7/29/23, 12:08 PM

For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

JULY 28, 2023 / 5:53 PM

For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has
been laser-focused on sending
hologram project into space

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Eduardo Kac, 61, will send his artwork 'Ágora,' a hologram he first created in 1986,
on the Deep Space Enterprise mission aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan
Centaur V spacecraft to be launched by Celestis later this year. Photo courtesy ofEduardo Kac

By Adam Schrader
July 28 (UPI) -- Eduardo Kac has been trying for 37 years torealize his vision for an art project he began when he was just
24 years old -- sending one of his holographic poems, orholopoems as he calls them, into deep space. He will finallyhave that chance later this year.
Kac, 61, will send his artwork Ágora, a hologram he firstcreated in 1986, on the Deep Space Enterprise mission aboard
a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur V spacecraft to belaunched by Celestis. The company described the mission as a

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7/29/23, 12:08 PM

For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

love letter to science fiction and the first time capsule inspace.
"I saw it in deep space. It's how I conceived of it. It made sense
to me," Kac said in an interview with UPI. "I'm not a space
agency, I don't fly rockets, so it's a very difficult thing to do as anormal person."

Eduardo Kac is pictured working in his holography studio in Rio de Janeiro in 1986.
Photo courtesy of Eduardo Kac

Kac said that, over the years, he has been meeting people andseeking out opportunities to send art into space in the hopesof one day seeing this particular work sent out into theuniverse.
"Through meeting all these different companies, I have been
trying to find ways to complete this project. To my credit I
don't give up," Kac said.
Other items being sent in the mission -- which the memorial
spaceflight company has only said will launch "later this year" - include samples of human DNA, cremated remains and what
the company calls "MindFiles" of more than 200 people.
The remains of those who are being sent into space forposterity include, among others, figures such as Star Trek's

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For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

creator Gene Roddenberry and several original cast members,
as well as Apollo astronaut Philip Chapman.
"I'm definitely planning on going to Cape Canaveral, because I
want to see this rocket fly. It's going to be a very emotional
moment, I am certain," Kac said.
After liftoff from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the spacecraft will"put a lunar lander on course for its rendezvous with themoon" and continue into a heliocentric orbit around the sun,according to the company.

Eduardo Kac's artwork, a hologram titled 'Ágora,' will be preserved in a titanium caseand launched into space. Photo courtesy of CelestisÁgora and the meaning behind it
Kac's art is a hologram, a three-dimensional image formed by
the interference of light beams from a laser. If you look at it
under a microscope, you can see the interference pattern.
The hologram comes in two forms: the near-microscopic
material on which the data is encoded -- the physical object
being sent into space -- and the image created when it isilluminated.
"Lasing is a natural property of the universe. You do have partsof the universe that lase naturally. So conceivably, it could behttps://www.upi.com/Science_News/2023/07/28/eduardo-kac-send-art-deep-space-37-years-agora/4601690571040/

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7/29/23, 12:08 PM

For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

illuminated using naturally occurring lasers in the universe,"
Kac said, adding that the hologram is being sent into space in atitanium case to protect it from radiation.
"It's also conceivable that future civilizations that retrieve thiswork will have lasers."
The hologram specifically shows the Portuguese word "agora"
which means "now" when viewed. He called the uniquemedium "perfect for this particular project."Kac, whose family originated in Poland, was born in Brazil andhas lived in Paris and New York City. He chose the word
because of its differing meaning depending on the placementof the accent. The word in Ancient Greek, without the accent,means "a gathering place."
He said the word becomes a form of poetry because of thisaccent mark, a "tiny little speck that articulates space and timein the work.""This piece is rather unique in several ways. First, it's an actualobject. It's a thing, it's not a digital image, it's not an idea, it'san actual handmade physical, material object," Kac said.
"That's important because it's the first time that a physical art
object will be in permanent orbit in deep space."
The hologram's image can be propagated to a much larger size
than the device where the data is stored. Theoretically, thatsize is limitless, but at a certain size it would become
imperceptible to the human eye and require technology that
does not yet exist.
"Dealing with something both small and immense and thiscontrast between nearly microscopic and beyond themacroscopic is part of the internal aesthetic tension of thework, which is echoed in the work itself," Kac said.
Charles M. Chafer, the chief executive of Celestis and one ofits co-founders, told UPI the company is "honored" that Kac
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For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

chose to partner with the space company.
"We're honored that a talented and notable artist, Eduardo
Kac, selected our Enterprise Flight deep space mission as aninterplanetary platform to extend his work into the cosmos,"he said.

Celestis 'MindFiles' are seen. Celestis is a memorial spaceflight company and has
partnered with artist Eduardo Kac to preserve his art in space. Photo courtesy ofCelestis

An artist's love for science
Kac started to create his poetic holograms in 1983 while living
in Rio de Janiero. In 1986, he was living in New York andworked as an artist-in-residence at the Museum ofHolography, an institution that had sought to preserve morethan 800 holograms.
Over the course of the next decade, Kac created more than 24holopoems. The museum closed in 1992 citing budget cuts.
His other works are held in prestigious collections, including
the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Modernin London.

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7/29/23, 12:08 PM

For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

As an artist, Kac does make art in traditional media such as
drawings with ink on paper, sculptures, lithographs, and silkscreen prints. But he prefers to experiment with technology.
"I have dedicated my life and developed a career working withtechnology as my medium because technology allows you towork directly in the realm of the real," Kac said. "A painting ordrawing is representational, but by working with technology, I
can intervene in the physical world and reality in ways thattraditional works can't."
In 2017, the artist created an artwork titled Inner Telescopein space onboard the International Space Station. Kac
partnered with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who built
the artwork in space from items inside the space station under
Kac's direction.
That work, when viewed from one angle, shows the French
word "MOI" and from another shows a human figure with its
umbilical cord cut. It was produced by the Observatoire del'Espace, the cultural lab of the French Space Agency, andcreated with the support of the European Space Agency.
"Inner Telescope , the work I did aboard the ISS, that was 10years of work. That took me the longest to complete," he said.
"But Ágora definitely will beat them all."
Kac is in the process of creating another work to be displayedon the moon.
"It's almost like I'm collaborating with a young version ofmyself. My 24-year-old self is saying, 'Thank you for not letting
me hang here, not abandoning me and staying with me,'" Kacsaid.
"Then 61-year-old me is saying, 'Thank you for creating thisand not giving up all these years.'"

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For decades, artist Eduardo Kac has been laser-focused on sending hologram project into space - UPI.com

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