ORBITING is a transdisciplinary collaboration between artist Thom Kubli and MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group. It aims to build a machine that could defy gravity through the continuous reproduction of floating objects. The research and production processes entailed a series of interdisciplinary dialogues between visual arts, materials science, and machine design. The film is a speculative derivative addressing the fundamental nature of a future machine and the human endeavors to create it. It looks into the capacity of a physical apparatus to operate on a symbolic and aesthetic level, generating unconventional knowledge and profound new experiences.
The dream of weightlessness recalls Leonardo da Vinci's early construction drawings of flying machines. It exposes the human fascination for dwelling in zero-G – leading to one of the first Renaissance machine concepts. Da Vinci's blueprints remained a speculation at his time but disclosed the forecasting power of aesthetics. It prompts us to evolve machines beyond their utilitarian use by inscribing dream states and speculative prospects. The Tangible Media Group, led by Professor Hiroshi Ishii, teamed up with artist Thom Kubli to design a novel device challenging the physical realities of gravity.