~VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER . . ‘STRANGE LOOPS’
BACK TO THE FUTURE /
BY THE LIGHT – OF THE MOON
‘STRANGE LOOPS’ . . A GROUP SHOW
CURATED BY JOHANNES DeYOUNG & FEDERICO SOLMI
ARTSPACE, NEW HAVEN – UP THRU . . . FEB 29, 2020
see: ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ / ARTSPACE, NEW HAVEN
VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER, ‘Strange Loops’, 2019
virtual reality experience
Director & Game Designer: JEAN-BAPTISTE LENGLET
Game & Level Designer: NICHOLAS STEINDORF
(‘Strange Loops’ lead) Graphic Designer: THOMAS ROCHON
“REALITY ..isn’t what it used to be. In the summer of 2019, it was hard to miss the semi-centennial celebrations
of the Apolllo 11 moon landing. Museum exhibits, cinematic features, daily news coverage, and social media buzz kept much of the American public occupied with swiping, tapping, and clicking gestures in commemoration of the emblematic moment.”
“The moon landing on July 20, 1969 was as much a sign of human desire as it was a feat of scientific
& technical accomplishment.”
~JOHANNES DeYOUNG
my biggest take-away from this summer’s media coverage of the 1969 Apollo moon landing . .
was the incredible fact that . . the “iPhone in your pocket has over 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed men on the moon 50 years ago”.
~Real Clear Science
there were banks of screens / rows upon rows of men working screens . .
it was more of an ‘industrial’ era setting, than a digital one.
monitoring all aspects of the mission.
and I do mean: men /
though a handful of the top manager/supervisor/scientists . . were women.
notably: SUSAN FINLEY performed trajectory computations for the rocket launch, by hand.
MARGARET HAMILTON was the lead Apollo flight software designer.
DOROTHY VAUGHAN, “the first black section lead at Langley Research Center / she managed the all-black
West Area Computing Unit.”
source: Science Friday
I was struck by all the (skilled) 3-D – mock-ups !!
so retro !!
scientists were, or relied heavily upon . . armies of skilled draftsmen.
documentary commentator after commentator – paused to comment in awe, of the hands-on skills.
every aspect of the mission – required waves upon waves of individual man power.
NEIL ARMSTRONG . . first man on the moon.
ALL ARCHIVAL APOLLO 11 PHOTOS: via PBS
the installation lighting was just flat-out: INCREDIBLE.
the back rooms, comprising the BLINN & LAMBERT project / and the adjacent VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER interactive
presentation were absolutely enhanced by the lightning. more blue in the Blinn & Lambert room /
more opalescent ‘pearl’ in the Virtual Dream Center experience.
EMILY THELANDER & HAYLEY JOSEPHS . . bathed in the ‘moonlight’.
PHOTOS: FROM THE OPENING DEC 14, 2019 / NANCY SMITH