SPACE BALLOON PROJECT

In this project, based on the theme “connecting this planet’s feelings,” a Galaxy SII smartphone was attached to a special balloon that enabled it to fly 30,000m into the stratosphere above the state of Nevada in the USA. Scenes from the flight, which lasted about 90 minutes, were broadcast on USTREAM via satellite communications. In addition, “messages you want to deliver to space,” which had been solicited via Twitter, were displayed on the Galaxy SII during the flight, and were transmitted across the globe in real time, along with the views from space. Amidst the harsh communications environment, there were many tweets supporting the Japanese and American staff who had done their utmost to ensure the success of the project, and the total audience topped 380,000 people.

Delivering short messages to space during 3 miraculous days
This project combines the sharing of a simultaneous audiovisual experience using the Internet with an experience for oneself alone using social media. Although it compiles these experiences into an immense advertising project on the subject of smartphones, it has a certain handmade quality to it, as one can see the faces of the creators. In a variety of senses, this project symbolized “2011.” Looking back, most of the works that made the greatest impression this year took the form of “events,” whether they used video or appeared as apps. Changes in the media environment have made people seek “that.” This work is the one that has most accurately and efficiently met these demands from such people. The attention-to-detail that can be seen in such matters as the selection of musicians and the vision of the staff has helped to create a pleasant work.