I like when people are challenging the limits, in a serious way. This is exactly what will happen when Dresden-based motorcycle think-tank and design studio Hookie is building the “NASA motorcycle”.
The challenging project combines technical innovation with an artistic approach. Hookies’s keen idea is based on a study by Russian designer Andrew Fabishevskiy. His draft of a slender exploration vehicle condenses the simplicity of earlier moon rovers in a neat two-wheeler. The specialists of Hookie will transform this digital concept into a fully functional, electric vehicle.
Obviously, the bike won´t fly to the moon for real. But it will stimulate the imagination as a thought experiment – with sociocultural implications. Its construction raises questions about the future of mankind: How´s life like beyond planetary borders? How can a motorcycle cope with the conditions of space; largely freed from the shackles of gravity, in vast darkness, while cruising over perished moon dust? And how long will it take us to make this scenario happen? The radical machine becomes a reflection of utopian desires, and a metaphor for an era of transformation. In the end, it’s art.
Together with media partners Vintagent, Iron&Air and Bike Exif (plus myself as a copy writer), Hookie will document the build phase before its world premiere at the Petersen Automotive Museum (Los Angeles) in summer 2021.
