Paper Observatory

Officially opening today, Saturday, January 18, is Haveit Neox's Paper Observatory at LEA25, as part of the Interim Project. This build, impressive not only for its scale and complexity, but also for having been constructed in only a couple weeks, is a large circular city, with buildings radiating out from a central plaza at which some sort of gathering is taking place. Towering 120 meters up over the city is an enormous observatory, crafted of paper, bits of which have broken loose and are drifting in the winds. (The papers, if you can catch a glimpse of them, are notes and thoughts on the building of the space.) On April 10, part of this build will reappear at Haveit's main sim, ACC Alpha, to replace an old Paper Tower there that the artist constructed in his early days. "Only the floating observatory and the round arena below it will eventually be transferred. The rest of the circular city is just too large to fit into ACC Alpha. It was an idea I've wanted to try out, and this gave me the opportunity to see how it would look, but unfortunately, it will be lost—just no room for it," he explains to me.

There are really two worlds in the build: the lower levels, where rituals are taking place in a time of superstition, and the Observatory, representing a new era in which discovery reigns. Haveit continues, "Another reason for the Observatory is to bring new ideas into ACC Alpha. The sim has always been focused on the arts. The Observatory will be a place where Science is displayed. As I find fine videos on YouTube and Vimeo, I'll make posters about them with a link so visitors can enjoy the information. It's kind of like a library of films that I want to continually revisit, and make available to others. Another thing that is new, or rather growing, is the focus on light. I based the Observatory on a picture of an interior of a Turkish building. I wanted to capture the interesting lighting coming from above." Much more on the ideas behind the Paper Observatory are available on Haveit's blog, ACC Alpha, in this post.

As part of the opening, Haveit will be creating a machinima about the project today at 1 pm slt, and you're invited to join and to orbit the space around the Observatory. He's especially interested in people dressed as a star or satellite or the sun, however one might imagine them to be—but you can also just come as you are. Even if you aren't able to join for the machinima, don't miss this exceptional creation, which will remain on display until the end of January.