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  Ursa Major

(In-Progress)

Speculative Sound Sculpture - 80"x30"x4" - Aluminum, Lights, Electronics, Glass **This video is a speculative design of a planned work.

Ursa Major, more commonly known as the Big Dipper. What isn’t commonly known is that the stars that comprise this constellation are actually a local group moving toward us, which will pass us by in about one million years. Long before these stars pass us, they will cease to be recognizable as a constellation, yet they will still move together as one. This work conceives of the stars as streaking automobiles through space, complete with lit headlights and a shiny automotive finish. Each star is measured to be the current appropriate distance from each other (and us) and each star’s size corresponds to the physical size of the star it represents. Finally, as the stars reach us, we hear them drive by like cars on the highway – think: Doppler effect – casually zooming past us by so the next planet can watch their Dipper bear down on them in turn. This work is about the precariousness of presumption, the relentlessness of time, and our own small and seemingly static place in this universe.

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