Pissarro IV successfully floated away during an unsanctioned launch at Theis Park. The event attracted friends, family, artists, and the curious passers-by. Unfortunately, Pissarro IV landed in a flooded farm field approximately 45 minutes away (driving). Ben and I tried to recover the craft, but were unable to locate it.
We are joining up with the Aeronautic Visual Art Program for Pissarro IV. We will launch an aircraft made up of a weather balloon and various artistic/scientific sensors and devices. Our aircraft will rise to an altitude of over 60,000 feet, and travel over 100 miles. The recovery team will locate and retrieve the aircraft for data analysis and artistic creation. We will have snacks, drinks, and official mission patches. Feel free to bring chairs, blankets, and whatever else you want. Aeronautic Visual Art Program founder and flight director, Benjamin Todd Wills will be there to lead the mission and answer any questions.
The distinctions between artists and explorers exist only in the process of documentation. Thomas Moran’s decision to join Ferdinand Hayden’s expedition and paint the landscape of the American West was a significant moment for westward exploration and preservation. The driving force behind each man, a shared curiosity, wanting to document and share their unfolding new world.
The Pissarro Missions are the beginning of an aeronautic investigation I began in the spring of 2018. As space exploration continues to fascinate man, not only is it essential to record the findings of NASA, the ESA, Elon Musk, and the other multi-billion dollar space programs, but to look at how exploration still exists as a compelling curiosity to the common man.
The chief mission of the Aeronautic Visual Art Program is to examine how and why humans choose to live in a world separated by temporal, spatial, and cultural borders. How does the commonality of being human change as we continue to explore an infinite Universe?
The aircrafts built for this program capture the landscape through a process of video and self-drawing. While airborne, the craft interacts with the wind, altitude, moisture, and light, creating a painting that serves as documentation of the flight — the open composition of the video and the blots of paint capture brief, physical and vanished moments, recalling the small but living brush strokes used by Impressionist painters across the globe. As seen in the works of Pissarro, Monet, Sisley, and others, the Pissarro Missions have quick exchanges with light, as they capture the integrations of the living city within an evolving landscape.