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Design

You're Invited to Help Hack Floating Environmental Sculptures

In London this weekend, come help drive the next stage of Tomás Saraceno's open-sourced art and science project, 'Aerocene.'

Aerocene, launches at White Sands Dunes, 2015. Photography: Studio Tomás Saraceno.

Developers, designers, artists, data scientists, and creative technologists in London are invited to join in a hack event this coming weekend taking place at the Royal College of Art. The event, Aerocene Campus, is a collaboration with artist Tomás Saraceno and the Exhibition Road Cultural Group. It is the group's first public commission and involves working on Saraceno's open source Aerocene project.

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The project, instigated by Saraceno but constantly evolving thanks to many global collaborators, concerns the Aerocene Explorer—air-filled sculptures that allow emissions-free exploration and analysis of the air and atmosphere, which get their buoyancy from the sun's heat along with the infrared radiation from the Earth's surface. Once in the air they are carried by jet streams and, equipped with a camera and sensors, they can take and stream aerial photos and record air temperature, humidity, and air pressure.

Aerocene Gemini on a free flight from Berlin to Poland in August, 2016. Posting Aerocene explorations on the occasion of #COP22 - most important now! #ActionTime @cop22ma @unfccc #tomassaraceno #aerocene #aeroceneexplorer

A photo posted by Tomás Saraceno (@studiotomassaraceno) on

Nov 10, 2016 at 3:54am PST

The event will look at taking the project to the next stage. Looking at how flight paths can be predicted using current data, how the equipment can be broadened to record more data when surveying and sampling aerial biodiversity, and how radio communications can be developed to further aide with tracking and retrieval. Experts and participants from the Natural History Museum, Serpentine Galleries, Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Geographical Society, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Goethe Institute wlll be there.

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“Inflated by air, lifted by the sun, carried by the wind, the Aerocene project questions and seeks answers to our current dependency on fossil and hydrocarbon fuels and pollution," says Saraceno. "I am delighted to take forward the next stage of the journey with the Exhibition Road Cultural Group, building on the co-operative work already developed through numerous collaborations.”

Museo Aero Solar in Prato, Italy, 2009. Photographed by Janis Elko © Museo Aero Solar, 2009. #tomassaraceno #aerocene #flyforchange #flysharing #art #artist #community #museoaerosolar #contemporaryart #sculpture #aerosolar

A photo posted by Tomás Saraceno (@studiotomassaraceno) on

Dec 1, 2015 at 9:34am PST

Aerocene Campus will take place Saturday November 26 from 9:30 AM – 6:30 PM at Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London. Find out more information here. Find out more about Aerocene at Exhibition Road here. Learn more about Tomás Saraceno's artworks at his website here.

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