For the 2015 Midnight Moment, artist Marco Brambilla created Apollo XVIII, an ambitious video installation that weaves archival footage from real NASA missions with computer-generated imagery to present an impressionistic journey to the moon and back.

Apollo XVIII re-interpreted mankind’s relationship with space exploration in the electronic age. At the close of the Apollo program and the dawn of journeys to Mars, as expedition technologies segue from hybrid manned-electronic to virtual models, the NASA Program acts as a metaphor for the shift from physical to surrogate modes of exploration. Apollo XVIII presented the countdown to an imagined lift-off of a Saturn V rocket across Times Square’s spectacular screens. The fictional mission combined both real, archival footage and virtual renderings to present a new collective viewing experience that placed the public at the foot of a new frontier.

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