ABOUT ARTIST:

In his recent works, Thomas Heidtmann examines forms and expressions of exploration, collaboration, and communication. He is fascinated by space technologies, mirrors, and questions of visibility and observation. He combines traditional aesthetics, materials, and techniques with new technologies such as 3D-printing to create installations and objects that are often interactive and engaging. Interactions vary from the more obvious to arcane. He builds ephemeral solutions for site-speci c requirements, as well as autonomous pieces.

His long-term project PLACE IN ORBIT* involves the collection and comparison of material for satellite-inspired interactive objects communicating with each other and the visitor in combination with Augmented Reality. In the frame of this project, he founded the Space Art Hackathon SPARTH to seek for innovative ways of collaboration.

SUBMISSION: Ida & Dactyl

The Moon Gallery becomes a container for a universe of reflections – allowing for speculative reflections on specular reflections.

The inner walls of the gallery cube are covered with mirrored foil. In its centre sits a mirrored sphere, surrounded by a smaller one on a revolving orbit. Countless reflections of the spheres, the observer, and the environment become visible.

Reflection is one of the most important and fundamentally characteristic features of human activities. From the Ptolemaic system through the Copernican Revolution and beyond, mankind has changed its perception of the universe many times over.

Ida & Dactyl is a symbolic statement for the uniquely human behaviour of evaluating experiences: evoking questions about our intentions, relations, and the consequences of our actions on a global scale and beyond. It is an attempt to transform the experience of the “overview effect”, as described by Astronauts, to a tiny scale to be reflected upon by future generations on the surface of the Moon.