Video installation. Red curtains, TV, game engine scene, CGI mylar balloons, subtitles generated from generative text model trained on accelerationist texts.

Soft Launch (2026) uses computer simulation techniques to inflate 3D models of NewSpace infrastructure into mylar balloons, drawing parallels with NASA’s launch of the Echo 1 satellite in 1960 – a 100ft spherical balloon used to connect the east and west coast of America via radar signals. It is presented in front of a red curtain that recreates the TV monitor in Spaceport America’s mission control room through which launches are viewed.

Echo 1 was notable for being a passive satellite, containing no electronics and consisting of a mylar surface inflated with helium. One of the first messages transmitted using Echo 1 was President Eisenhower’s speech that characterised an open and generous approach to space science innovation. Soft Launch (2026) draws comparisons to the present by inviting audiences to consider the ideological drivers of contemporary NewSpace industries. It consists of computer simulated mylar balloons created from photographic reference of rocket launch facilities in the US, accompanied by a speculative policy statement generated by an AI model trained on accelerationist texts. The result is a computer-generated video in which audiences can watch mylar balloon versions of contemporary NewSpace technologies and structures be blown by the wind across a digitally recreated American landscape, whilst reading contemporary accelerationist versions of the messages initially sent on Echo 1.

The title Soft Launch (2026) references the low-key introduction of commercial products into a market before a full-scale launch – suggesting that the emergence of fringe ideologies like longtermism and technofeudalism into mainstream American politics may be a small taste of an increasingly polemic and apocalyptic future. The balloon objects reference the inflationary tactics commonly used to exaggerate the benefits of space technologies to humanity whilst mainly consisting of hot air, undeliverable promises and tactical use of hype to enable tech companies to generate profit from investors.