In July 1969, much of the world celebrated “one giant leap for [hu]mankind.” Fifty years later, nothing is quite so straightforward. In Event of Moon Disaster illustrates the possibilities of deepfake technologies by reimagining this seminal event. What if the Apollo 11 mission had gone wrong and the astronauts had not been able to return home? A contingency speech for this possibility was prepared, but never delivered by President Nixon – until now. This immersive installation by OpenDocLab Fellow Halsey Burgund and Francesca Panetta invites you into this alternative history and asks us all to consider how new technologies can bend, redirect and obfuscate the truth around us.
View the project website here.
Directors: Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund
Production: MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality; Professor D. Fox Harrell, Director of the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality
Co-Production: Jeff DelViscio and Magnus Bjerg
Education Producer: Joshua Glick