Tokyo based artist Makoto Azuma, for his latest project titled "Exobiotanica”, teamed with Sacramento-based JP Aerospace - a volunteer-based organization that constructs and sends vessels into orbit, to launch a Japanese white pine bonsai and an arrangement of flowers into the stratosphere. Using Styrofoam and a very light metal frame, the team created two devices to attach the 50-year-old bonsai and the flowers, which were then launch separately using Helium balloons. Azuma attached still cameras and six Go Pro video cameras tied in a ball to record the trip into the stratosphere.
”I wanted to see the movement and beauty of plants and flowers suspended in space,” Azuma later explained T Magazine. After both pieces went up, Azuma embraced his team warmly and smiled. “I always wanted to travel to space,” he said. “This is a dream come true.”
The bonsai soared to 91,800 feet until the helium balloon burst, while the flower arrangement rose to 87,000 feet. Both devices were retrieved about five miles from the launch site, but the plants were never found.
via My Modern Met
Something about that first shot of the Bonsai suspended over the Earth is just incredible.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! This is brilliant.
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