New York, NY - March 7, 2019 - Artist, designer, and activist Sebastian Errazuriz presented his latest public artwork “blu Marble” in New York beginning March 13, 2019. blu Marble is a monumental, 20-foot, LED structure depicting a live stream of the Earth from space. Visible by day and night, blu Marble invites the public to consider their presence in a form and scale that was never experienced before. This contemplative work offers new perspective on our existence and hopes to help humanity make positive change. “blu Marble is a reminder of our miraculously fragile existence. It places our very existence in perspective at a global level – as a tiny spec in space – beckoning us to live fully with an awareness and mindfulness of our limited time on this vulnerable and beautiful planet,” explains Sebastian Errazuriz.

The groundbreaking project was launched in Manhattan on March 13th, showcased at 159 Ludlow Street with a private launch at Richard Taittinger Gallery. For one night only, there was a neighborhood display in cooperation with the New Museum, where blu Marble transformed the Manhattan skyline. The artwork features a custom-created LED screen that projects Earth in real time from space. To obtain this imagery, Sebastian’s team created a bot that scrapes live photographs from a NASA satellite and merges them in an exclusive software that generates a slow progression between still images to compose a live video of Earth as seen from space.

Typically used to monitor and study daily variations of vegetation, ozone, aerosols, clouds, reflectivity, etc., these new-generation satellites allow the live stream of our ever-changing Earth. The audience passing by the installation at night sees a partially dark Earth with clusters of light and, in contrast, meteorological conditions during the day.

2019 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first person walking on the moon. This historical moment shifted the human perspective on limitation and possibility. Three years later, as Apollo 17 was on its last lunar mission, the crew took the renowned picture “Blue Marble” showing the first image of the Earth from space. The original “Blue Marble” picture is the most widely reproduced image of the Earth, leaving us with a remarkable image frozen in time. blu Marble pays homage to the iconic picture by bringing it to life and substantially increasing its size to raise awareness to our need for perspective and introspection.