Opticks, space travel and visual moonbounce

Paper number

IAC-12,E5,4,8,x15787

Author

Ms. Daniela de Paulis, Italy

Year

2012

Abstract

OPTICKS is an art/science project realized by visual artist Daniela de Paulis in collaboration with the CAMRAS radio amateur association based at
Dwingeloo radio telescope in The Netherlands.The project consists of a live audio-visual performance during which digital images are transmitted as radio signals to the Moon by a radio station in the UK or Brazil. The signals reflected by the Moon’s surface are then received by the Dwingeloo radio telescope, converted back into the original images and projected live into an exhibition room (gallery or Planetarium).
Each performance of OPTICKS includes a live audio-visual presentation via the Internet by the team of radio amateurs based at Dwingeloo radio telescope and led by Jan van Muijlwijk. The OPTICKS performance is marked by audience participation, people attending the show are in fact invited to submit images to be moonbounced live. The project uses Visual Moonbounce, an innovative application of Moonbounce technology developed by Daniela de Paulis during her two years residency at Dwingeloo radio telescope. In 1946 humankind touched another celestial body for the first time in history by means of radio waves during the first Moonbounce voice contact. Visual Moonbounce and OPTICKS aim at making Space Travel available to all by transporting images to the Moon and back. OPTICKS has been presented in several Art and Science venues, including the Amsterdam Planetarium and Museon in The Netherlands, in April 2011 it was also presented as a live performance from inside the cabin of Dwingeloo radio telescope during Global Astronomy Month, an international event for science outreach created and coordinated by Astronomers Without Borders. During the last performance of OPTICKS images from the Golden Record were moonbounced, printed, signed by the artist as a proof of a successful journey to the Moon and back and distributed amongst the audience.
OPTICKS will be described through a recorded version of the show, the artistic and scientific aspects of the project and of Visual Moonbounce in general will be linked to cultural aspects of Space activity. Images that have been bounced off the moon as radio waves will be shown and commented by the artist.
The paper on OPTICKS was presented in October 2011 during the Copernicus Europlanet meeting in Nantes.
The artist, PhD researcher and submitter of the paper (Daniela de Paulis) will be attending the meeting in Naples.

The project's website is www.opticks.info

Abstract document

IAC-12,E5,4,8,x15787.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-12,E5,4,8,x15787.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.