How Many Planets In The Solar System?​

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"HMPITSS takes the viewer on a hypnotic condensed celestial journey, to a simultaneously unsettling and deeply soothing effect."

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Eve Tagny, Artist

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In 2006, when the International Astronomical Union modified the criteria to define planets, the count of recognized planets in the solar system dropped from nine to eight. This fascinating scientific revision demonstrates perfectly the ever-evolving nature of knowledge.

 

HMPITSS is an audiovisual art installation that explores the concept of classification and the desire for control pertaining to it. Creating names, definitions, codes, systems, has always helped us to make connections and most significantly, to remember and be remembered.

 

The artwork aims to establish connections between the methodical and the existential meanings of planets, and to offer a reflection on how our existence is inextricably linked to these latter's position in the known universe.

 

The piece consists of eight reflective screens onto which are projected four thematic sets of evolving visual symbols, inspired by the different criteria used to define planets.

 

The audio composition is based on a structure that uses frequencies related to the rotation, sidereal period and circumference of each of the eight planets.