about ouroboros
Artist Kate Doyle initiated a project to blend arts and science through numerous conversations with NASA’s Dr. Piers Sellers
Ouroboros
Art and science unite to save the planet.
The Ouroboros Project began in 2016. The idea was to make captivating multidisciplinary art out of NASA satellite data. What started as a video installation that would amaze people with how beautiful and complex earth’s systems are, blossomed into an ambitious campaign aimed at raising awareness of climate change. Ouroboros fosters an exchange of ideas, while supporting a community of people willing to take action as soon as possible, in any way possible. Our mission:
To bring art, science and people together to save the planet.
Ouroboros takes many forms. It premiered as a multiple chamber artwork that visitors of any age could explore. Each chamber is full of video and sound, based on live satellite data that is made into animations by NASA scientist-animators, then transformed by the Ouroboros team into artistic representations. This has the effect of highlighting different aspects of the planet’s natural systems and the impact our actions have on them. Ouroboros has also taken shape as a single space exhibition with accompanying educational programs developing in collaboration with NASA; as workshops tailored to different audiences (and primarily young people everywhere); and as a TED-talk style presentation with accompanying video and a panel of scientists and artists. Soon it will be a VR experience and a video game. Its educational program will be available by cell phone.
the origin of ouroboros
Artist Kate Doyle initiated a project to blend arts and science through numerous conversations with NASA scientist and astronaut, Dr. Piers Sellers, former director of Earth Sciences at Goddard Space Flight Center, deputy director of Science and Exploration, and with his eminent colleagues, Dr. Compton Tucker, senior earth scientist, Lisa Callahan, Peter Ma, scientist-animators Greg Shirah, Lori Perkins, and Bill Putman based at Goddard, and Dr. David Randall and Dr. Scott Denning at Colorado State University.
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, Dr. Sellers chose to spend the last year of his life vigorously promoting climate change awareness and solutions for the challenges to come. He passed away in 2016.
His commitment and optimism inspired Kate to found Ouroboros, a flexible, multiple-platform campaign that seeks to raise consciousness of climate change, to inform people on what they can do, and create a call to action. By making porous the boundaries between art, science, and education, and by immersing people in the realities of what is to comes, Ouroboros seeks to support effective disruption of climate change.
The concept of Ouroboros and its forms, the dragon or serpent chasing its own tail, is one of the most ancient of human intuitions and symbols. Echoing another early formal idea, the labyrinth, Ouroboros is an expression of the constant cycles of nature, of their irrefutable power, and of a human place within these robust yet delicately balanced systems. It seems fitting that this project have its roots in the most ancient perceptions, and its flowering in cutting edge satellite data blending with intuitive aesthetics.