Featuring “Deep Space,” a new ambient composition by Brian Eno
Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
Otherworlds: Visions of Our Solar System
‘Atmospheres’ to open at Flowers Gallery on Cork Street, London, on November 9th
The new show by Michael Benson will feature 11 large-format planetary images of the Earth and Mars. The images in Atmospheres reveal contrasts between worlds with and without atmospheres (the Earth and its airless satellite); various atmospheric phenomena visible on … Continued
Spring Sublimation in Southern Dunes
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, November 20, 2012. 2016 Digital C-print. 72 x 119 1/2 inches, edition of 3
Natural History Museum, Vienna
Featuring “Deep Space,” a new ambient composition by Brian Eno
Natural History Museum, London
Featuring “Deep Space,” a new ambient composition by Brian Eno Photos by Lucie Goodayle
ORF
Die Presse
Review of Vienna show
Salzburger Nachrichten
Der Standard
Review of Otherworlds at NHM Vienna
Suddeutsche Zeitung
Review of “Otherworlds” at NHM London (in German)
Daily beast
SPACED OUT 02.21.16 12:01 AM ET Planet Earth As You’ve Never Seen It Before Stunning images of space explore the depths of the solar system but teach us most about our very own planet. LONDON — Marveling at Michael … Continued
“Otherworlds” Traveling Exhibition Prospectus
Prospectus for “Otherworlds” traveling exhibition
Italian piece
Daily Mail
Amazing images by artist Michael Benson use raw data from Nasa and European Space Agency (Esa) missions They’re designed to show what humans would see if we ventured to Mars or Neptune, for example They include erupting water geysers on Enceladus, … Continued
Intelligent Life
A new photography exhibition in London takes you on a tour of the solar system – and makes the surreal real For millennia, humans gazed upon the heavens with nothing but the naked eye. Then Galileo, humanity’s optician, invented the … Continued
“Otherworlds: Visions of Our Solar System” opens at the Natural History Museum, London, January 22nd 2016
Michael Benson’s new museum show of planetary photography, titled Otherworlds: Visions of our Solar System, opened to the public on January 22nd in the Jerwood Gallery of the Natural History Museum in London. Containing 77 large-format digital C prints encompassing fifty … Continued
A Plutonian Haze
Mosaic composite photograph. New Horizons, July 14, 2015. 2015 Composite Photograph. Digital C-print 35 x 70 inches, edition of 8
Crescent Earth
Composite photograph. GOES West, May 18, 2015. 2015 Digital C Print 72 x 72 inches, edition of 3 Also available in 50 x 50 inches, edition of 8
Explosions in the sky light-years away are coming into focus in ways never seen before, as are the very active volcanoes on a Jupiter moon and the rings of Saturn. They are the spectacular interstellar landscapes of our solar system, … Continued
The Economist
Renewing the lost wonder of the solar system THERE is some danger these days of failing to be astonished by images delivered from space probes. Each generation becomes slightly more inured to imagery that each prior generation would have … Continued
Guardian
When Nasa first sent lunar probes into space, the world got a glimpse of the moon and Earth in orbit. Recently enhanced, the images star in a new exhibition celebrating five decades of planetary photography For more than half a … Continued
FT
Seen from Earth, the disks of the Moon and Sun are about the same size — a coincidence that produces one of nature’s great spectacles, a total solar eclipse, on the rare occasions when the Moon passes directly in front … Continued
BBC
Fog on Mars, storms on Jupiter and fiery flares on the Sun – stunning close up images of our nearest planetary neighbours are going on show at London’s Natural History Museum. What would you see if you travelled to the … Continued
Art Quarterly
Aesthetica
Otherworlds: Visions of Our Solar System at The Natural History Museum, London, will explore the beauty of our solar system and demonstrate that the visual legacy of six decades of space exploration constitutes a visually stunning, important chapter in the … Continued
Author’s Talk: Thursday, March 5th, 2015: Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time
At the New York Public Library’s Mid-Manhattan Library, located at 455 5th Avenue (at the corner of 40th Street and 5th Avenue), at 6:30 PM
Studio 360
Over the last decade, some of the most awe-inspiring images of outer space have appeared in the books of journalist, filmmaker, and photographer Michael Benson. Combing through images produced by space probes as well as terrestrial and satellite telescopes, Benson has … Continued
Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time
blab
NPR-1
If I asked you to picture the universe in your head, you’d probably conjure up images of fiery stars and swirling galaxies. But the first observation of a solar flare was made in 1859 — and it wasn’t until the … Continued
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/book-review-cosmigraphics/
Long before Hubble Space Telescope photographs wowed us with their beauty, other images of the cosmos awed us as well. This oversized art book samples humanity’s attempts to depict the heavens throughout history. Some works are scientific; others are religious … Continued
Macleans
The religiousness of science: Pictures of how we see the universe A magnificent book presents visualizations of the sky, and the universe beyond, created over 4,000 years If a person from the past, no matter how long ago, were to … Continued
Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time in 4,000 Years of Mapping the Universe
Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time in 4,000 Years of Mapping the Universe by Maria Popova A visual catalog of our quintessential quest to understand the cosmos and our place in it. Long before Galileo pioneered the telescope, antagonizing the church and unleashing a “hummingbird … Continued
WSJ
Probing the depths of the universe is getting easier with the help of theoretical models, telescopes and, more recently, supercomputers. In the new book “Cosmigraphics” (Abrams, $50), Michael Benson chronicles the history of representations of space, from the Bronze Age … Continued
Hypoallergenic
Copernicus was convinced the planets revolved around the sun; Tycho Brahe had his own theory, that every planet except the Earth revolved around our star, then the sun orbited with all the planets around the Earth. Both offered heavily illustrated charts to accompany their … Continued
Spanish blog post
(Translation: Google Translate) If there is an ecumenical usual we shared with all men of history is the act of looking at the sky. Hence we extracted the most important ontological questions and the wildest imaginations, calendrical tools and poiesis contemplative. All historical … Continued
Pop Mechanics
Wired
What does the universe look like? How about the sun, moon, planets, and stars? These are probably question that humans have been asking themselves ever since we first looked up at the sky. A new book, Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time, … Continued
Cosmos as Masterpiece
The New York Times SPACE & COSMOS Cosmos as Masterpiece In ‘Cosmigraphics,’ Our Changing Pictures of Space Through Time By MICHAEL BENSON OCT. 13, 2014 Four elegantly cloaked, well-shod gentlemen in idiosyncratic caps peer through what seems to be a porthole … Continued
December 21, 2013 – June 22, 2014: “Michael Benson’s Carina Nebula” on view at Worcester Art Museum
http://www.worcesterart.org/Events/?id=162823
Sunday, February 9, 2014: Artist Talk: Michael Benson at the Worcester Art Museum
http://www.worcesterart.org/Events/?id=162823
Thursday, February 27: public lecture at Smith College
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Hasted-Kraeutler Gallery
Planetfall
SLIDE SHOW: MICHAEL BENSON’S OUTER SPACE
The writer, photographer, and filmmaker Michael Benson began creating high-definition composites of the solar system in 1990, inspired, he says, by “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Benson draws from a vast archive of rover and space-probe images, taken over decades of NASA and … Continued
TECHNOLOGY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ART
The New Yorker’s Tech Issue hits newsstands this week, and it got me interested in photographic projects that are anchored in various technologies, from antiquated processes to Internet crowd-sourcing. Here’s a selection of technology-based works that I find myself returning to, accompanied … Continued
19 Books That Would Make Great Wedding Gifts
Gorgeous Glimpses of Calamity
“Planetfall” at American Association for the Advancement of Science
To create his mesmerizing images of space, Michael Benson takes data from interplanetary probes by NASA and the European Space Agency, digitally enhances them, and spins them into photographs. It’s hard to know how much Benson is juicing his raw … Continued
Jupiter as Art
Creation: Our Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and its planetary system of eight planets, their moons, and other non-stellar objects. It formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud. The vast majority of the system’s mass is in the … Continued
OTHER LANDSCAPES
Human imagination has been soaring into the heavens for millions of years, but it wasn’t until 1961 that Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin actually left Earth’s atmosphere. Between 1969 and 1972 twelve Americans walked on the moon, but that’s as far … Continued
Michael Benson’s Awe-Inspiring Views of the Solar System
At the outset of both his new book, Planetfall, and his exhibition of the same title now at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, photographer Michael Benson defines the word “planetfall.” Planetfall, he states, is “the … Continued
Art and Science Converge in “Images of Our Solar System”
Art and Science Converge in “Images of Our Solar System”
Photographer Michael Benson was interested in space exploration as a child coming of age during the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. But, he didn’t pursue this interest until the 1990s, when he became fascinated … Continued
Artist Michael Benson and planetary scientist Dr. Nancy Chabot discuss the intersection of art and science
New Yorker GALLERIES—CHELSEA
GALLERIES—CHELSEA MICHAEL BENSON They may look too good to be true, but Benson’s big color photographs of our solar system (the planet Earth included) are based on data gathered by robotic space probes, which he has isolated, collated, and polished … Continued
Michael Benson, Planetfall @Hasted Kraeutler
JTF (just the facts): A total of 18 large scale photographic works, framed in thick black wood and unmatted, and hung in the entry and the three rooms of the main gallery space. All of the works are digital chromogenic prints … Continued
Michael Benson on his Planetfall exhibition at Hasted-Kraeutler
Michael Benson: Planetfall and the Edge of Space
Images of spacemen floating in the middle of nowhere can be quite awe-inspiring, but even barren outer landscapes can illicit the same response. Outer space offers hundred of thousands of great photo possibilities, but it’s actually finding great images that’s the … Continued
Curating the Cosmos
Calling Michael Benson a curator of interplanetary spaceflight imagery only touches upon what he actually does. “Curatorship is one of the roles I play in relation to these images,” began Benson via email. “I would divide my roles into curatorship, meaning … Continued
Picture This: Out of This World at HASTED KRAEUTLER
The freezing cold and below zero chill could not stop the art lovers orbiting and landing in Chelsea for the opening of Planetfall by Michael Benson on January 24th. AF touched down to be transported into the space – the … Continued
Michael Benson Gallery Opening
A Space Odyssey
By digging through the online image archives of various space probe missions, photographer and filmmaker, Michael Benson, has compiled his third collection of planetary landscape photography. The images–many of them close-ups of the surfaces of moons, asteroids and Mars–offer an … Continued
Michael Benson: “We Were Never Expelled from Eden.”
Michael Benson is a multimedia artist and journalist with a passion for space. His most recent book, Planetfall is his love letter to our Solar System. On July 20th 1969, the world forgot about its many wars and conflicts and differences—at least … Continued
Celestial imagery
PRE-SPACEFLIGHT, man used to be humbled by the sea, but even the ocean pales in comparison with the cosmic wonder and humility inspired by the best photos taken in space. And there are few collections of space photography as beautiful … Continued
A Supersized View of the Universe
The universe we live in is mind-bendingly enormous, and it can be hard to convey a sense of that vastness on the printed page. But Michael Benson makes a spirited attempt in Planetfall: New Solar System Visions(Abrams, $55), an oversized book with … Continued
A Scrapbook of Our Relationship With the Universe
In her excellent 2011 collection, “Life on Mars,” the poet Tracy K. Smith writes of “seeing the high beams of a million galaxies flick on at twilight.” That’s the kind of wonder I felt as Michael Benson’s “Planetfall” carried me away. … Continued
Planetfall: New Solar System Visions
Two beautiful space picture books by Michael Benson
Abrams is a publisher more typically known for its art books than its science books. So it should be no surprise that Michael Benson’s books Planetfall and Beyond feature enormous, beautifully detailed, colorful pictures on page spreads uncluttered by text. Actually, Planetfall contains no text at … Continued
A gallery of sublime photographs from across our solar system
Robot Photographers Tour the Solar System
Spectacular Solar System Views: Q&A With ‘Planetfall’ Author Michael Benson
Stark deserts, spewing geysers, and streaming plasma are just some of the alien landscapes pictured in the new book “Planetfall,” by Michael Benson (Abrams, October 2012). Benson, a writer, photographer and filmmaker, is the author of two previous books showcasing … Continued
Q&A With Michael Benson, Curator (and Explorer) of Space Photography
Writer, photographer and filmmaker Michael Benson has just compiled his third book of space photography, called Planetfall: New Solar System Visions. Published by Abrams, it features spectacular close-range landscape images of planets, planetary moons, asteroids and the Sun, which Benson has … Continued
Planetfall: A New Anthology of Our Expeditions Across the Solar System
We began haltingly, with rockets that scraped the edge of space with their noses; moved on to orbiters that circled us in our small, atmospheric cocoon; and, gradually, we grew more confident, sending not just probes and dogs and monkeys, … Continued
Book Review: “Planetfall” by Michael Benson
Armchair astronomer alert! If you love looking at the images sent back by the spacecraft traveling throughout our solar system, Planetfall by Michael Benson is truly an amazing book, with extra-amazing pictures. The large 15 X 12 inch pages provide great, eye-popping … Continued
Beautiful Composite Photographs from 50 Years of Space Exploration
Book turns planetary science into art
Spacecraft engineers may not think of themselves as artists, but in the right hands, the fruit of their labors can be as artistic and as revolutionary as Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical sketches — as evidenced by the stunning views on … Continued
Seeking out, re-casting, and embellishing work you did not create
Mind-Blowing Photos of the Solar System
Space Photos: Stunning Images Of The Solar System From New Book, ‘Planetfall’
Michael Benson’s Alien Landscape Photography
The Cosmos In Living Color: Michael Benson’s Interstellar Imagery
The startling majesty – and deceptive complexity – of Michael Benson’s space art can be traced back through a process he dubs “true color.” A multimedia artist, Benson is a man utterly fascinated with outer space (he points to 2001: A … Continued
mars from above; space photography by michael benson
All the (well deserved) hype about the amazing Curiosity project lately has reincarnated my love for space photography, and especially planetary landscapes. These shots weren’t taken by Curiosity, however, but almost three years earlier by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, on January … Continued
Are Those Spidery Black Things on Mars Dangerous? (Maybe)
A New View Of The Solar System
Michael Benson has created God’s own view of the universe. To make the images on display in his upcoming book, Planetfall, Benson first combed through the tens of thousands of photographs publicly available from NASA and the European Space Agency. Most … Continued
Our Solar System’s Beauty
Volcano Shoots Geyser Of Water Up Into Space
Exploring the Planets Enriches Us at Home
NEW YORK — NASA’s newest marvel, a one-ton rover named Curiosity, has been set down with all the delicacy of a carton of eggs on the surface of Mars. The perfect landing came after a complex series of automated maneuvers … Continued
Michael Benson, author, filmmaker, creator of BEYOND Exhibition
More Places Forever Bruegel-NYC sequence
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Michael Benson and Ziga Koritnik; Edited by Nika Lah; Animations by Damjan Popovic; Music by Tibor Szemzo; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures, ZDF/Arte and TVS
More Places Forever Space Shuttle-Arthur C. Clarke-Venus transit sequence
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Ziga Koritnik; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Bor Turel; Shuttle model and effects by the Vladimir Komarov Rocketry Club; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures, ZDF/Arte and TVS
test
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Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes
Hasted-Kraeutler Gallery
Volcanic Io with Two Eruptions Visible
Galileo, July 3, 1999, 2010 Digital C Print 50 x 50 inches, edition of 8 Also available in 38 x 38 inches, edition of 8
Saturn Sunshower
Cassini, September 29, 2006, Triptych, 2011 Digital C Print 35 x 92 inches, Edition of 8
Saturn, Mimas and Tethys
Cassini, July 16, 2005, 2011 Digital C Print 45 x 62 inches, Edition of 8
Europa and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Voyager 1, March 3, 1979, 2003 Digital C Print 23 x 42 inches, Edition of 8
Uranus and Its Rings
Voyager 2, January 24, 1986, 2011 Digital C Print 47.5 x 45 inches, Edition of 8
Neptune and Triton
Voyager 2, August 31, 1989, 2011 Digital C Print 35 x 35 inches, Edition of 8
central section of Valles Marineris
Viking Orbiter 1, August 17, 1976, 2003 Digital C Print 23 x 23.5 inches, Edition of 8
Mare Orientale
Lunar Orbiter 5, August 18, 1967, 2003 Digital C Print 41 x 41 inches, Edition of 8
Rhea and Saturn
Cassini, May 8, 2010, 2011 Digital C Print 35 x 35 inches, Edition of 8
Eclipse of the Sun by Earth
Solar Dynamics Observatory, 2 April 2011. 2012 Digital C Print 72 x 72 inches, Edition of 3 Also available in 50 x 50 inches, edition of 8
Cliffs and Clouds on Mars
Opportunity Rover, November 13–20, 2004, 2007 Digital C Print 22 x 58.6 inches, Edition of 8
Io Rising
Voyager 1, February 24, 1979 , 2003 Digital C Print 16 x 32 inches, Edition of 8
Valles Marineris Canyon on Mars
Viking Orbiter 1, July 16, 1978 , 2003 Digital C Print 25 x 25 inches, Edition of 8
Titan and Saturn
Cassini, May 21, 2004 , 2011 Digital C Print 35 x 35 inches, Edition of 8
Frosted Mars Dunes in Winter
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, November 26, 2006, 2011 Digital C Print 27 x 100 inches, Edition of 8
Europa, Jupiter’s Ocean Moon
Galileo, March 29, 1998, 2003 Digital C Print 33 x 33 inches, Edition of 8
Titan’s Atmosphere
Cassini, March 31, 2005, 2011 Digital C Print 45 x 45 inches, Edition of 8
Night Side of Saturn
Cassini, October 28, 2006, 2011 Digital C Print 36 x 55 inches, Edition of 8
Mimas over Saturn
Cassini, November 7, 2004, 2011 Digital C Print 40 x 40 inches, Edition of 8
Tusholi Corona on Venus
Radar image, Magellan, Sept. 15, 1990 – Sept. 14, 1992 , 2003 Digital C Print 50 x 52 inches, Edition of 8
Phobos over Herschel Crater
Viking Orbiter 1, September 26, 1977 , 2003 Digital C Print 12.3 x 21.6 inches, Edition of 8
Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum
Atlantic Space in Time
Originally published in the July/August 2002 issue of The Atlantic
More Places Forever intro sequence, with Arthur C. Clarke and Creation
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Michael Benson and Ziga Koritnik; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Bor Turel; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures, ZDF/Arte and TVS
Planetary Landscapes
In the last decade, the multimedia artist Michael Benson has staged a series of large-scale exhibitions of planetary landscape photography. He takes raw image data from deep-space missions run by NASA and the European Space Agency and digitally processes it … Continued
Palazzo della Borza, Genoa, Italy
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, New Jersey
Minorite Monastery of St. Francis, Piran, Slovenia
Credit: Bojan Brecelj
Gliptoteka Museum, Zagreb, Croatia
Swedish Natural History Museum, Stockholm
Fondazione Cini, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
Transit of Io
Cassini, January 1, 2001, 2011 Digital C Print 72 x 72 inches, edition of 3 Also available in 50 x 50 inches, edition of 8 Also available in 35 x 35 inches, edition of 8
Global Dust Storm on Mars
Viking Orbiter 2, February 19, 1977, 2003 Digital C Print 27 x 100 inches, Edition of 8
ArtNews
Some of the most beautiful and important photographs ever taken turn out to be images of outer space. These have been able to change, and in many instances form, our ideas about the universe. So it is with a shiver … Continued
American Museum of Natural History, NYC
Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle
Smithsonian exhibit launches at College of Central Florida in Ocala
Age after age, we’ve looked to the heavens and wondered what’s out there. About all we’re certain of is this: We are definitely NOT alone. And now, we’ve got the pictures to prove it. Fact is, some of the … Continued
Planetfall: New Solar System Visions
Stunning Planetary Portraits and Spacescapes
We’ve featured many space images here on Universe Today that have been produced by imaging enthusiasts who take raw images from a mission or spacecraft and refine them into what many consider works of art. Michael Benson has taken this … Continued
Beyond the Known: Michael Benson
How is it we can know what Jupiter’s Great Red Spot looks like, or Saturn’s rings, or the dusty surface of Mars, though no human has every seen them in person? Michael Benson turns NASA’s data sets and grainy pictures … Continued
When the Chains of Gravity Were Broken
Op-Ed Contributor By MICHAEL BENSON Fifty years ago Tuesday, an obscure Soviet Air Force lieutenant named Yuri Gagarin climbed onboard an eminently conventional form of transport — a converted city bus — and headed toward another order of vehicle altogether: … Continued
NYer1
Benson’s photographs of the sun and the planets have been tweaked for maximum wow effect. Digitally constructed from dozens of images taken by robotic cameras on space probes during the past fifty years, the finished pictures are so polished they’re … Continued
First Rock From the Sun: NASA Set to Explore Mercury’s Extreme Atmosphere
NYer photo booth
To create his astral “mosaics” (his word), Michael Benson surfs the vast NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) image archives, most of which have raw files ready for download, then spends countless hours combining single images into composite portraits of … Continued
Wall Street Journal – Boldly going where no artist…
A Local Artist Collects Data Sets From Outer Space and Translates Them Into Photographs Fit for Earthly Appreciation
More Places Forever Hong Kong subway Taoist-Shenzhen police sequence
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Michael Benson and Ziga Koritnik; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Bor Turel; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures, ZDF/Arte and TVS
More Places Forever Seoul riots, a tea house child, the end as beginning
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Benson & Ziga Koritnik; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Elliott Sharp & Alter Ego; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures, ZDF/Arte and TVS
True colors of the planets unveiled — “Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System”
WashPost
The sun is 93 million miles away, and the temperature at its surface is 10,000 degrees. Saturn is 777 million miles from us, and the tops of its clouds are at an icy 285 degrees below zero. Mars is much … Continued
Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System at the National Air and Space Museum
Ask an Expert — Beyond “Beyond” — An Overview of Michael Benson’s Visions of Our Solar System
NYT Beyond review
Exhibition Review WASHINGTON – When I was very young, I cherished a collection of “space cards” – trading cards that accompanied packs of bubble gum – offering exotic visions that supposedly would soon be within reach: space ships gliding through … Continued
Landscape and Trajectory
by Michael Benson Future historians may perceive that the cascade of insights and innovations which finally led to powered flight at the turn of the 20th Century – and ultimately, space travel – occurred virtually simultaneously with the invention … Continued
The Artist is Present: Marina Abramovic at MOMA
By Michael Benson To witness the exhibition “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present” at the Museum of Modern Art – the institution’s first major performance art retrospective – is to experience both the ultimate victory and the last gasp … Continued
Carrol County Times
While studying an image of the Milky Way’s largest planet [sic], researcher Michael Benson spotted what looked like a mistake. The photograph, one of more than 50,000 taken during the unmanned Voyager 1 and 2 probe missions three decades ago, … Continued
NPR Beyond at NASM review
Michael Benson — writer, filmmaker and photographer — was fascinated when, in the late 1990s, NASA started posting images from space online. “I realized those images belonged to photography as much as to science,” Benson said on the phone. It … Continued
VOA Beyond review
Images taken by manned spacecraft, robotic space probes Washington, DC — For decades, the U.S. space agency, NASA, has been exploring space not only with manned spacecraft, like the shuttle Atlantis, but with robotic space probes like Mars Odyssey and … Continued
Smithsonian NASM Beyond review
For centuries, most of our visual understanding of our own solar system has come by way of offerings from the scientific fields. Rarely have the sun and its planets been appreciated as art. In the mid 1990s, artist Michael Benson … Continued
Michael Benson talks about his exhibition, Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System, on view at the Air and Space Museum
A Space Voyage To A Solar System’s Genesis : NPR
A Space Voyage To Genesis
LA Times Far Out review
BOOK REVIEW ‘Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle’ by Michael Benson, Harry N. Abrams: 328 pp., $55 February 28, 2010 In attending to 2009’s spectacular financial crisis, you may not have noticed that it was also the International Year of Astronomy, … Continued
Let’s Build a Stairway to Mars
Op-Ed Contributor By MICHAEL BENSON Human space flight is at a tipping point. Next September, after 29 years of flights, the Space Shuttle is scheduled to be launched for the last time. The future of U.S. crewed missions is currently … Continued
More Places Forever Elliot Sharp to Navajo moonrise sequence
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Michael Benson and Ziga Koritnik; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Elliott Sharp; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures, ZDF/Arte and TVS
NYT Far Out rev
Books on Science In the universe there is always room for another surprise. Or two. Or a trillion. Take the Witch Head Nebula, for example – a puffy purplish trail of gas in the constellation Eridanus. When a picture of … Continued
Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle
Boston Globe SITES review
Photography Review WORCESTER – It’s the rare photography exhibit that implicitly raises the question, what is art? There are even fewer exhibits that, having raised it, explode the question into irrelevance. “Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes,” which runs at the … Continued
Boston Globe 3rd WAM SITES blurb
Exhibit It took 40 years of robotic space missions to collect more than 50 photographs of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and other planets for “Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes” – there must be more to it than point and shoot. … Continued
Boston Globe SITES capsule review
There aren’t any bells and whistles in “Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes,” an exhibition on view at the Worcester Art Museum through May 24. But the massive photographs from outer space, some 5 feet wide, should still rank high on … Continued
Send It Somewhere Special
Consider the International Space Station, that marvel of incremental engineering. It has close to 15,000 cubic feet of livable space; 10 modules, or living and working areas; a Canadian robot arm that can repair the station from outside; and the … Continued
NYT NJ SITES show review
Art Review People are endlessly fascinated with space, perhaps because we know so little about it. Seeing the range and beauty of the photographs assembled for “Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes” at the Monmouth Museum will probably serve only to … Continued
Examining the iconic and rediscovering the photography of space exploration in the context of the history of photography
(…) The writer, film maker, and photographer Michael Benson chose a different approach in conveying the sense of light, scale and landscape in space exploration photography. Benson researched and edited the still imagery that had been captured and beamed back … Continued
The beeping ball that launched the Space Age
Sputnik at Fifty By Michael Benson Fifty years ago today, to the delight of many and the consternation of more than a few, the Soviet Union launched something like a silver volleyball with four swept-back antennas into Earth’s orbit. That … Continued
NYT AMNH review
Sometimes the line to get into the Imax theater at the American Museum of Natural History seems long enough to stretch all the way out to other planets. Now it does. This weekend “Beyond,” a one-year exhibition of more than … Continued
Is NASA in Outer Space?
Not After a Surprise Round of Budget Cuts By Michael Benson In 1996, for the first time since Balboa spotted the shimmering Pacific from a high Panamanian hill in 1513, a vast new ocean was discovered — an ice-covered body … Continued
Just Hang On a Second
Op-Ed Contributor By MICHAEL BENSON Ljubljana, Slovenia SOMETIME between the opening seconds of Tuesday and the closing ones of Friday in Geneva, the world’s greatest watch-making center, a decision will be made that has profound consequences for our way of … Continued
Don’t look now, but Europe is in outer space
Feats of European Aerospace Op-Ed Contributor by Michael Benson LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Predictably enough, the first flight of Airbus’s elephantine double-decker A380 “super-jumbo” was a major media event. But the continent’s recent achievements in the skies of … Continued
Will NASA put an end to astronomy’s golden age?
Op-Ed Contributor by Michael Benson LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — In October 2003, the sun exploded with some of the most violent eruptions on record, spewing billions of tons of particles and gases into the solar system. These expulsions, which … Continued
A World in Words Europa: The Ocean Moon
Book Review Europa: The Ocean Moon By Richard Greenberg Springer-Praxis, 380 pages, $89.95 by Michael Benson 1. Unlike the luminous sphere visible at the moment from about half of the Earth’s surface, the moons of other planets … Continued
The Space Review
There have been a number of good illustrated books published dealing with the Sun, Moon, and planets of our solar system, but it is doubtful you have seen or ever will see a book quite like this one. The photographs … Continued
FARSIGHTED
While working on a forthcoming documentary feature, More Places Forever, which he describes as a “global road movie,” filmmaker Michael Benson found time to complete an eye-opening cinematic art book for Harry N. Abrams. Titled Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary … Continued
The Space Review 2
(…) The second book is Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes. There is perhaps no better book illustrating the amazing images sent back by JPL’s spacecraft over the last 40 years. Worthy of any coffee table, sumptuous is the best … Continued
Exploring outer space : Save the Hubble telescope
Op-Ed Contributor By Michael Benson LJUBLJANA, Slovenia— We are living in the greatest age that astronomy has ever seen. New technologies both on the ground and in space have revolutionized our ability to peer into the heavens. Over the last … Continued
To the moon and beyond : Why not bring China into the cosmic club?
Op-Ed Contributor By Michael Benson LJUBLJANA, Slovenia— A panel that has been given the responsibility of providing substance to President George W. Bush’s putative new space vision will deliver its report to the White House today after more than four … Continued
Never Before Seen Pictures of Fantastic Worlds!
Our cosmic home – so beautiful you want to take off! These are the pictures revealed by the cameras installed in space probes and fired into space to explore our solar system: fiery red protuberances on the glaring sun, dark … Continued
Europe reunited : History’s river flows through a Slovenian valley
Op-Ed Contributor By Michael Benson LJUBLJANA, Slovenia— In the summer of 1991, I went with a Slovenian friend to visit her grandmother in an Alpine valley not far from the Italian border. Our underpowered Yugo strained to climb a road … Continued
A Dust-storm in Space
(Review of German edition of Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes ) Absolute visual genius. This fantastic picture book is an excellent plunge into a strange, different, but exciting world: that of space. Years and years of work in archives … Continued
Choice magazine
Many readers can recall when the only objects in the solar system whose surfaces were mapped were Earth, the near side of the Moon, and Mars at poor resolution. Today, every planet but Pluto (including even cloud-enshrouded Venus), most of … Continued
Beyond the Blue Planet
Seen from the outside there is no misery nor crowds on Earth, no lack of resources, no garbage dumps. Instead: deep blue spots in endless green, the Great Lakes of North America. Or the delicate boot called Italy. This book … Continued
Scientists and Bush : When science was thwarted before
Op-Ed Contributor By Michael Benson LJUBLJANA, Slovenia— For anyone who ever spent time in the old Soviet Union, the recent statement by 60 of the top scientists in the United States had an eerie ring of déjà vu. The accusatory … Continued
New Views of the Nine Planets
Books about our planetary system and its nine planets are a dime a dozen, but Michael Benson’s book “Beyond” enters virgin soil. For it is less about describing how the Sun and its planets came into being, or how many … Continued
Space Travel
It’s said that Buckminster Fuller was asked shortly before his death if he was disappointed that he, who had done so much to prepare space travel, would never experience outer space. The old man answered: “But, sir, we are in … Continued
Interview with Michael Benson
Michael Benson, author of Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (read Universe Today’s review) took some time from his busy schedule, and nasty cold, to answer some of our questions about his book and interest in astronomy and space exploration. … Continued
Beautiful Solar System
Only a few days after the first edition of our new annual publication, Beautiful Universe, was wrapped up and sent to the printer, a copy of Beyond arrived in the mail. “Oh,” I thought after a cursory look, “It’s Beautiful … Continued
Can the Heavens Wait?
By MICHAEL BENSON About two-and-a-half miles above the Pacific, the world’s biggest observatory complex dominates the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Among other instruments at this site are the Kecks, the largest optical telescopes in the world; each possesses … Continued
Universe Today Book Review: Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes
People usually associate squads of bespectacled engineers and scientists as being the sole guardians of space. Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes by Michael Benson is the type of book that rationalizes and moreover encourages the inclusion of other specialists, … Continued
Michael Benson interview
Forget the Moon–Go Directly to Mars
Op-Ed Contributor by Michael Benson Ljubljana — Earth, as we have known for only a small part of the trajectory of the human species, hangs in an inconceivably vast space. That void isn’t empty, however; it’s spangled with … Continued
LA Times Book Review BEYOND
Step outside beneath the night sky, break away from the glow of city lights and the moon’s bright cast, and the universe arches above you. Space becomes time and time a pathway to the instant of creation. As sailors once … Continued
American Scientist review
BOOK REVIEW For the past four decades, robotic spacecraft have been taking snapshots of our solar system, mostly with a scientific agenda-to gather data about our celestial neighborhood. But as writer and filmmaker Michael Benson shows in Beyond: Visions of … Continued
Gale’s What Do I Read Next?
In 1949, when I was 15, I was enthralled by my copy of The Conquest of Space, with sober text by German-born Willy Ley and spectacular color paintings by Chesley Bonestell, even then the dean of astronomical art. No one … Continued
Austin Chronicle
Take a trip to the far parts of our solar system in this spectacular selection… Writer/photographer/filmmaker Benson chooses fire and ice and craters and mountains that stretch to the orbits of Uranus and Pluto.
Business Week
Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes is a collection of 295 photos of the Earth, Sun, Mars, and other planets taken by unmanned space probes. Photographer Michael Benson culled thousands of archived images for the ones he found most striking … Continued
The Arizona Republic
(…) The other books on this list offer photographs taken by humans, but these breathtaking images were taken by robots. Magnificent pictures of asteroids, the sun, the planets and their moons have been sent to Earth over the past four … Continued
CitizenJones
Starred Review Pardon my buzz but it’s been a long vacation, Pittsburgh to Boston to SF in less than ten days, and I’ve been waiting for almost two weeks to receive my copy of this book. All I have to … Continued
American Scientist
(…) Mars also makes an appearance in Michael Benson’s Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes (Abrams, $55), but here the Red Planet must share some space with the other members of our solar system. Like Croswell, Benson takes advantage of … Continued
New Scientist (UK)
On 5 March 1979, Voyager I snapped the Pele volcano erupting on Io, Jupiter’s fifth satellite. This is one of nearly 300 stunning pictures in Beyond, a collection of images beamed back from space over the past 40 years. The … Continued
Charlotte’s Creative Loafing
Beyond: Visions of Interplanetary Probes by Michael Benson (Harry N. Abrams, 320 pages, $55). This is the kind of book that makes reviewers indulge in hyperbole. A stunning visual feast, Beyond is the labor of love of author Michael Benson … Continued
BOOKLIST Beyond rev
Space-age prophet Arthur C. Clarke, one of three eloquent, forward-looking contributors to this pioneering and magnificent collection of pictures generated by the robotic space probes Galileo, Voyager, Pathfinder, Magellan, Viking, and other less commonly known mechanical explorers, describes these breathtaking … Continued
Book News
Presenting photographs from the history of robotic space exploration, this oversized book provides an awe-inspiring visual narrative of the solar system’s planets, moons, and asteroids. From the vantage point of unmanned explorers, the book shows Venus’s veil of clouds lifted … Continued
Janet Maslin NYT
”BEYOND: VISIONS OF INTERPLANETARY PROBES” will let you see what a dust storm on Mars looked like to the Viking Orbiter 2 in 1977. It looked spacey indeed.
Alibi
Beyond is an especially cool book… Benson has compiled and processed the best images he can find from NASA’s space probes. The result is an eye-popping combination of art and science.
The National Review
(…) If you want more than Mars, there’s another brand-new coffee-table book for space buffs: Beyond, by Michael Benson. Coming from the distinguished publisher of art books Harry N. Abrams, Beyond is not just a collection of pretty pictures; it … Continued
Library Journal
Starred Review Compiled by writer/photographer/filmmaker Benson – whose work has appeared in the Atlantic monthly and the New York Times — this collects 295 stunning photographs (color and b&w) of our solar system, taken by an assortment of interplanetary satellites … Continued
Seeing the Solar System as Never Before
In the end, after the observations of the ancients and the meticulous mathematics of Kepler, after the comet-frescos of Giotto and the telescopic discoveries of Galileo, after Sputnik, Ranger, and all the far-flung probes of four decades of space flight … Continued
Far Out
A SORT OF DEBATE BETWEEN ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND LAWRENCE WESCHLER ON THE TRUE IMPORT OF SOME AMAZING PICTURES OF, AND FROM, OUTER SPACE. Michael Benson is an American documentary filmmaker (creator of the critically acclaimed “Predictions of Fire, “an … Continued
NYT Hayden Beyond Launch
While images of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn filled a giant screen in the background, speakers ruminated on the topic of interplanetary photography. It resolves specks of distant light into places of astonishing form and beauty, it opens the eyes of … Continued
Images of Space get a Second Look
NEW YORK — Much like paintings of America’s Wild West commissioned by government surveyors became icons that redefined American culture in the 19th century, photographs of alien landscapes taken by the Voyager spacecraft have shaken our sense of self today. … Continued
NPR scott simon
Trawling through the Internet from his home in Slovenia, author Michael Benson stumbled upon some of the most expensive pictures ever taken: Otherworldly images sent back by the spacecraft humankind has launched over the past four decades in an effort … Continued
How Slovenian is it?
by Michael Benson LAIBACH USED TO BE A FORCE to reckon with. To begin with, the band–if you can call this ensemble of sophisticated politico-cultural provocateurs simply a “band”–were the only group from the socialist world ever to make it … Continued
WHAT GALILEO SAW
ANNALS OF EXPLORATION by Michael Benson For the past eight years, the vintage spacecraft known as the Galileo Orbiter has been tracing a complex path between Jupiter’s four large moons. During this time, it has made detailed scientific observations … Continued
September Song: Requiem for a Space Probe
From the point of view of the vintage Galileo Orbiter, which has been tracing a complicated, cat’s-cradle trajectory among the four largest moons of Jupiter for eight years now, September 21st is bound to be an interesting day. If the … Continued
Flak Magazine
Michael Benson’s “A Space in Time,” a meditation on satellite imagery available on the Internet, is one of the most sublime, captivating essays on our solar system and beyond since the late Carl Sagan hung up his pen. — Clay … Continued
A Space in Time
Click for the universe … Your home computer, thanks to the windows that NASA has poked in space, is the site of the greatest show on earth. A deskbound cosmic pilgrim beckons us to an available sublimity by Michael Benson … Continued
Art Journal
Michael Benson’s brilliant film Predictions of Fire follows a Slovene art collective in the 1980s as they redeploy vanguard symbols, both Russian and German, from the early twentieth century. They believe that these residual symbols were embers of a totalitarian … Continued
Predictions of Fire trailer (1995)
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Teo Maniaci; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Laibach; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures and TVS
Predictions of Fire Black Square on Red Square sequence
Joint action by the Irwin group and Michael Benson. Directed by Michael Benson; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Laibach; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures and TVS
“Predictions of Fire” rough-cut scene: Tribes of Europe (1995)
Directed by Michael Benson; Camera by Teo Maniaci; Edited by Nika Lah; Music by Laibach; Coproduction of Kinetikon Pictures and TVS
A LOOK BACK AT DAY ZERO
<nettime> Zero gravity theater To: “Nettime” <nettime-l {AT} Desk.nl> Subject: <nettime> Zero gravity theater From: michael benson Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 14:48:42 +0000 A week ago today, what has to be one of the most radical theater exepriments of … Continued
Tucson Weekly
A challenging documentary of art and politics in the former Yugoslavia ROCK-AND-ROLL bands usually adopt the outlaw stance towards society that Marlon Brando took in The Wild One: “What have you got?” goes the famous answer, when asked what he … Continued
Pre-Apocalyptic Non-Modernism
We are come not only past the century’s closing, he thought, the millennium’s turning, but to the end of something else. Era? Paradigm? Everywhere, the signs of closure. Modernity was ending. — William Gibson, Virtual Light All the pieces are … Continued
Predictions of Fire
Set in Slovenia, this documentary companion to Sonic Outlaws weaves newsreel footage and quotes from Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht into a dense compendium of history and art theory. It focuses mainly on the Slovenian industrial band cum “resistance art” … Continued
The Los Angeles Times
Michael Benson’s Predictions of Fireis a provocative, dense and demanding exploration of the relationship of art, politics and war as it has been played out over the turbulent 20th century in what was once Yugoslavia.It examines how the Slovenian industrial … Continued
The Gift of Sound and Vision
“Derrida said ‘The image always has the last word,’ but did he go far enough? Did the delight of his wit spoil the continuation of his logic? The word is after all an image.” — Peter Greenaway Of all … Continued
Into The Divine
Paris, rising in a frozen haze above its grand boulevards, is dreamlike in the first days of 1997. The city has always seemed to be a compound of the earthy and the erudite. But the closing years of the century … Continued
Poison Apple
(NYC industrial/gothic scene magazine) Review It is nothing less than chilling. Don’t be fooled. This film, winner of the National Film Board of Canadia’s Best Documentary in 1996 at the International Film Festival in Vancouver, does nothing less than substantiate … Continued
Out of the Present: Andrei Ujica
Ask Andrei Ujica about what it was like to shoot his second feature documentary, Out of the Present, and you won’t get what could be called a “pedestrian” reply. A Romanian expatriate academic living in Germany, Ujica is not a … Continued
Revealing The Interplay Of Art And State
Incendiary and provocative, Predictions of Fire is a documentary about the crossroads of art and politics in Slovenia, the state in the former Yugoslavia itself at the crossroads of Western and Eastern Europe. The ostensible subject of this film by … Continued
M/C Journal Reviews
Predictions of Fire Besides being an international film festival favorite (Canada, Russia, New York, Sundance, Sydney), Predictions of Fire has gained such swift cult status that it may be the only movie with a website dedicated to “all discernible written, … Continued
The Village Voice
Reviews Predictions of Fire Written and directed by Michael Benson An Artistic License Films release At Film Forum Through October 15 It’s complacent rock band that doesn’t yearn to storm the Bastille, smash the state, incite panic, and inflame … Continued
TimeOut New York
With a few notable Reagan-era exceptions, the American art world has generally kept a wary distance from politics, only occasionally being dragged into the fray as a right-wing whipping boy. Which partly explains why the work of NSK, the Slovenian … Continued
The Star-Ledger
Part documentary, part travelogue, history lesson, art lesson and political manifesto, Predictions of Fire is a unique investigation into the world of Laibach, an industrial/rock/performance/art/agitprop musical group who invoke the lost history and culture of Slovenia even while they summon … Continued
The New York Times Predictions of Fire
The notion that art and politics are profoundly intertwined may seem remote to most Americans, give or take the occasional controversy over government support for the arts. But in Europe, where totalitarian states have trampled on free expression and appropriated … Continued
The Daily News
Dissidents Raise Red Flag against Legacy of Communist Imagery The Communist culture so angrily mocked by the Slovenian artists’ collective called NSK may no longer physically exist in Eastern Europe but it remains a country of the mind — a … Continued
NY Post
***1/2 (three and a half stars) Every few months like a clockwork, the flipped-out folks who program Film Forum unleash a completely original, wonderfully weird film on us unsuspecting New Yorkers. This time around it’s “Predictions of Fire” — a … Continued
TV Guide
A documentary about the Eastern European art collective NSK (that’s New Slovenian Arts to you), which comprises art rockers Laibach, theater troupe Red Pilot and painting group Irwin. Former New York Times reporter [sic] Michael Benson sets NSK’s art against … Continued
Die Tagezeitung (Berlin)
How does Nazikunst live with disco? The documentary film Predictions of Fire sees the Laibach group as an oracle of the Yugoslav split. Are they fascists or not? This question is only bait, a selling strategy for the film. To … Continued
Chicago Reader
Michael Benson has avoided the pedestrian approach of most art documentaries in his 1995 film about the Slovenian arts collective NSK – which includes a rock band and painting and theater groups – and instead has made a brilliantly nutty … Continued
Planet Lunch
The mingling of art and politics in America is, for the most part, clear and simple: Democrats are drawn as a donkey, Republicans are depicted as an elephant, and their views are summed up in word bubbles skirting the edges … Continued
Interview With Predictions of Fire Director Michael Benson
[Shortly before leaving for the Sundance Film Festival in January 1996, Predictions of Fire director Michael Benson and Belgian film programmer and journalist Koen Van Daele – who had originally programmed the film for its premiere screening in September 95 … Continued
Neue Slowenische Kunst: The “State in Time”
All art is subject to political manipulation except that which speaks the language of the same manipulation. — Laibach, 1984 By now it doesn’t seem bizarre that independent and visionary artists would emerge from what was once loosely referred to … Continued
AS/Andere Sinema (Belgium) editorial
(editorial by Tom Paulus in the Spring 1996 issue of AS/Andere Sinema, Belgium) What do you do when everything seems normal? When history has nested itself in a comfortable present, carrying within itself virtually the future and the past? As … Continued
Ekran (Slovenia)
The classical attitude to films like Benson’s Predictions of Fire is usually as follows: We are too involved in the everyday to be able to have distance to it — thus it’s welcome that, here and there, somebody peeks in … Continued
AS/Andere Sinema (Belgium)
Is it possible to present NSK (Neue Slowenishe Kunst) on film, to find a common denominator among the rather different fields of their interests, experiments and actions? Is it possible to present their key works — or their appearance in … Continued
NRC Handelsblad (Holland)
Michael Benson, an American living half the time in Ljubljana, directed the better than very well-made art documentary Predictions of Fire, which was produced by TV Slovenia. Therefore screenings of the film in the avant-garde programme “Mind the Gap” in … Continued
Variety
PREDICTIONS OF FIRE (SLOVENIAN -DOCU-B&W/COLOR) PRODUCED, DIRECTED, WRITTEN BY MICHAEL BENSON. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, STEPHEN GALLAGHER. CO-PRODUCER, MILAN BLAZIN. CAMERA (B&W/COLOR), TEODORO MANIACI; EDITOR, NIKA LAH; MUSIC, SRECKO BAJDA. REVIEWED AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL (FRONTIER), JAN 19, 1996. (ALSO IN BERLIN … Continued
Delo 2
Since it’s hard to find something Slovenian in each corner of the Berlin Film Festival, it is correct to put the film Predictions of Fire (shown Saturday in the late afternoon), which was shot with the big support of our … Continued
Moving Pictures (Berlin)
Predictions of Fire The bitter war in the former Yugoslavia has preoccupied daily global attention, yet very few Westerners have been able to imagine how it appears from the inner life of the people. The New York journalist and photographer … Continued
On Film, Houston Tx
Predictions of Fire (Kinetikon) Best when it’s blaring forth historical truths alongside philosophical explanations of deconstruction at such breakneck speed as to make it practically incomprehensible, Predictions of Fire outlines the 20th-century history of Slovenia, from the Hapsburg Empire to … Continued
The Met (Dallas/Fort Worth)
For the Westerner, a cursory listen to Slovenian industrial art-rockers Laibach evokes a number of reactions, the first of which are laughter and dismissal. This is, after all, a group that released a track-by-track, bombastic deconstruction of the Beatles Let … Continued
The Work of Art in an Age of MECHANICAL DESTRUCTION
THE SPINNING WHEELS AND GEARS THAT DEFINED THE 20TH CENTURY IN BENJAMIN’S time have given way to the icy hum of computers and the static winking of fibre-optic communication. That which still turns is miniaturized. It’s only a truism that … Continued
Delo Predictions Premiere review
On Friday, October 20th, the documentary Predictions of Fire, a co-production of TV Slovenia and Kinetikon Pictures of New York, was premiered; the last shots of the 90-minute film were accompanied by the spontaneous applause of the audience. Predictions of … Continued
Republika
The central quality of the film is that it is multifaceted, but it clearly and understandably illuminates the theoretical background of NSK (and NSK’s taking over of the mechanisms and symbols of power in order to reveal this power). In … Continued
DELO
Michael Benson proves with this film that he has a perfect grasp of the aestheticization of politics as well as of myth- creation within totalitarian systems. Predictions of Fire skillfully exchanges archival, reportorial and also fictional scenes, which together make … Continued
Razgledje
Predictions of Fire is without a doubt one of the most persuasive — and not the least, the most watchable — contributions to the history of the Slovene 20th century, at least in the genre of tele-documentaries. With this film … Continued
Slovenec (Slovenia)
The film is as efficient as every NSK performance has been… The documentary is a skillful and witty interweaving of Slovenian history within the fabric of a Western European historical background, and it threads some of the important NSK performances … Continued
Of Transmitters and Receivers
I see cinema today as more interesting than any other form. Except that its power has been usurped. There’s been a usurper: television. That’s how I see it… with the acquiescence of accomplices – who are us, ourselves. Or versions … Continued
Predictions of Fire dialogue list
What follows is an entirely accurate account of all discernible written, spoken, sung or shouted words within the 95-minute running time of Predictions of Fire. FIRE FILM VOICE: To make a fire, we need a flammable substance, air, that is, … Continued
The Future is Now
And so, for almost fifty years, the people of the camera obscura, of the darkened rooms, have burned the imaginary to warm up some reality. Now reality is taking revenge, demanding real tears and real blood. -Jean-Luc Godard The … Continued