Ascension is a gradient painting embedded within a large airplane fuselage, where the conventional aircraft window has been replaced with stained glass calibrated to the colors of Earth. The work reflects on the origins of the Overview Effect—before it was named, theorized, or widely understood—when it first emerged as a felt and cognitive shift experienced by astronauts. That sensation was later articulated and given language by Frank White, following decades of interviews with those who had seen Earth from space.
This window evokes the liminal, contemplative state of air travel: a rare suspension from daily life, gravity, and context. From this in-between altitude, the world below appears both familiar and abstracted—its contours softened, its borders dissolved—illuminated by Earth’s own reflected light. Ascension speaks not only to a physical rise in altitude, but to an inner elevation: a quiet spiritual shift that occurs when perspective changes, and the planet is briefly perceived as a single, fragile whole.
Dedicated to Frank White, a dear mentor, collaborator and friend.