The Eye of Nowhere

Ugo Riboni and Guj Emont

Ugo and Guij’s proposal was to float a helium-filled balloon at around 100 meters above Nowhere. The balloon would carry an automated fish-eye camera, which would take pictures at regular intervals throughout the week. The plan was to assemble these pictures into a time-lapse movie.

So, how did it go?

Here is Guij’s account:

Nowhere was an incredible adventure that we are happy and proud to have experienced. We had an awesome time in the desert and made many great friends. Balloon-wise, we had what I think we can call a mitigated success.

This is a long story…

For the first few days, we dug holes in the ground to set up all the anchors we needed, and a nice landing pad. This wasn’t easy and took longer than expected. All in all, it took us quite some time to have a launch pad we felt confident with, and we were ready to inflate the balloon at the end of Monday afternoon.

Inflation was very fast (5–10 minutes), but closing and attaching the balloon properly proved to be tricky. We thought we had a good idea of how to do that, but it turned out that our method did not work properly with the pressure and movements of an inflated balloon. Had we not gone with double security on everything, we might have lost the balloon even before its first real flight! The trick was to keep the system simple.

Everything we did, including inflation, prior to having the balloon properly attached, was done with a safety net, properly anchored to the ground. You’re never too cautious with things that want to fly away! Especially if you only have one shot!

On Tuesday morning, we were ready and eager to fly the balloon and start taking pictures. We were very happy with the behaviour of the balloon with the light breeze that we had (it went almost vertical) and we took some glorious pictures that day.

At the end of Tuesday, as celebrations for the beginning of the festival were happening, the wind started to blow more seriously. We had to land the balloon quickly, with the help of a few good souls (thanks again to them: Aqua, Sam, Tessa, I think there were others but cannot remember their names). The conditions were hectic: very strong wind, and the whole festival dancing and cheering around our landing pad! We nevertheless managed to secure the balloon on the pad, and protect it under a tarp. Having nothing more to do, we went partying with the others, attending the melting of the Nowhere bell by Dave and friends (which was great!)

A few hours later, I went to the landing pad to check that everything was all right. But all I could find were two big chunks of pink-red latex on the ground… Our balloon was gone.

To say farewell, we had a simple, intimate burial ceremony with close friends on Wednesday evening.

But that’s not all. Recently Guji has been to a conference in Brussels to give a talk about the project and we’re hoping the balloon will return to Nowhere 2012. Great work, guys!