Belgium
NEO_2034_2019-04-10-00-55-51-305 (NEO: Near Earth Object)
2019
Photographic 3D render
140 x 140cm (dimensions variable)
Frederik De Wilde works at the intersection of art, science, technology, fine arts, media arts and philosophy. The conceptual crux of his artistic practice focuses on that which is inaudible, intangible and invisible. De Wilde is a laureate and member of Royal Flemish Young Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and was a guest professor at the Artscience Interfaculty in Den Hague, Transmedia Brussels, and St. Martins College London. He has published several essays and papers with Amsterdam and Chicago University Press, Leondardo Journal, and MIT Press.
This image is a datavisualization of all the potential locations where near earth objects (NEOs) could make impact to Earth. This datavisualization was generated by a predictive software made by the artist based on data from NASA and Kaggle. In NEO, the Earth is represented as a thin sheet of paper perforated with holes. The holes represent asteroid impacts. Inspired by the event on December 18, 2018 when a space rock soared through the upper atmosphere at more than 71,500 miles per hour, broke up over an isolated stretch of the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska and detonated with a power more than 10 times that of the atomic bomb that devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of World War II, NEO frames asteroid strikes in a wider thematic exploration of subjects like impact, chance and forecasting.
Employing a minimalistic aesthetic NEO is coded such that it could also be printed in three dimensions and serve as a tangible model of the potential threats posed by NEOs. The artist aptly notes,
“Prediction is not limited to the art world. It’s important in science, math, AI, insurance, and so on. Asteroids and meteorites are messengers from space that have had a significant effect on Earth’s history and are likely to influence the future as well.”
Select Previous Exhibitions
Hyperpavilion, The Venice Biennale, Venice, IT, 2017
Art and Technology. Ars Electronica, Linz, AU, 2010
Education
Sint.-Lukas, Brussels, BE
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, BE
