MOON SOUP
This project invites the viewer to observe the poetic interplay of celestial phenomenons in the ordinary. How do we perceive the permutations of the symbolic moon when put through an intermediary layer of computational system and data? Moon Soup is a tiny extension of a long cultural and artistic lineage of mankind’s sense of wonderment in pondering over the moon.
produced by: Eddie Wong
Introduction
The inspiration came when observing a bowl of soup. It occurs to me that a full bowl of soup resembles a full moon when seen from above. By tilting a half full bowl at an angle, a crescent shaped moon appears. Swirling the bowl around gently could recreate the waxing and waning of lunar phases.
Concept and background research
Describe the concept behind your work. What artists other work influenced you? Include links and images to other people's work to make your point.
Technical
To achieve the same control on the tilt and swirl, I’ve built a mechanism that is based on a motorised version of the Marble Labyrinth board game as they share similar balancing principles. I attached a bowl of liquid on the platform. The movement of the machine was programmed to move very slowly in an undulation motion. The motion tilts the bowl gently back and forth in an automatic fashion. I aim to get the program to communicate with the live data so that the system reacts to the waxing and waning of the moon over the course of a month.
The content of the bowl is also important to achieve the illusion of a crescent moon. I’ve experimented with soup, corn starch and ink to get the right amount of viscosity and colour. For this proof of concept version, I have settled for a mixture of glucose syrup and olive oil which seems to create the most ‘obedient’ liquid movement so far.
Future development
This project is a proof of concept that begins a series of modification and improvement on the system and built of the mechanism. I want to pursue this idea further to eventually experiment with actual live data of lunar phases and other astronomical measurements and perhaps even to look further out into our solar system, to reimagine other planetary moons far away from Earth.
References
Cosmodolphins: Feminist Cultural Studies of Technology, Animals and the Sacred by Mette Bryld (Author), Nina Lykke (Author)
Moon Phases by Yingjie Bei and Yifan Hu (https://www.creativeapplications.net/processing/making-moon-phases-tangible-and-poetic/)
CLINAMEN 2013 by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at National Gallery of Victoria - Melbourne, Australia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdCutpuUrX4)