By 
November 20th, 2016
Credit: Adrift
Space junk…a menacing and growing environmental worry.
Now a unique art project reveals the world of space junk, making it personal, visible and audible.
Called Adrift, this UK project takes the form of an interactive experience, a documentary film, as well as a listen-up sound experience.
Adrift team leaders, Nick Ryan and Cath Le Couteur.
Credit: Adrift
Adopt a chunk of junk
A trio of relics that are emblematic of orbital debris can be “adopted” by participants:
- A U.S. Vanguard satellite: “I circle Earth every 130 minutes. I will continue to orbit above you for the next 240 years.”
- Suitsat: “I was pushed out into Space in 2006 by astronauts on the International Space Station”
- Fengyun: A Chinese piece of space junk “from the worst space debris event of all time. Go. Me.”
Machine 9 sound instrument.
Courtesy: Hugh Lewis
Sound track
Adrift has been created by film maker Cath Le Couteur and Nick Ryan, an audio specialist, sound designer, composer and artist. Adding to the mix of team members is scientific advisor Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert from the University of Southampton.
Part of the Adrift multi-sensory experience is Ryan’s “Machine 9” – a handcrafted electromechanical sound instrument that tracks the positions of 27,000 pieces of space junk, transforming them into sound, in real time, as they pass overhead.
The launch of Adrift took place this month, headed for its opening next year at Hackney House in London.
For more information on the three-part Adrift initiative that includes an informative documentary video, go to:
Posted in Space News
