Irish project aims to bring art to space, and space to Earth
Space Synapse, an Irish project at the cutting edge of both art and scientific research, wants to install an interactive work of art on board the International Space Station within the next two years. Its aim — to give the world a means of communicating with astronauts through what it calls a “symbiotic sphere” — may on first hearing sound as plausible as a Jules Verne sci-fi novel.
The astronauts “will be able to focus the cameras on the interior or the exterior of their passenger booth, to communicate by speech, writing or by gestures with the sphere,” she explains. The futuristic globe will also collect, and immediately transmit, recorded data by means of electrodes and transducers fixed to the side of the astronauts’ bodies.
Back on earth, their correspondents will be comfortably installed in a “cosmic egg,” an audio-visual cabin equipped with a reclining seat specially designed for the venture by Oculas, Space Synapse’s partner company which also makes Formula 1 racing seats for MacLaren.
Could be interesting as long as it comes equiped with a barf bag. Also hope the final product has more than a small LCD monitor. Think Imax.
