I’ve been developing A Field Guide to Orbital Melancholy for the past year, and I’m so excited to slowly start sharing this body of work with the world 🛰️
A few pieces from this project are currently on display at
@office_impart , part of “drifts”, a group exhibition with the amazing
@yehwan.yen.song and
@yoshisodeoka .
Field Guide is a project about earth observation systems as unreliable narrators, spirals, competing narratives, phantom islands, reenactment, Point Nemo and a lake that might or might not have disappeared.
The videos and images in this post are part of The Lake, a real-time simulation in which Argus, an AI driven constellation of satellites, is in a forever loop of trying (and failing) to accurately reconstruct the events that led to a questionable series of images it produced.
Making this simulation would have been impossible without a few amazing collaborators:
@laenzzz (sound design) — you always create soundscapes that go above and beyond what I could possibly imagine, always so deeply aligned with the worlds we’re building. Thank you 🫶
@ailiescu7 (3D environment design) — your craft, dedication, attention to detail and willingness to dive into the unknown have been so inspiring, I can’t picture this project without your contributions. Thank you 🫶
@sofiaenriquezg (curatorial development) — your writing, ideas, references, feedback and energy to engage with a messy pile of research have been so essential in helping this work come together. Thank you 🫶
And of course thank you to
@office_impart ,
@onkaos_ and
@studiotopia.art for the trust and support. More to come ✨
![Cezar Mocan is a Lisbon-based artist and computer programmer interested in the interplay between technology and the natural landscape.At this year’s Rare Effect festival, Cezar presents Exhibit A, part of “”A Field Guide to Orbital Melancholy,”” his long-term research project that explores a speculative future where planetary infrastructure develops its own interpretive layer of reality. The project centers on a simple, yet unsettling, premise: what if a satellite started lying about what it observes on the ground, becoming an unreliable narrator of the Earth below?“”A Field Guide to Orbital Melancholy”” screens at Arroz Estúdios this Friday and Saturday for Rare Effect, RSVP now: /RareEffect2025—[PT]Cezar Mocan é um artista e programador informático sediado em Lisboa, interessado na interação entre a tecnologia e a paisagem natural.No festival Rare Effect deste ano, Cezar apresenta Exhibit A, parte do seu projeto de investigação de longo prazo «A Field Guide to Orbital Melancholy», que explora um futuro especulativo em que a infraestrutura planetária desenvolve a sua própria camada interpretativa da realidade. O projeto centra-se numa premissa simples, mas inquietante: e se um satélite começasse a mentir sobre o que observa no solo, tornando-se um narrador pouco fiável da Terra abaixo?](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6720344359433268525349_0_f6f20d9b188fae8e6eb85433b5f9ef84.jpg?o=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&h=62abb8a58e0c0edf2117fc938f527332)
