18DEAD.DOGS

2021

Roman Klaudo, Roman Fokin, Anna Shmykova, Anna Ledeneva, Angelina Shutko

Space is like an inevitability, like an eternal companion, like a vast shadow on the fabric of the universe and a field of universal responsibility filled with our history. Over time, this history turns into the products of life, leaving traces like paint on a canvas.

The installation is intended to immerse the viewer in the atmosphere of this endless process and to give the opportunity to feel a part of the history of space exploration.

The name of the installation refers to the fact that 18 dogs died during the whole process of space exploration. In this story, it is noteworthy and rather mysterious that 18 people died in space as well.

As the hero of this work, the viewer is like trying on the role of Earth, which is surrounded by the consequences of the space age. And no matter how hard we try to get rid of space debris, the futility of our attempts will only delay the littering of space. This is where the Kessler effect (also called the Kessler syndrome) comes into play, in which each collision generates space debris, increasing the likelihood of further collisions. In this case, the viewer can participate in getting rid of the debris with his voice.

The installation shows us the process of space exploration and illustrates how the sky above us is changing as we attempt to look into the future. The moment the viewer approaches the screen, the vvvv graphics engine receives data from the video camera and creates a phantom image of the person. At the same moment, counters are launched on the left side of the screen, which indicate the year, the number of launches corresponding to this year and the total amount of tracked space debris in earth orbit. The used space objects on the screen begin to be attracted to the phantom of the viewer's face on the screen and begin to fly behind it as it moves within the screen. The number of these objects begins to increase in accordance with the counters on the screen. When the viewer leaves the camera lens's viewing area, the counters are reset to their original values corresponding to the first year of observing the amount of space debris.

Data for the project is taken from NASA public databases.

Interactive Installation.

Engineer: Dmitry Masaidov and the VZOR curatorial group

Technologies: Software environments vvvv and Pure Data, Blender 3D editor, Adobe Photoshop graphic editor, Cubase 5 and Reaper audio editors, camera