updates

September, 2006 Gabriel Dunne and Scott Hessels interviewed for Aminima Magazine Issue 16. Via we-make-money-not-art.

August, 2006 Featured in Interferenze Festival, Naturalis Electronica.

June, 2006 Featured on Visual Complexity.

May, 2006 Featured in FOCUS magazine, Italy.

April 7, 2006 Aaron Koblin and Gabriel Dunne will be presenting parts of Celestial Mechanics at the Makers Faire April 22-23.

March 24, 2006 The CM project is featured in this month's Wired Magazine.

Feb 23, 2006 Aaron Koblin's Flight Patterns section receives a Jury Recommendation Award in the Japan Media Arts Festival.

Feb 20, 2006 Featured in HDRI Magazine. Scott and Gabe are interviewed about the technical processes involved in the production of CM.

August 8, 2005 SIGGRAPH 2005, Aug 2-8. Celestial Mechanics will be featured in the linup at the NVIDIA Immersive Dome Experience.

June 12, 2005 Celestial Mechanics premieres at the UCLA MFA Show, June 9-12. It will be presented in a 15' inflatable dome.

about the project

Celestial Mechanics is a planetarium-based artwork installation that visualizes the statistics, data, and protocols of manmade aerial technologies -- a graphic display of the paths and functions of the machines hovering, flying, and drifting above our planet. The sky is filled with aircraft that transport people from place to place, perform utilitarian duties, assist in communications, enact military missions, or wander above us as debris. Celestial Mechanics combines science, statistical display, and contemporary art by presenting these mechanical patterns and behaviors as a dynamic visual experience. The artwork is intended to be viewed in a planetarium dome, and as time permits the authors, it is updated.

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Video Clips

Large (400 x 400)
Quicktime  H264  DIVX
Small (200 x 200)
Quicktime  H264  DIVX

As you watch these clips, note that these animations are flattened Dome Originals. If you were to view the piece in a Planetarium or a Dome projector, the visual would wrap around your head enabling you to look up, back, left and right. Although Celestial Mechanics is intended to be viewed in a dome. These flat versions are only an example of the work. You have to visualize that it is flattened on the 2D screen you're using now. Visit the media page for screenshots and more videos.