Latest news with #OmegaCentauri
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Science
- Otago Daily Times
Oh My God Centauri
Last weekend, after some intense strategic planning as part of my day job, I finally managed an entire night under the stars at my new observing site out in Middlemarch. No clouds. No wind. Just the hush of the Taieri and a sky so dark it felt like I'd stepped into space. I'd been itching to test my astronomy gear out there and I knew exactly what I wanted to photograph: Omega Centauri. Or, as I like to call it, Oh My God Centauri. You see, Omega isn't your run-of-the-mill deep sky object. It's a globular cluster — an enormous swarm of ancient stars bound together by gravity. More than 10 million suns packed into a ball about 150 light-years across, orbiting our Milky Way like a bee around a honeypot. It sits high in the southern sky early in the night, glittering like a celestial snow globe. Omega Centauri resides in the constellation Centaurus, a sprawling figure representing a wise centaur from Greek mythology — sometimes identified as Chiron, tutor to heroes like Hercules. It's a rich part of the sky, but few objects anywhere can compete with Omega's sheer majesty. I remember the first time I saw it, I actually gasped. My photograph from Middlemarch doesn't quite capture that gasp — but it comes close. In the image, you can see the subtle hues of the stars: some glowing blue-white with youth and energy, others tinged with orange and red, ancient and cooling. The colours tell stories of stellar lifetimes, of nuclear fire slowly fading across billions of years. Omega Centauri is about 16,000 light-years away. That means the light that hit my telescope last Saturday left the cluster shortly after our ancestors who I'm sure my fellow columnist Tom Higham would explain, were first shaping tools on the savannah. That's the magic of deep-sky photography — you're not just capturing light, you're catching time. There's something humbling about sitting alone on a cold paddock, camera clicking away, with a million stars staring back at you from the deep past. I packed up just before dawn, with the Milky Way arching overhead and a thermos of lukewarm tea in my hand, already planning my next night out under that Middlemarch sky.
Japan Times
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Augmented reality artist Omega C navigates a precarious scene for XR art
At Harajuku Station, amid the sea of street-style aficionados and busy commuters, one tall figure stands apart. Artist Adrian Steckeweh exudes warmth and grace, enveloped in a sculptural, otherworldly-looking pink jacket of his own design, accessorized with self-3D-printed jewelry, including a centipede bracelet. As we walk down Omotesando, passersby take notice. Originally from Germany, Steckeweh, 37, moved to Tokyo 10 years ago where he works as an architect. His best-known work, however, exists beyond the physical, in CGI and XR art (extended reality, which includes AR, VR and spatial computing). Under his alias 'Omega C,' he has amassed over 60,000 followers on Instagram over the past decade, with augmented reality (AR) filters that allow users to break through digital thresholds. 'Omega C,' short for 'Omega Centauri,' takes inspiration from the alpha and omega on church candles and the Alpha Centauri star system. 'I like seeing things in their entire scale from beginning to end. The end, the omega, is the best part,' he says and adds that Omega C also used to be his drag name. For nearly a decade, Steckeweh was one of the most prolific creators in the Meta Spark Partner Network, where artists pioneered the use of AR in social media, made with software that was easy to use. 'It worked with visual coding instead of written out code, which is much more accessible for people without a programming background. Other platforms struggle with that," Steckeweh says. The now defunct Meta Spark Partner Network allowed artists to create AR (augmented reality) filters without programming knowledge, as well as find fans and collaborators more easily. | Courtesy of Omega C The most prominent artists on Meta Spark, like Steckeweh, pushed the boundaries of AR by incorporating intricate animations, real-time interactions and artistic styles beyond basic overlays, setting their work apart from more casual, template-driven filters on other platforms. With Steckeweh's sophisticated filters, users could play with visuals including luminescent pearls, glass fragments and jellyfish floating in the air. As of Jan. 14 this year, Meta Spark was shut down, pulling the rug out from under many digital artists who had built their careers around exact number of artists was not publicly disclosed, but by 2021, over 600,000 creators from over 190 countries had used the platform, and its Facebook community had 142,000 members by August 2024. 'TikTok is doing more and more AR, Snapchat has been around long before Instagram, and YouTube has just started their AR platform,' Steckeweh says, before adding his measured forecast that 'the discontinuation of Spark is a clear sign of the current state of the AR industry.' While alternative platforms exist, none yet replicate Meta Spark's infrastructure — particularly its easy-to-use software and integration of brand partnerships. Steckeweh has collaborated with brands like Shiseido, Adidas and the Japanese branch of Nike, creating AR effects, graphics and animation ads, all with his uniquely recognizable aesthetics. 'I had the privilege of brands approaching me for my style. They often gave me a lot of freedom,' he says. 'My usual style of effects was more of a tool or experience anyways, so adding branding elements into an effect idea was in most cases enough to make it an interesting commercial effect.' Under the alias "Omega C," Adrian Steckeweh has created AR (augmented reality) effects for brands such as Shiseido for the brand's Aqua Play Art project. | STECKEWEH / SHISEIDO Despite Meta Spark's disappearance, AR's presence remains palpable, both online and in physical art exhibitions: Just this year, XR art featured heavily in this year's digital art festival Dig Shibuya and is the focus of the ongoing 'Machine Love' exhibition at Mori Art Museum. In 2022, Steckeweh presented an art project at Dogo OnsenArt, called 'Aida no Yu,' meaning 'The hot water in between,' featuring a real-time video installation, where based on the visitors movements, water ripples were projected on the window of a souvenir shop's storage room. One of Steckeweh's most notable projects, 'Semi Memory,' won the Grand Prize, Ultra Culture Prize and Ultra Media Prize at the NewView Awards 2022 — an annual competition for innovative creators in XR. Since its start in 2018, these awards have attracted over 841 entries from 26 countries. 'Semi Memory' is an immersive VR piece reconstructing fragments of everyday life in Tokyo, Shizuoka and Kanagawa Prefecture, reflecting on the imperfect and selective nature of memory. 'I'm fascinated by memories, as they are just recorded perceptions,' Steckeweh says. 'They are not the truth and they don't stay the same over time, which makes them weirdly metaphysical.' These themes of perception, memory and the limits of human experience permeate Steckeweh's art and inform his outlook. 'I am the only resource for any information connected to things I am perceiving,' he says. 'I don't know how things smell to other people, I don't know if the color blue looks the same to you as it does to me, and I can't experience your memories. I'm bound to what I witness for myself.' 'Semi Memory' is an immersive VR piece reconstructing fragments of everyday life in Tokyo, Shizuoka and Kanagawa Prefecture, reflecting on the imperfect and selective nature of memory. | Courtesy of Omega C Though his art has primarily been virtual, it remains deeply tethered to reality. 'I thought virtual art can exist without any coherence to reality, but I found out for myself that it needs some kind of anchor to reality-based experiences,' he explains. 'To enjoy virtual art, we need to call back on emotions and memories we gained from the physical world.' That relationship between physicality and digitality is also evident in his fashion design. Having long created pieces for himself, he recently began incorporating 3D printing into his practice. 'In a certain way, I'm augmenting my reality now with real objects,' he says. He emphasizes that his clothes and accessories are made only for himself, with no intention of selling them — his web store is just a showcase. Steckeweh has also combined architecture with his digital art at times, albeit not lately. 'I've always had architectural influences in my art, but the connections are probably not very noticeable. I dream, though, that at some point, I can create a physical space — best case, an onsen — and connect art and digital art with an architectural experience.' For now, Steckeweh continues to experiment. His upcoming work will likely include more site-specific AR projects bridging the digital and the tangible in ways that might, one day, lead to that onsen he envisions. Follow Omega C on Instagram @omega.c or visit
