Iteration I-III· Nov 2021
Iteration is a series of generative video loops created by transforming footage from NASA's Cassini mission using a custom image processing algorithm. By over-amplifying the video signal, background noise can be lured out of previously black areas. With Cassini's camera system pointing into the void of space, the resulting noise signal could potentially contain energy from photons from the edge of the visible universe. By modulating the original footage with this noise signal, its cryptic contents are made visible.
What does it mean to point a camera at the black expanse of space? What information, entity, message, or object could be encoded in signals we dismiss as "noise"?
Cassini-Huygens, a joint effort between NASA, ESA, and ASI, was an advanced robotic spacecraft designed to study Saturn, its rings, and moons in unprecedented detail. The mission was one of the most ambitious initiatives in the history of planetary exploration.
Seeing actual moving images constructed from mission footage ([https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/cassini-raw-images/](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/cassini-raw-images/)) for the first time was fascinating. As I watched, I realised that I was as interested in the dark areas of the video as I was in the video subjects themselves - which led to a computational exploration of the video material.
The title **Iteration** comes from the processes I used to modulate the original video with the noise signal. Through iterative folding, pixel areas from both sources are combined.