At the Wende Museum, the cosmos takes on a digital dimension
· BehindLines newsroom
A meteorite, a satellite model and a work seen on a phone can share an exhibition without playing the same role. At the Wende Museum in Culver City, California, Competing Cosmologies connects space exploration with artists' imaginations. The museum lists dates from 7 November 2026 to 17 October 2027.
Objects and representations
Developed with NASA historian Lois Rosson, the exhibition is divided into astronomy, the space race, imagined futures and extraterrestrials. It brings together artworks from different parts of the world, historical objects and a life size model of Sputnik-1.
The museum also announces two augmented reality elements: the catalogue cover and Abduction, by David van Eyssen. Both use the Hoverlay application. This adds a layer on a screen; it does not turn the scenes depicted into astronomical observations.
A work occupying the screen
On its website, Auteur Studio describes Abduction as a column of figures suspended inside a cone of light. The exhibited work exists in augmented reality at the scale of the room, rather than as a physical object installed in the gallery.
The studio explicitly distinguishes the work from the still image used to present it online. That image is a separate creation made from the same digital model. It does not document an installation photographed on site.
This distinction gives visitors a useful reference point. An illustration, a historical object and a digital scene do not have the same documentary value, even when they all explore the sky. The available descriptions explain the exhibition's principle; they are not enough to judge how smoothly the application works or what visitors actually experience. The exhibition offers a meeting place for art and space, best approached while keeping these different media distinct.