Sunjammer 6: A Tale Blown by a Solar Breeze
I began by thinking about two characters across oceans of time and how they would communicate. One a mathematician, one an engineer. They might speak using mathematics. I was looking at our current moment and the relentless, exhausting polarization. This piece is really about the tension between the fear of knowledge and the constructs humans use to build language and symbol systems that speak about what we can’t see, what we can’t touch. Mathematics, physics, the evolution of models of the cosmos…and the forces of attraction between heavenly bodies…or humans.
Sunjammer 6: A Tale Blown by a Solar Breeze is kind of a love story, a conversation between two virtual characters connecting across time, each pushing back against an encroaching dark age.
Hypatia, a Hellenistic astronomer, mathematician and philosopher assassinated in 415 AD returns 10 years in our future as a furious ghost. As she navigates her new environment she absorbs what has happened over time and encounters Kepler Redux, a NASA engineer building a solar array off-world power station for sustainable energy.
The core of Hypatia is a hybrid AI that responds to the movement and gestures of multiple viewer-operators, and reacts to them with what appears to be a complex personality.
This innovative format is a fusion of sculpture, installation, cinema and performance for viewers moving in a space. Versions exist for performance and installation.
Viewer/operators move around the triangular scrim and engage with Hypatia and other characters and elements of the narrative.
The project is a visual novel, a movie, and a machine that tells stories. A poetic and dreamlike experience, viewers activate the process and become embedded in another dimension.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS AND EQUIPMENT FOR INSTALLATION:
The screen has 3 scrims in a triangle formation. It breaks down and reassembles easily for travel. There are 3 short throw projectors hung – one for each side of the triangle.
3 speakers and 6 cameras are embedded in the screen structure, a cube of 8 speakers: 4 hung in the upper room corners, 4 on floor stands, and 3 additional hung Ultrasonic speakers on servo motors. Equipment travels with the show unless a venue chooses to supply specified elements.
The AI combines Azure Kinect skeletal tracking and game engine AI with proprietary software that includes blob detection and interactive and emergent behavior design.
The installation version is a 15 min. infinity loop. The longer narrative performance is approx. 40 min. with the option of a meet and greet with the Hypatia character following. There are a variety of ways the installation can be presented using both formats or one and this can be shaped with the venue to best suit presentation needs. Spaces: Black box theaters or gallery spaces that have the ability to be dark and hang speakers and projectors. The screen structure is 10’ high with 3 projection surfaces of 8’x10’. The minimum ceiling height for the room is approx. 12’
SUNJAMMER 6 IS SUPPORTED BY:
- Artist in Residence, Yale Quantum Institute, 2026/2027
- Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant 2026
- Doris Duke Foundation Performing Arts Technologies Lab, 2024/2025
- Fellow: Yale University CCAM, 2023 – ongoing, Research and Development
- Artist in Residence: Integrated Digital Media, Tandon School of Engineering, NYU, ongoing
- N.E.A. Grant with Harvestworks and Paul Geluso, Director of Music Technology, Steinhardt School of Music, NYU, for sound follower instrument technology development, 2022
- Artist in Residence: Bell Labs, E.A.T. Program, 2020/21
- Artist in Residence: Pioneer Works Virtual Environments Lab, R&D, 2020
- N.Y.S.C.A.: Independent Artist Film and Video Grant 2020
CREATIVE TEAM:
- Siyuan Qiu: Lead Unity Developer for Visual and Interactive Design
- Nina Demirjian: Unity and Lead AR Developer
- Tommy Martinez: Sound Technologist
- Quentin Chiapetta, Medianoise: Sound Design
- Paul Geluso: Spatialized Sound Design System
- Chorus: VO by Christina Campanella and John Rose
- Kepler: VO by Jim Fletcher
- Hypatia: VO by Toni Dove
- Wufeng Kai: 3D Modeling and Unity Development
- Indira Ardolic: 3D Modeling
RECENT WORK BY TONI DOVE: The Dress That Eats Souls
- Vimeo documentation includes project description and links to press: https://vimeo.com/268335347
- NYTimes Profile, Ted Loos: http://nytimes.com/2017/10/28/arts/toni-dove-dress.html
Selected Reviews:
- Art News, Barbara MacAdam: http://www.artnews.com/2018/03/15/vasari-diary-stuart-klipper-toni-dove-william-h-gass-reader/
- Herald Tribune, Marty Fugate: heraldtribune.com/entertainmentlife/20180322/art-review-multimedia-artist-toni-dove-imagines-brave-new-world-at-ringling
