"Humanity must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will we fully understand the world in which we live." - Socrates

I have a story to tell. I had the lucky opportunity to go to Russia and Kazakhstan in 2005 to witness the launch of the Russian Soyuz rocket that transported Greg Olsen the 3rd Space Tourist to travel to the International Space Station. I performed a violin serenade at T-minus 30 seconds at 200 meters away. It was a powerful and life changing experience for me.

During my trip to Russia, I had the honor of meeting NASA astronaut Mike Fincke in Star City, Moscow (where all the astronauts train). I asked Mike, “What changed for you when you went into space?” - He replied that before leaving Earth, as a planetary scientist, his favorite planets were Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, but once he left our home planet, and took a glance out the window of the International Space Station, 400 kilometers up, he said he was mesmerized by our blue sphere; "I fell in love with Planet Earth".

This spiritual and cognitive transformation is shared by many astronauts who go to space, with Apollo astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell (founder of IONS, the Institute of Noetic Sciences) perhaps spearheading this movement since his walk on the moon. The experience of viewing the Earth from space inherently expands consciousness, and hearts, bringing an evolved holistic understanding of the Earth's Unity – a concept known by the term "Gaia".

Mike Fincke’s profound experience inspired me, and planted the seed for this project. I felt a simple story of gaining a different perspective of our home, could have a profound impact on the individual and the world. This was an idea I had to pursue!

With the increasing global and ecological chaos we keep seeing, I believe a bigger view of the planet we live on must be experienced, not just intellectualized. Looking beyond race, religion, and nation states is critical, to ensure the meaningful survival of our species. The first images of Earth introduced from the Apollo Missions decades ago literally changed the world. We now need to take the next step from looking at photos, to direct experience. How do we begin to do this?

I am proposing a way, to simulate this experience of seeing the Earth from Space, for everyone. I call it Gaia Wow ; a consortium of cutting edge space, earth, and culture related events and media projects. The mission is to gain a more integral understanding of planet Earth and to catalyze a more forward thinking human species by providing different perspectives of our world, by fusing science and art into mainstream culture. Utilizing various space technologies, from orbital simulation software in dome theaters, to actual utilization of emerging space travel opportunities, the Gaia Wow project delivers the best of cutting edge space technology, art, and culture for a mainstream audience.

It is my aim to provide the opportunity to celebrate our natural and cultural heritage in ways that have never been possible before. Two Projects, “Gaia Dream Theater” and “Gaia Journeys” are now in production. Here are descriptions of both projects.

GAIA DREAM THEATER:

Gaia Dream Theater is a large outdoor multimedia event in 2008 in New York & Japan, celebrating our cultural and natural heritage by bringing rich and expanded perspectives of our home planet for a live audience. A story of ever expanding windows to the world is expressed by top stage performers of music and dance from around the world, through projected visual storytelling on large HD screens, and with the ultimate view of the Earth from space projected on screen via real-time video feed from an astronaut orbiting in the International Space Station during the event. It will be the first live artistic Earth-Space collaboration in history. Gaia Dream Theater is the ultimate fusion of science and art to deliver a profound experience to a global audience, a message of evolving our sense of community - seeing the world as one.

GAIA JOURNEYS:

Gaia Journeys is a collaborative multimedia musical and virtual reality art performance conceived by audiovisual artist Kenji Williams, with the aid of staff at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and using imagery by panorama photographer Greg Downing. Inspired by astronauts who spoke of seeing a borderless world from orbit, Gaia Journeys' chief goal was to deliver this experience to museum audiences by surrounding them with photo-realistic virtual depictions of the globe from near Earth orbit within an immersive virtual environment tightly choreographed to live musical accompaniment. Gaia Journeys took place in the high resolution digital "fulldome" Gates Planetarium, where audiences were taken on an audiovisual virtual exploration of the Earth from orbit as astronauts would see it, as well as from the surface through spherical panoramic photography. During the performance, Williams played the violin and keyboards, enhancing a self composed soundtrack, while the virtual Earth from SCISS AB's Uniview software was navigated live. Uniview allowed the audience to simulate orbital flight with high resolution imagery and digital elevation maps of the virtual globe. During excursions to specific surface locations on the Earth, eighteen separate high resolution digitally-stitched spherical panoramic photos were faded in and panned across. The six tracks of audio were 3D spatialized to the 16.1 sound system of the Gates Planetarium, providing an immersive sound experience to match the visuals.

The official Kenji Williams website is www.KenjiWilliams.com

"The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes. The knowledge came to me directly." Dr. Edgar Mitchell after the Apollo 14 mission.