During this project I was tasked to create a concept for a museum exhibition. The prompt for this project was to create a museum exhibition centered around a theme related to the human condition. I went in a direction related to curiosity and exploration, more specifically, space exploration. My entire exhibit, titled “Jovian Wind”, focuses on images captured by NASA’s spacecraft, Juno, and examines their likeness to expressionist works of art. Here’s a brief description of my fictional exhibition, Jovian Wind, and some information about the Juno mission:

Nasa’s solar-powered, unmanned spacecraft, Juno, was launched on August 5th, 2011 and entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4th, 2016. Juno’s mission and main scientific goals center around studying Jupiter’s gravity and magnetic fields, atmospheric dynamics and composition, interior and core structure, and origin and evolution. Juno’s mission is ongoing; the spacecraft is currently orbiting Jupiter and the science operations are projected to end in July of 2021.

The “Jovian Wind” art exhibit showcases grandiose, larger-than-life scale reproductions of some of the most magnificent images released by NASA. The images featured in the exhibit were captured by Juno’s scientific instrument, the JunoCam. These particular images have been carefully curated because of their painterly aesthetic and semblance to manmade, abstract artworks. The subject, Jupiter, is almost unidentifiable at first glance because the planet’s atmosphere fills the images with vibrant undulating color, picturesque cloudscapes, mesmerizing texture, and psychedelic swirls. For the first time, mankind is able to peer below the dense clouds and unlock the secrets of our solar system’s gas giant, Jupiter, and in the process, maybe even uncover the mysteries of the origin of our entire solar system. Experience Jupiter like never before when you visit the “Jovian Wind” exhibit this fall at the Mammal Museum.

After conceptualization of the topic, space exploration, I created a subsequent identity for both the museum exhibition, Jovian Wind, and the museum itself, “Mammal Museum”. In addition to the concept and identity, I created an accompanying promotional animation, website, exhibition catalogue, app, and mockups of the exhibition space and wayfinding in the museum.

For the promotional animation, my goal was to alter the static images that Juno captured of Jupiter by making them appear to move. In After Effects I warped the still images and made them move using the liquify effect and keyframes. There is a significance in my choice of audio, which consists of a mix of Tangerine Dream’s song “Phaedra” and Plasma Sounds that Juno captured during its fourth orbit around Jupiter.

The app prototype I made titled “Jovi-Pro : JunoCam Image Processing” works in tandem with the Jovian Wind museum exhibition. My concept is that museum goers could download the app to access a gallery of raw images of Jupiter. Using the Jovi-Pro editor they could process the raw images to their liking. When they’re done processing, they can share their images in a gallery along with other exhibition attendees. Selected images would then be shown on an LCD screen or projected in an area of the exhibition space. This would give patrons a chance to participate and become “citizen scientists” and see their work displayed in a gallery.

For the catalogue, I chose to make a loose folio of the ten images that would be featured in the Jovian Wind exhibit.  Again, I was interested in altering the still images of Jupiter. This time, however, instead of making the images move, I attempted to make them appear three dimensional. I created an illusion of depth by overlaying two similar but not identical images of Jupiter in Photoshop, adjusting the RGB channels, and shifting the placement of the images. This created a stereoscopic, three dimensional effect that makes the images push forward and recede back on the page. The folio is enclosed in a black chipboard box. Also included is a set of directions and stereoscopic lenses.