“444.2” by Nirma Madhoo
Photogrammetric reconstruction of the SALT (Southern African Large Telescope) plateau. The 360 image export is composited with an image of the Milky Way credited to ESO and B.Tapissier.
Title:
- 444.2
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Filmmaker, Video Artist, or Animator(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Artist Statement:
The project title derives from the astronomical practices of the original stargazers of Southern Africa, who first mapped isiLimela (later named the Pleiades), which constellates 444.2 light years away from Earth.
In this 6-DoF experience, these ancient practices are superposed on the geography and modern astrophysics of the Southern African Large Telescope.
Fly over and traverse the starlit & ghostly terrain of the semi-desertic Karoo, where volumetric fashion performance unfolds to a cinematic Afro-diasporic score.
Feminist and expressionist, costumed figurations and particle bodies morph in a triptych, entangling African cosmology with the technological sublime of inner and outer space.
