We're Mans and Jenne, a DJ duo from the Netherlands. After watching Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine on Netflix, we couldn't stop talking about what it would feel like to actually be out there. Alone, unfolding in silence, looking back at the very beginning of everything.
So we decided to answer that question the only way we know how: through music.
The result is Feeling JWST, a passion project. It's four phases, each following a chapter of the JWST mission:
- Phase 1: "Launching James" (December 25, 2021, French Guiana, the countdown begins)
- Phase 2: "Overview Effect" (a pale blue world below, no borders, just silence)
- Phase 3: "Unfolding" (344 single points of failure, every panel holds its breath)
- Phase 4: "Into the Unknown" (light arriving from places older than memory)
Throughout all four phases, we wove in real NASA audio fragments from the mission. The countdown, the separation calls, mission control communications during the unfolding. Those sounds surface at the moments they belong, the actual sound of each chapter as it happened, 1.5 million kilometers from home.
We also built an interactive website where you can scroll through the entire journey: https://jameswebb.space
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6GYC-SDBHEvbO1-niSBB3RzNl3GWOaA8
Not a commercial project. Just two people who fell in love with a telescope and wanted to make something with it.
Would love to hear what this community thinks. Especially if anyone recognizes the NASA audio fragments we used.
by Mansbooijink