Abstract:
There is an impossibility present for us in travelling the great distance of interstellar space: our nearest neighbouring star, Alpha Centauri, would take a gargantuan 180,000 earth years to reach with current technology.
Yet along with other significant scientific developments, such as spacecraft, it has been the camera which has provided the modern simian with the most acute and descriptive way of sympathising with the cosmic void, and of understanding our place within it.
Long before humans make any significant advancement in the physical traversal of worlds, it will be through the continual development of optics – the ability to see closer, further and with finer detail – that we may come to know the existence of extraterrestrial life by telescope alone.
Via a transcendent object that presents as navigator, guide, and frame for a galactic journey, NOUMINA showcases our current visual rendering of the Universe via high-quality satellite imagery from NASA, and video improvisations from the open-source planetarium software Stellarium.
NOUMINA was exhibited as part of the Semantic Clutter event and Liquid Architecture 11 Festival, at West Space Gallery from the 13th – 16th of July, 2010.
NOUMINA has also screened in a linear format at the inaugural 2010 CINESONIKA Film Festival, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Screening / Install of NOUMINA at Design Festa Gallery, Harajuku, Tokyo, 16 – 19th July, 2011.
2012 Screening of NOUMINA as part of Austhetic, on the Federation Square Big Screen.
NOUMINA Credits:
Additional Audio Processing: Ry David Bradley
Consultant – Observational Astronomy: Michael Fitzgerald
Translation Assistants: Zane Lynd & Tomoko Yamaguchi
Installation Technician: Jonathan Hopkins