Satellites that study the Earth are passing through space continuously, collecting data on everything from hurricanes to the effects of drought. NASA's Orbit Pavilion sound experience is an outdoor installation that produces an innovative "soundscape" experience representing the movement of the International Space Station and 19 Earth Science satellites. Inside the large, shell-shaped sculpture, distinctive sounds are emitted as each satellite passes overhead: a human voice, the crashing of a wave, a tree branch moving, a frog croaking. Each sound interprets one of the satellites' missions.

Orbit Pavilion is the brainchild of Dan Goods and David Delgado, visual strategists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked in collaboration with composer Shane Myrbeck and architect Jason Klimoski of StudioKCA. The exhibition inaugurates the new /five initiative at The Huntington focused on creative collaborations with other organizations. The project pairs The Huntington with five different organizations over five years, bringing in a range of contemporary artists who will respond to themes drawn from some aspect of the collections. The Library’s aerospace history holdings made this first collaboration with NASA/JPL a perfect way to launch the new initiative.

The /five initiative and the presentation of Orbit Pavilion at The Huntington are made possible by a generous gift from The Cheng Family Foundation. Additional funding for Orbit Pavilion was provided by Kim and Ginger Caldwell and the Judi and Bry Danner Fund for Presidential Initiatives.

Collaboration

JPL is a federally funded research center in Pasadena that carries out robotic space and earth-science missions and implements programs in planetary exploration, earth science, space-based astronomy, and technology development. JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech. The outdoor installation is the brainchild of Dan Goods and David Delgado, visual strategists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked in collaboration with composer Shane Myrbeck and architect Jason Klimoski of StudioKCA to produce the innovative “soundscape” experience.

The origin of a collaboration between The Huntington and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) stretches back almost a century. In the early 1900s, a handful of visionaries imagined Southern California as a global hub of learning across the humanities, arts, and sciences. One was Henry E. Huntington, who was developing his exceptional library. Another was solar astronomer George Ellery Hale, who played a central role in creating the California Institute of Technology. Caltech's pioneering work in rocket science would eventually lead to the creation of JPL. Hale convinced Huntington to envision his library as a nexus of research in history, literature, and art.

The Huntington Library today holds one of the largest history of science collections in North America. Highlights include Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius, which featured the first engravings of the moon peered through the newfangled telescope, and a 1923 logbook from astronomer Edwin Hubble on his observations from a telescope atop Mt. Wilson. These objects and others are on view in the permanent exhibition "Beautiful Science: Ideas That Changed the World" in The Huntington's Dibner Hall of the History of Science. The "Orbit Pavilion" at The Huntington celebrates the relationship between these two research-based institutions, the dynamic fulfillment of a vision first proposed almost 100 years ago.

Events

Panel Discussion: Aerospace in Southern California

Diavolo Dance: Fluid Infinities