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ORBIT OBLIQUE TYPOGRAPHIC LIGHT UNITS Specifically designed as installations for the Orbit Oblique exhibition, these light units are a typographic tribute to the animals lost in space research from 1949 to 1990. Featuring forms derived entirely from type, the four units all feature a series of switches allowing the viewer to turn parts of the image on and off to create different typographic messages. |
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Orbit Oblique 1 |
After landing in a remote Russian farm paddock after a successful flight, the soviet cosmonaut dog Chernushka was being retrieved from the Korabl-Sputnik 4. The recovery team came across something very unexpected – a wrist watch was fastened to Chernushka’s leg. This was a total mystery, until they noticed the inscription on the back and traced it to its owner, Dr Abram Genin from the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine. It transpired that when Genin graduated from military academy he had been given a pobeda watch. Tired of the watch, Genin wanted to get rid of it but the watch proved to be exceptionally rugged. ‘I swam in the sea with it, I dropped it on the floor, but it still worked and resisted all abuse.’ Just before the Chernushka flight, Genin quickly fastened the watch to the dog’s leg, hoping he would never see it again. But following the safe recovery of Chernushka, the watch was traced back to him. Genin was severely reprimanded because there was a strict inventory of what was allowed to go into space on the flight. Genin was still wearing the watch at the time of an interview on space research in 1989. |
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Orbit Oblique 2 |
Despite being only six inches tall and nicknamed ‘Old Reliable’, the squirrel monkey Goliath was sent into space and died on his maiden voyage. An inventory of American monkeys and Russian dogs. The Russian listing highlights the fact that many were sent up only days after returning on previous journeys. |
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Orbit Oblique 3 |
The day before his flight the would-be cosmonaut dog Bobik ran away. A stray dog was found in amongst garbage bins behind the space centre canteen and immediately used as a replacement. This dog was nicknamed ZIB – a Russian acronym derived from the words ‘substitute for missing dog Bobik’. ZIB was then promptly shot into space. |
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Orbit Oblique 4 |
A series of three lights (blue, white and red) were used as triggering reactions throughout the pre-flight training of primate astronauts.Failure to press corresponding buttons in time would result in electric shocks through their feet. The array of animal space-voyage trajectories, all based on purely typographic forms. |
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