INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night lets you jam to the rhythm of 817,373 stars through the power of VR. Created from starlight reaching robotic telescopes in Antarctica, after a 160,000 year journey, the experience transports players inside of a star field from the heart of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The multi-player experience brings the rhythms of the cosmos to life in an endless remix instrument. Inside this luminous space, multiple players explore and collaboratively create new visual and sound remixes from unique data about the stars.
Big data has met its creative match. We’re transforming over 758 million data points about 817,373 stars into a virtual world of light and sound. XR technologies employed include: Data-driven and networked multi-player procedural graphics and ambisonic audio, GPU-accelerated machine learning, high-resolution displays, precision tracking, and multi-player collaborative interaction in virtual reality.
We’re thrilled to announce that we’re working on a second version of INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night in preparation for touring in 2020!
Art + Science = Collaboration
INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night is being developed by a vibrant and ongoing art + science collaboration. Our creative team brings together interactive artists, composers, computer scientists and astrophysics experts
OUR CREATIVE TEAM: Ruth West‚ Violet Johnson, I Chen Yeh, Zach Thomas, Eitan Mendelowitz, Lars Berg, Lifan Wang, Roger Malina with sound production by Christopher Poovey
Our team has evolved over the life of the project. Past team members include: Scot Gresham-Lancaster‚ Alejandro Borsani‚ Andrew Blanton‚ Brian Merlo, Ermir Bejo, Seth Shafer, Amelia Jaycen, Mike Tarleton.
To learn more about each team member, click on their name!
One Antarctic Night = 4 Months
Antarctica is a unique place from which to observe the universe. One Antarctic night lasts four months! Astrophysicist Lifan Wang and the international team of researchers developing the AST3 telescopes and CSTAR observatory on Dome A in Antarctica are pioneers exploring the nature of the universe. Their telescopes peer deep into space looking for exoplanets, variable stars and helping solve the mysteries of dark matter. Our interactive artwork and virtual world are made from never before seen or heard data of the universe from one entire antarctic night! Learn More about the Antarctic Telescopes
Venues
ACM SIGGRAPH 2018: Experience IOAN at ACM SIGGRAPH 2018 in Vancouver, Canada, during August 12 – 16, 2018. SIGGRAPH is the leading showcase for computer graphics and interactive techniques worldwide.
SAN FRANCISCO EXPLORATORIUM: Located in San Francisco, CA, the Exploratorium serves millions of visitors and ranks as the fifth-highest equity brand among museums worldwide after the Louvre, Getty, Smithsonian and the Met.
NEW YORK HALL OF SCIENCE: Located in the city of New York, the Hall of Science serves over 275,000 national and international visitors annually.
ADLER PLANETARIUM: Located on Chicago’s Museum Campus, the Adler serves an average audience of 460,000 national and international visitors.
RUBIN CENTER: Located in El Paso, the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts serves an annual audience of 11,500 visitors and exhibits contemporary art by recognized artists from around the globe.
ARTS CATALYST, UK: Located in London, The Arts Catalyst, serves tens of thousands of annual visitors and is one of the UK’s most distinctive arts organizations.
BEALL CENTER FOR ART + TECHNOLOGY: Located in Irvine, CA, the Beall Center serves tens of thousands of annual visitors and with exhibitions that explore new relationships between the arts, sciences, and engineering
Additional venues: The above venues have provided letters of interest and support for exhibiting the installation. Additional national and international locations are under consideration. Check back in for the latest updates on exhibition sites!
Sponsors
INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night is supported in part by an award from the US National Endowment for the Arts: 15-5400-7043 and by BenQ America Corporation We’re seeking additional sponsors to support the production of IOAN and its exhibition.
Support IOAN through in-kind donation of technology, services or direct brand sponsorship and reach key adopters and large public audiences. As a memorable and compelling demonstration of your technology, services or brand, the experience will reach content creators, application developers, technologists, buyers and a broad public. This is a unique opportunity to be featured in a high-visibility high-impact venues. Long term sponsor and brand benefits include large-scale public engagement at international venues, online, via social media, press and print. To sponsor IOAN contact Ruth West, IOAN creative director via our contact below.
News+Events
Acknowledgements
[button target=”_self” icon=”fa-arrow-down” link=”#contact” background_color=”#33ccff” hover_background_color=”#b7b7b7″ text_align=”left”]
INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night is supported in part by an award from the US National Endowment for the Arts: 15-5400-7043 and by BenQ America Corporation. We thank Lifan Wang and Lingzhi Wang of Texas A &M and the Beijing Astronomical Observatory for their generous consultation and support of this art-science installation. We thank the Antarctic Survey Telescope array and PI Lifan Wang for making available AST3-1 data. We thank Roger Malina, University of Texas Dallas, for his generous consultation in astrophysics and art-science and his support of this work. This artwork made use of the VizieR catalog access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France. The original description of the VizieR service was published in A&AS 143, 23. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int /gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/ dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular, the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement.
© xREZ Art + Science Lab 2014