Edge of Space

‘Edge of Space’, appropriates video of Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere in 2012. His body, descending at supersonic speed, tumbles feather-like in the air, before stabilising to a barely discernible, diving figure. A short-wave infrared camera; ‘JLAIR’ (Joint Long-range Aerospace Imaging and Relay), captured Baumgartner from 24 miles away. This custom-developed, high-powered optical tracking unit occasionally looses it’s tiny target, and the footage judders before reconnecting. The soft, low-fi quality also reflects the challenge of capturing a human at this distance and speed. Like many experiments in emergent astrophotography, Baumgartner’s dive is at the limits of the apparatus’ abilities to capture it. The soundtrack combines the sonic boom when Baumgartner breaks the sound barrier with an atmospheric imagining of outer space from the Warner Brothers sound catalogue. The reality of this record breaking dive reflects the physics defying nature of animation; a dangerous, crazily ambitious plan that the protagonist pulls off in style.