The concept of Duality has intrigued mankind since the beginning of civilization, and ancient Vedic texts propose several philosophies on the duality of nature in intriguing detail.

The artwork comprises of two objects constrained inside a 1cm³ box: a strip of paper with handdrawn phases of the Moon in glow-in-the-dark ink, and a nano-sim card that contains artistic simulations that are coded using Python programming language. Inspired by her Indian roots and Vedic influence, work is named “Bhedadipika – an illustration of Duality”. It plays upon several notions of Duality such as:

• Constraint/Freedom
• Light/Darkness
• Minute/Infinite
• Reality/Illusion
• Randomness/Intent

The animated images are part of a series of algorithmic art titled “Star Cities/Organised Worlds”. These images are created by randomly generated points, but which are constrained to appear on a path defined by equations of epitrochoids and hypotrochoids of various parameters. An epitrochoid or hypotrochoid basically describes the path traced by a spirograph, and is one of the fundamental curves depicting movement in Nature: from celestial orbits to rolling objects. They instill a sense of harmony in the spectator, as the form is naturally pleasing to the eye. The artist imagines that if intelligent life were able to manipulate the formation of galaxies, it would exploit the humble hypotrochoid for inspiration for harmonious forms.

The Moon Gallery, is an international collaborative artwork and a gallery of ideas worth sending to the Moon. Moon Gallery intends to launch 100 artifacts to the Moon within the compact format of a 10 x 10 x 1 cm plate on a lunar lander exterior panelling as early as 2022. As it costs 1 million euros/kg to send something to the Moon, these (smart) artists proposed to hence miniaturise the gallery. The idea is to develop culture for a future interplanetary society in this Petri dish-like gallery.

The main team involves Anna Sitnikova (curator, exhibition designer), Elizaveta Glukhova (curator, graphic designer), Bernard Foing (space sector expert and visionary), and Alexander Zaklynsky (gallery founder).

Bhedadīpikā was selected as part of the Moon Gallery in 2019 and is a visual dialogue based on the artist's own duality - as an artist as well as researcher. For more information on the Moon Gallery Project, please visit their website. You can support the first mission to the ISS by donating here.

Mission

The Moon Gallery was successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 19, 2022.

Consiting of 65 artworks in total on an 8x8 grid, the gallery is currently orbiting the Earth within the ISS, installed inside a Nanoracks Nanolab and serving as moving targets for camera observations and performance tests. The gallery offers a diverse range of materials and behaviours for the camera to detect, and in return, the artists would get a chance to learn about the performance of their artworks in microgravity.

Press release.

Launch

Launch date: February 19, 2022
Spacecraft Mission: NG-17 Cygnus Cargo Resupply Mission
Launch Vehicle: NG Antares
Liftoff: 12:39 p.m. EST (17:39 GMT / 18:39 CET)
ISS Capture: February 21, 2022, 4:35am EST (0935 GMT / 1035 CET)
Mission duration: 10 months

First view from the ISS

Experiments

Coming soon.

“Star Cities/Organised Worlds” was featured, among 21 works chosen over 200+ submissions, by the V-Art Digital #ArtSpaceship Exhibition (sector E).

Exhibition statement: "The Digital era has transformed the very essence of the way we live, as well as our perception of materiality and space. Art as a reflection of the changes in society gave momentum to a new medium of expression – digital art. Now we are on the verge of a new, space era, where intangible and technological digital art is assonant with the development of humankind. Like the golden disk sent to extraterrestrial civilizations with Voyager in 1977, we will send a new message to the Universe.
Ancestors watched the starry sky and created legends, which lived on up to the present. Now we are creating a new symbol of the art of the future – the digital Art Spaceship, that will bring art to new horizons."

Presentation during the ArtMoonMars workshop at ESA ESTEC, The Netherlands, 2019