December 20, 2014–January 1, 2015
Gary Snyder Project Space, 250 West 26th Street, 4th Floor
Few have ever seen the Earth from orbit, but those who have speak in awe of its beauty and fragility amid the vastness of space. Compiling high-definition footage captured from the International Space Station, Home. surrounds visitors with extraordinary imagery of the planet in a transformative experience. By reorienting and expanding our view of the Earth, the artist aims to evoke a shared sense of wonder, reverence, and responsibility for our collective home.
Detailed Description:
This installation presents 5 channels of high-definition footage taken of earth from the vantage point of the International Space Station. The cameras are mounted on the Columbus module of the ISS and are being operated as part of NASA’s ongoing High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) experiment. The “primary objective [of which] is to validate the space-based performance of the cameras in a variety of operating modes to exercise and demonstrate the features and longevity of the COTS [commercial off the shelf] equipment for future ISS Program usage.”* The footage was downloaded through a variety of means by the artist and edited to isolate the different perspectives from one another.
Using four projectors and one flat-panel television the artist has arranged the footage in such a way so as to replicate the perspective from which the video was originally captured. The viewer is further isolated from the gallery’s environment by black fabric which surrounds the imagery. Placed at the periphery of each panel, the curtain acts to strengthen the overall perception of the Earth’s curved surface below.