studio@frederik-de-wilde.com
The sculpture mockup S.A.D. Astronaut was selected for the landmark exhibition GIANT STEPS in Seattle (2016), aiming to support artworks and artist residencies on the MOON. The artwork entitled S.A.D. Astronaut combines artistic and scientific experiment, and will be created by the vacuum of space itself. The artwork will have embedded sensor and communication technologies which opens up the Internet of Space (IoS) for mankind. The Moon art project is a collaboration with Guerric de Crombrugghe (scientist).
More info here: http://www.giantsteps.space/#home-1
The Pacific Northwest holds a high concentration of space enterprises, including Boeing, Vulcan Aerospace, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Space X, and Blue Origin. Humankind lives closer to outer space than ever before. How does this affect the future of art and culture? What would artists do given the opportunity to create art in space?
S.A.D. Astronaut
Is a schematic human figure in a meditative pose, contemplating the Earth. It is made out of expanding foam or shape-memory polymer (SMP). It is thus the vacuum, the very nothingness of the Moon, which gives him shape.
Ground Control to Major Tom
Users can ask a series of pre-determined questions to the artwork, personal or informative (“How’s the weather?”). The artwork interrogates its sensors. After some post-processing, the answer arrives back a few seconds later.
Dialogue & Evolution
It is only through the establishment of this dialogue between the artwork and the users that the former comes to existence. With a dialogue, S.A.D. Astronaut becomes humanity’s ambassador on the Moon. Nevertheless, as time goes by, loneliness begins to act. His electronic components degrade through exposition to intense radiation and his solar panels get dusty, the answers become scarce and make less sense. He has no heart, it is his entire body that hardens in a world of solitude. Eventually, S.A.D. Astronaut becomes silent, lost in the deepest meditation.