staring at our Sun (transit of Venus)transit_of_Venus.htmltransit_of_Venus.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
staring at our Sun (og) this project started with an suite of 9 different cascading accordions (sunny)Sunny.htmlSunny.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0
Sun image credits: NASA (SDO, AIA)staring_at_our_Sun.html

Moon image credit: 

NASA/JPL

collaboration with nif hodgson

staring at our Sun (ongoing series).


NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) (a “sun pointing semi-autonomous spacecraft” with an “inclined geosynchronous orbit”) makes photos of our Sun (across seven different filters) ~every 15 minutes of every day (24/7 365) as part of their Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) experiment. SDO records images beyond our visible spectrum (showing temperature ranges at the brightest spots between 60,000-20,000,000 degrees Kelvin).


using NASA’s searchable database, i am making a series of cascading accordions animating actions of our Sun as well as

lunar transits and transits of Venus and Mercury. i think of these as meditative objects (allowing users to hold the Sun in their hands and animate it).


below are videos showing me playing these different works (for more information on a particular work, click title above video)

staring at our Sun (pocket edition)staring_at_our_Sun.html
staring at our Sun (transit of Mercury) cascading accordiontransit_of_Mercury.html
staring at our Sun (transit of Mercury) (NASA Mercury subedition) cascading accordiontransit_of_Mercury.htmltransit_of_Mercury.htmlshapeimage_7_link_0

staring at our Sun (twister) cascading accordion

staring at our Sun (embossed moon) collab with nif hodgson

staring at our Sun (NASA moon)

i also published a pocket edition (of 1069) of staring at our Sun. comprised of NASA’s photos of our Sun over 36 sequential days (generally one per day) plus a lunar transit (8 images), one full rotation of our Sun is shown across 7 NASA AIA filters in NASA colorspace.