In 2007, NASA TV launched a video series called “Beyond the Light” to educate the public about the work of Chandra, its space telescope that used X-ray light to, as the narrator dramatically put it, “explore the characteristics most menacing and magnificent in the cosmos and reveal what our eyes cannot.”
Fifteen years later, NASA has a new multibillion-dollar piece of kit orbiting Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope, and its media production has received a considerable upgrade. A new psychedelic experience is revealed, courtesy of a collaboration with Artechouse, a pioneer in immersive multi-venue exhibitions with best-in-class projection technology.
"Beyond the Light," which runs through August 31, is the product of an extensive collaboration between Artechouse's audiovisual technicians and a range of NASA experts, including astrophysicists and those from its own visualization studio.
“We believe that art, science and technology can come together to offer a fascinating experience,” said Sandro Kereselidze, creative director at Artechouse, in a statement. “This exhibition takes science and data that already exists and brings it to life artistically in a way that has never been done before.”
The star of the exhibit may be the dazzling galactic data captured by NASA's newest telescope, much of which is presented in a 25-minute video (or as Artechouse calls it, “a cinematic journey through a captivating audiovisual interpretation of how we experience light over time"). But the exhibition also takes an artistic approach to multiple aspects of the 65-year-old American agency's cosmic activities.
This includes the cycles of the moon and humanity's folkloric obsession with our closest neighbor. There is an exploration of how today's technology-dependent world would be affected by a massive solar storm, or the Carrington Event, as it is known by scientists in reference to the solar flare of 1859. Short answer: electrical infrastructure collapses and people suffer.