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Janet Biggs' Upcoming Project "FINDING EQUILIBRIUM"

At 11:50 pm EST, March 6, 2020, the project FINDING EQUILIBRIUM by artist Janet Biggs, member of the Hyphen Hub community, launched on board SpaceX CRS-20 to the International Space Station (ISS) in MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative’s: Sojourner 2020.

Link to full

www.jbiggs.com/Finding_Equilibrium/

Photo on the left:: Wenjun Liang, courtesy Xin Liu and MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative.

“Through the ages, artists, writers, and filmmakers have always been inspired by space. Artists’ visionary depictions of space as an environment for people have influenced the scientific and engineering feats we know so well today. How will artists continue to inspire the future of space exploration? What are the opportunities and challenges in the creation of art for space, and art depicting space and space technologies? In 2019, the Space Exploration Initiative announced an open call to invite artists to submit artworks for an exciting ISS launch opportunity. After three rounds of reviews, nine groups of artists were selected to be on board Sojourner 2020, an international art payload.”​

Sojourner 2020 “an international art payload”: (a 1.5U size unit, 100mm x 100mm x 152.4mm ) launched into low earth orbit for about 30 days on March 6, 2020, which included artist Janet Biggs’ project FINDING EQUILIBRIUM. The Sojourner 2020 features a three-layer telescoping structure which creates three different “gravities”: zero gravity, lunar gravity, and Martian gravity. Each layer of the structure rotates independently. The top layer remains still in weightlessness, while the middle and bottom layers spin at different speeds to produce centripetal accelerations that mimic lunar gravity and Martian gravity, respectively.

“Three rocks: a meteorite from the moon, found in the Sahara Desert, is returned to Lunar gravity. A hopeful Mars simulation rock, extracted by a sim-astronaut during a Mars analog mission, finally gets to experience Martian gravity. A crystal from deep underground, holding one of my Grandfather’s last memories as he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, becomes weightless. This project, realized as both a feature film and as a video installation, interweaves personal stories of loss and transcendence with documentation of scientific research being conducted in the field, resulting in these three rocks being collected, loaded onto a satellite and launched into Earth’s orbit.” ~ Janet Biggs

Courtesy MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative and Xin Liu. Photo on the left: Wenjun Liang Sojourner2020 Design and fabrication: Xin Liu Camera and electronics: Gershon Dublon, slow immediate LLC Special Thanks to: MIT Media Lab New Lab New INC, New Museum Pete Dilworth

Courtesy MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative and Xin Liu. Photo on the right: NASA Sojourner2020 Design and fabrication: Xin Liu Camera and electronics: Gershon Dublon, slow immediate LLC Special Thanks to: MIT Media Lab New Lab New INC, New Museum Pete Dilworth

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