balloon launch : Alternative Energies
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The Alternative Energies Project explores themes of
resource and energy consumption and investigates
creative engineering as a means of inspiring new
approaches to how we expend and consume energy.
This project encompasses a number of recent
installations and performances including my most
recent project, balloon launch.
balloon launch was initially inspired by my father's
work as an astrophysicist—he would use enormous
helium balloons to carry gamma-ray imaging payloads
into the upper atmosphere. I’ve always been drawn to
the imagery and gesture of releasing these balloons, and
today I see it as a metaphor for the greater process of
scientific inquiry. In my father’s work, the goal for the
payloads was the retrieval of data in the form of gamma-
rays. As an artist, I have grown most interested in the
release of the balloon itself, as a metaphoric embodi-
ment of the activity of questioning. For me, the launch
of a balloon has come to represent a venture into the
unknown and the whimsical sense of hope that accom-
panies scientific investigation.
The balloons are constructed from hand-made bio-
plastic film, designed to be entirely biodegradable due
to their composition of cornstarch and corn husk fibers.
The images document the successful launch of one of my
prototypes, using a combination of hot air and helium
propulsion. I am currently developing a solar heating coil
that will enable future balloons to rise solely by means
of hot air.
The balloon launch project interprets the process
of scientific inquiry as an activity based in wonder, and
depicts discovery not as an endpoint, but as an opportu-
nity for new openings. Through the launch of these bal-
loons I hope to re-imagine the purpose of technology as
a creative force and escape the paradigm that technol-
ogy exists solely for the sake of commodity. I also aim to
illustrate some of the tensions in relationships between
human innovation, human consumption and our envi-
ronmental predicament.