Kinetic video sculpture working with cosmic data: vertical light box with LCD/LED display, through which mechanical arms periodically flip polarizing filters; visibility of satellite image is controlled by physical orientation of filters. The work oscillates between pure white surface and fragmented display of water bodies with vegetation.. High-brightness LCD/LED panel in lightbox, aluminum structure, 12 microservomotors (6 on each side), polarizing film in modular segments, control microcontroller (ESP32/Arduino). Result is a continuous projection of water micro-world.
| Series | Magna Mutatio |
| ID | 2025-MM-AVR-01 |
| Date of origin | 17.4.2025 |
| Technique | Kinetic video sculpture working with cosmic data: vertical light box with LCD/LED display, through which mechanical arms periodically flip polarizing filters; visibility of satellite image is controlled by physical orientation of filters. The work oscillates between pure white surface and fragmented display of water bodies with vegetation. |
| Dimensions | 2215 × 1828 × 1504 mm |
| Duration | Continuous, generatively looped playback |
| Software | Custom patch in TouchDesigner / Python module „AquaViridis Engine v1.0“ for playback and layering of satellite video (Sentinel-2); control script for sequencing servomotors (MicroPython/Arduino). |
| Hardware | High-brightness LCD/LED panel in lightbox, aluminum structure, 12 microservomotors (6 on each side), polarizing film in modular segments, control microcontroller (ESP32/Arduino). |
| Data source | Satellite multispectral images from Copernicus program (ESA, Sentinel-2) mapping temporal changes in vegetation and water bodies. Data converted into time-lapse sequences emphasizing chlorophyll and water indices. |
| Interaction | Contemplative, environmentally-sensitive; primarily autonomous machine movement without direct viewer input. Interaction occurs at level of perceptual tension between seeing/not-seeing. |
| Location of origin | Galerie Display, Prague, CZ |
| Type of exhibition | Gallery installation |
| Curator | Kateřina Svatoňová and Jiří Sirůček |
| Photo | Author archive / Jan Kolský |
| Author of text | Kryštof Brůha |
| Key concepts | Techno-fossil, data metabolism, hyperobject of water, non-human labor, cybernetic feedback loop, ephemeral archive, perceptual apparatus |
| Text title | Aqua Viridis: The Data Breath of a Water Hyperobject |
| Date | Exhibition |
| 17.4.2025 | Mimo vidění: Ne-lidská gesta kamery – Galerie Display, Prague |
| Series | Related works |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Aeris Chronos (2025) — sibling — polarizing filters, same exhibition |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Aurei Montis (2023) — predecessor — polarizing filters as cognitive tool |
| Speculative Topographies | Laboratorium Sine Operatore (2025) — sibling — polarizing filters + actuators |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Yamaneko (2022) — conceptual source — principle of ephemerality, cybernetic loop |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Gelu (2022) — sibling — data metabolism, ephemeral archive |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Lake MacKay (2022) — sibling — ephemeral water bodies, Sentinel-2 |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Tajo-Setubal (video) (2025) — sibling — liquid archive, non-human labor |
| Magna Mutatio | Magna Mutatio — Tajo-Setubal (print) (2025) — sibling — hydrodynamic portrait, data metabolism |
CONCEPT
Aqua Viridis explores the perceptual tension between seeing and non-seeing as an epistemological problem. ESA multispectral satellite data (Sentinel-2)—mapping temporal transformations of vegetation and water surfaces—are converted into time-lapse sequences that emphasize chlorophyll and water indices. However, these data are not presented as a transparent window into reality, but rather as a fragment that appears and vanishes in accordance with the physical movement of polarizing filters.
The principle derives from Yamaneko: data are born from chaos, exist as a fleeting pattern, and vanish. While the cyclone was reconstructed as a time-lapse sequence in digital entropic noise, here water gains a body. Servomotors controlled by ESA data periodically cover the luminous panel; the image is not displayed smoothly, but in jerks, in sudden flashes, in moments of silence. Transience materializes in motion.
The mechanism of the work stems from a cybernetic feedback loop: data drives movement, movement alters the orientation of the filters, and the filters modulate the visibility of the image. This autonomous loop does not require a viewer to function, yet the viewer complements it with their presence—becoming a witness to other-than-human labor, where the machine controls and observes itself. The hyperobject of water—a system transcending the human scale—materializes here in a kinetic rhythm that is simultaneously precise and unpredictable.
The polarizing filters are not an optical effect, but a cognitive tool. Their tilting evokes how satellite sensors „see“ the world through a specific spectral window—what is invisible to the human eye becomes representable. The white area is not an absence of the image, but a reminder of the selectivity of every representation. Technology does not reveal reality in its entirety, but produces new kinds of invisibility.
Aqua Viridis represents a shift within the Magna Mutatio series: from static representation to physical process, from fixation to breath. While prints and videos preserve data in an immutable form, the kinetic video-sculpture allows the data to breathe—its mechanical rhythm is a metaphor for a planetary metabolism that continues regardless of human attention. Here, the techno-fossil is not an artifact of the past, but a living organism that persists as an ephemeral archive in motion.
GALLERY
