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3D 'Air Drawing' Produces Lunar Long Exposure Photographs

"Lunar Surface," the dimension-bending new project by Kimchi and Chips, blends new 3D scanning technologies with old photographic techniques.

All images courtesy of the artists

Kimchi and Chips, the Seoul-based art and design duo responsible for this pupil-widening audiovisual installation, amazing projection-mapping works, as well as a choreographed light sculpture, have debuted their newest project—a long exposure photography endeavor that uses a projector and a 3D camera to replicate the illustrious glow of the moon right here on Earth.

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Entitled Lunar Surface, the effort by Mimi Son and Elliot Woods (Kimchi and Chips, respectively) represents an unprecedented journey into the world of fantasy; quite literally, the live production of the inherently imaginary. Blending two documentation mediums—the 2D photographic print, and the 3D digital realm—into one extruded light painting, the result is a ghastly manufactured apparition of the lunar surface in thin air.

Below, light-painted process shots of Lunar Surface in full bloom:

Kimchi and Chips elucidate the project on their website:

A vertical flag of fabric is stroked by the wind, displaced by curves of air pressure, swinging back and forth. As it sweeps, it extrudes a trail of light which draws a moon floating in space. The flag renders this moon from another reality, the silk surface acts as a boundary between 2 realities, intermediating the laws of the 2 realms.

Inspired by the 2 moons of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 and the flags of space travel, the artists present a portal into another existence where another moon orbits. This other place is made material by the fabric of the flag.

Long exposure photography trades the dimension of time for a dimension of space, extruding the moon into existence on a set of photographic prints, the technology capturing a painting, enacted by the details of the wind.

Lunar Surface begins a new line of enquiry for drawing into the air for studio Kimchi and Chips, forming artistic collaborations between technology and nature. The fabric is tracked by a 3D camera whilst a projector replays a response onto it according to its evolving shape.

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Below, Kimchi and Chips have also released two videos to illustrate how their new work developed from eclipse to waxing crescent to full moon (so to speak):

Before taking the project outdoors, the artists worked in-studio to bring their moon to life. Here, they've provided us with a couple behind-the-scenes snapshots that show their project in its "waxing" phase:

For more reality-bending design/science from Kimchi and Chips, follow Elliot Woods and Mimi Son on Twitter. 

Related:

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