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TIME MAGAZINE SAYS...
One of the Best Inventions of 2006
With the lights on, it's just a 50-lb. ball coated with white house paint. But in the dark, Science on a Sphere represents a new way of viewing the world. Developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the technology, which uses four projectors, could initially beam only basic pictures of planets. But researchers at NASA figured out a way to use full-motion video to create a mind-bending, cinema-in-the-round experience. Their first effort is a 16-min. film, Footprints, which depicts spinning hurricanes and zooming cars. Just imagine what they'll do with the next episode of Star Wars.
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Alumnus Michael Starobin '90 is basking in the light of his new project, Footprints, that he spearheaded as senior producer for media at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Time Magazine named the film one of the best inventions in 2006.
"The technology to project spherical images
(i.e. planets)," says Starobin, "on the sphere had existed for three or four years before my work, but the technology and aesthetic
vocabulary to make new moving spherical images, and present them in the language of cinema was rudimentary at best. We worked out some
complex technical issues, and we also began the process of working out complex aesthetic and semiotic issues, too."
Interesting Fact
This project is a genuine skunk works. No one wanted to support its development. Starobin says, "Weekends, nights, brutal long days of
sweat and stolen moments brought this film to life. But now that it is done, the response both inside NASA, NOAA, and elsewhere has been spectacular.
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Audiences will be able to see this new technology in 10 U.S. cities, including the Twin Cities own Science Museum of Minnesota.
The film, Footprints, "challenges audiences to consider that the answers that individuals and societies arrive at are only as
good (or worthwhile) as the questions we ask," says Starobin "Moreover, there is an implication that what is knowable is not
necessarily the same as knowing something well. In a more literal sense, the film provides a lot of information about a variety of
science subjects, from hurricane behavior, exploration of the moon and Mars, gamma ray explosions in deep space, seasonal oscillations
of ice on Earth, and more."
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