Gravity invisibly governs the movement of the world, the shape of space and the flow of time. This dual-screen video artwork involved sending an Aeolian spacecraft Sound Ship (descender 1) into the stratosphere to the edge of space and back, equipped with a set of cameras and tracking devices. The actual flight took three and a half hours as it travelled eastward on the jet stream; the final artwork was edited to 40 minutes. Our spacecraft produced sound as it encountered the extreme elements on its journey, creating a unique sound composition based on the environmental conditions at the time of flight. Air pressure, wind currents, and gravity itself produce noise from the air-blown instruments that we designed into the structure of our spacecraft. The Sound Ship (descender 1) was sent aloft under a specially rated helium balloon that burst once it reached zero pressure. The Sound Ship (descender 1) then deployed a parachute, allowing it to travel safely back to Earth.
The launch took place in 2016 from a site in the vicinity of Rankin Springs, a small town in the Riverina district of NSW, located along the Mid-Western Highway near West Wyalong. It has been the site of numerous successful balloon launches in the past. On the day of the launch, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority sent out a NOTAM (notice to airmen), which informs people flying in the area that our launch would take place
C5242/16 NOTAMN
- Q) YMMM/QWLLW/IV/M/W/000/999/
- A) YMMM
- B) 1607152300 C) 1607160700
- E) LIGHT BALLOON RELEASE (MAX PAYLOAD 4KG) FM PSN S33 50.4 E146 15.8 BRG 010 MAG 26.7NM FM GRIFFITH AD (YGTH) EXPECTED FLT PATH TO THE EAST APRX 30NM FM RELEASE SITE CTC OPR TEL:
- F) SFC G) UNL.
We worked with a fantastic team to achieve the flight and meet our exhibition deadline. Michael Petchkovsky – acted as a technician and produced a prototype of an experimental slow-scan TV system that, for part of the flight, broadcast still images back to Earth. Dan Stocks – holds a radio license and he formed part of the launch crew, along with media artist Chris Caines who also did some of the documentation of the launch. Alain Della Negra and Keori Kinoshita did extensive video documentation for their film project “Wrangling Chaos” that was commissioned for our exhibition Resonances Magnetique, held at La Panacee Centre for Contemporary Art in France in 2016. Robert Brand is a high-altitude balloon expert, and his son Jason Brand made our project possible by helping us fast-track through a whole heap of regulatory requirements for the safe launching of a high-altitude balloon into space. Both were especially invaluable in making the project a success.
Our Aeolian instruments are based on Japanese Unari, a unison musical kite bow. http://windmusik.com/html/pigeonbow.html
There is a blog about the project http://www.soundandgravity.space. Below are a couple of edited clips from the two screen video projection.
4 minute SSD1 from Haines/Hinterding on Vimeo.
BalloonBurst from Haines/Hinterding on Vimeo.