‘In outer space, you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, International politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “ LOOK AT THAT, YOU SON OF A BITCH”.’ Astronaut Edgar Mitchell famously stated.
Sounds fair – we thought. And did it.
Project description
Almost every day we travel into space. Its closest possible proximity – but still – space it is. We step into these small boxes leaving earth on vertical axes. This act itself remains unnoticed. It’s short, it’s tight, it’s a moment in transit. It remains to be an exhausting attempt of nonexistence while being forced into presence. The intimacy of an elevator is unwillingly a space of social experimentation that is most willingly forgotten. Therefore creates the perfect room for Present-Futures to intervene.
Within a 40-second elevator ride, we took our visitors into space. The elevator door slides to closing, leaving a pitch black silence. With the igniting sounds of a rocket, we launch the elevator into space. The spinning earth appears beneath their feet – getting smaller and smaller as we accent. A 3D sound installation leaves them with voices of Astronauts telling about their experiences in space and the transformative impact it had to view the world from an orbital perspective – causing as they describe it ‘a cognitive shift.’ Introducing one of the Present-Futures working principles called the ‘Overview Effect.’
Title : Elevator Pitch
Year : in 2016, Stockholm
Role : Astronaut, Present-Futures with Daniel Rossi
Is : getting you up to space
Should be : longer than 40 seconds
Will : help you to look at that, Son of a bitch.