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Airshow film by Cornucopia TV

23/04/2012

 

The film was shot on Canon 5d Mk2 by Bernard Zieja, Edited by Sarah Gray, Produced and Directed by Ben Dickey of Cornucopia TV

Related articles and events

• The Great Glen Artists Airshow
• Come Fly With Me

Edinburgh Art Festival to feature Primate Cinema Apes as Family

28/03/2012

The Arts Catalyst are delighted to announce that Rachel Mayeri's commission has been selected for the international line up for this summer's Edinburgh Art Festival.  The 22 minute dual screen installation has been selected for exhibition alongside work by Philip Guston at Inverleith House, Dieter Roth at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Melvin Moti at National Museum of Scotland, Tim Rollins & K.O.S and Donald Judd at Talbot Rice Gallery, Robert Kusmirovski, Hermann Nitsch and Art & Language at Summerhall.

Edinburgh Art Festival website

Related articles and events

• Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, Rachel Mayeri

Line up for KOSMICA Paris announced

13/02/2012

With a focus on Artists working with satellites, tonight's presentations will be made in a mixture of French and English, the line up includes:

Roger Malina, astronomer, editor and Distinguished Professor of Art and Technology at the University of Texas, where he is developing Art-Science R and D and Experimental publishing research. Malina is the former Director of the Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence and his specialty is in space instrumentation; he was the Principal Investigator for the NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite at the University of California, Berkeley.

Nelly Ben Hayoun considers ‘Surreal Interactions’ and proposes how we could embed creativity in our daily lives. With creations like The Soyuz Chair, Royal College of Art Design Interactions MA graduate, Nelly explores the possibilities of space tourism, weightlessness and the thrill of the unknown.

Marko Peljhan is professor in interdisciplinary studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since 2005 he has been coordinating the design and utilisation projects, including the development of a polar orbit microsatellite, for the final Arctic and Antarctic Makrolab missions as part of the International Polar Year (2007/2008). Pelhjan is flight director of zero-g flights 1-3 with the Noordung group, and organiser of flight 1 with the GCTC with Kitsou Dubois.

Juan José Díaz Infante's Ulises is a nanosatellite being launched soon.  It explores the need of any citizen on Earth to be able to shape any future he wants not being dependant on the system. Juan will recount the personal journal of the mission’s director, a day-to-day journal of his experiences as this project has taken shape. A story worth telling.

Regina Peldszus asks - how will we actually live in space?  Regina Peldszus’s work in space architecture and design explores the psychological challenges of isolation and monotony of space crew on extended exploration missions. And concerns human-technology-nature interaction in extreme environments, off-duty and medical design aspects in space and their spin-offs.

Kosmica is an endorsed project by ITACCUS. This event occurs before the annual ITACCUS meeting at the the International Astronautical Federation, a worldwide federation of organisations active in space.

Related articles and events

• Kosmica Paris. Une réunion galactique pour les esprits à la curiosité cosmique

Moon Goose Colony - the film

10/02/2012

Watch Agnes Meyer-Brandis' documentary about the making of Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Bird Migration Facility

In acknowledgement of the AV Festival 12 theme - As Slow As Possible - Meyer-Brandis' documentary film about the creation of Moon Goose Colony, and the astronaut training of her Moon Geese, is being shown in 19 episodes which will be released - slowly - over the next six weeks here.  The Introduction and chapters 1 and 2 are released online today.  Alerts announcing release of future chapters will be posted on our FaceBook page and Twitter feed.  Best of all, come along and see the 20 minute film which will only be seen in full in the AV Festival installation at Great North Museum during March.
 
Watch find out more about Moon Goose Analogue and watch Agnes Meyer-Brandis in conversation with curator Rob La Frenais here.

Commissioned and curated by The Arts Catalyst and FACT for Republic of the Moon, which continues at FACT Liverpool until 26 February 2012, supported by an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts.
 
Moon Goose Colony, 2011, a project during the artist’s residency at Pollinaria, Italy, is the site of the remote analogue habitat it is where the colony of moon geese were raised and are housed.

Related articles and events

• Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Migration Bird Facility, Agnes Meyer-Brandis
• Republic of the Moon

As Slow As Possible, AV Festival 1-31 March 2012

16/01/2012

“There’s this German artist, see, who wants to fly to the moon. No she’s not in a space training programme. She’s going to let herself be towed there by geese. Bear with me...." 

Mark Sherrin's Criticismism art blog, 5 January 2012.

Agnes Meyer-Brandis' Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Bird Migration Facility will be presented as part of the AV Festival at the Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, for the duration of March.  The commissioned work is currently on show as part of Republic of the Moon at FACT, Liverpool.

The full AV Festival programme is now online. The programme includes 22 exhibitions, 34 film screenings, 15 concerts, 6 walks and a 744-hour continuous online radio. Our 24 Hour Launch, Opening Weekend, Slow Cinema Weekend and Equinox Music Weekend programmes are full of new commissions and UK Premieres.

Professional registration is still open for arts professionals who intend to visit the Festival. Your registration provides FREE invitations to all 22 exhibition previews as part of our 24 Hour Launch from Thu 1 – Fri 2 March 2012, plus a personal itinerary to make sure you don’t miss anything. It also includes limited FREE tickets and special offers for events during our Opening Weekend from Fri 2 – Sun 4 March 2012. Complete the registration form here. Registration closes on 13 February 2012. 

To be sure you don't miss special events with the artist in the Moon Goose Analogue, sign up for The Arts Catalyst ebulletins here.

Related articles and events

• Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Migration Bird Facility, Agnes Meyer-Brandis
• Republic of the Moon

Occupy the Moon

14/12/2011

Occupy the Moon

by Tony White

 

'Fifthly,' I said, 'BEARING in mind that by large PAY and much free-quarter with the resources of the Moon they bought the right to be Justices and Rulers by a bloody and subtle thievery. We object to the rescue of very rich men over the enslaved...'

'And so on. Um,' I found another fragment: 'Sixthly, RECALLING the free use of outer space...' but before I could continue she reached over, and took the tablet out of my hand.

'What was that bit about manure?' she asked, waving back up through the text to read it aloud:

"RECOGNISING, secondly, the importance of wit and play in exploration, the achievements of subtle imagination and ingenious wit, we began by dealing briefly with the argument through observation, though our difficulties were great. One not inconsiderable inconvenience being distance, though the Earth is our next door neighbour. The digging up and appliance of manure, the sowing of corn, is the solution of our mystery: our Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis. We desire the Moon to be a common treasury of relief for all. Yet that Moon which should be a common store house was bought and sold and kept in the hands of the few.

Demonstrations arose, for none should dare to seek a dominion over others, neither shall any dare to kill another, none desire more of the Moon than another, for he that will rule over, imprison, oppress and kill his fellow creatures walks contrary to the rule of righteousness: Do as you would have others do to you and love your enemies not in words but in deeds.

Likewise, thirdly, we are DETERMINED to oppose Kings, Lords, Justices, Bailiffs and the violent Colonels, Captains, Constables and security personnel who imprison, rob and kill the enslaved..."

'I don't know about you,' she said, without needing to point out the obvious, 'but I'm not going to step outside and dig anything!'

'No,' I said. 'You may have a point!'

'I mean, manure, sure!' she laughed. 'We've got a load of that out the back!'

'Telling me,' I said.

'Is it all like this?' she asked. 'Your presentation?'

'Yes. I'm calling it, “Cutting Up for Moon Society,”' I said. 'Noting that for this purpose at least, references to the Moon will include orbits around and/or other trajectories to or around it.'

'Of course,' she nodded. 'Taken as read.' Then, more playfully: 'You know, it is a bit of a cliché, but that never stopped you before!'

She was a real doer, this one.

I loved the way that she always cut to the chase.

Pointing in the vague direction of the beginning she got straight to the point. 'Why not open by reflecting that in ages past men used to wonder if this place was inhabited!'

'The Man in the Moon!' I chuckled, 'A question that was easier for them to ask than it was to answer!'

I took the tablet back from her and quickly tweaked the opening sentences, then held it up as I fancied a poet might, to declaim:

'Is the moon inhabited?' they used to ask. It is now! FIRST by our oppressors, whose so-called 'achievements' in selling land on celestial bodies be damned. They shall not steal or kill as if the Moon were made peculiarly for them. It cannot be imagined that science's 'obstinate quest' would have completely diminished poverty, but no one with the least knowledge in philosophy should be ignorant of oppression, nor that nothing can be perceived by human understanding without enquiry...

'Literally cutting up!' she interrupted. 'Oh, I get it.'

'Yup. Godwin, the UN, the Rev. Timothy Harley. All those old moon dudes, into the mixer!'

'Winstanley, too, I fancy,' she said. 'I love his stuff. Is it all in this vein, then?'

I nodded. That was about the size of it. I wasn't going to get a free ride, though. She didn't approve. I could tell.

'But we're not in Surrey now, you know,' she said.

Ouch, I thought, but of course she was right. That was true, too. Here I was, cutting up the canon with some old radical texts to try and, what? To retrospectively justify that which was its own justification? Our very existence? The Maria Movement – maria as plural of mare – that had put a protest colony on each of the seas of the Moon!

'I love,' she conceded, 'that old language. “Seventhly for Murther” and all that.'

'I know,' I said. 'Great isn't it?'

'What is “murther” though?' she asked. 'Do you know? Does it it mean murder?'

'I'm not sure,' I shrugged.

'It's all well and good,' she said. 'It needs a bit of an edit, obviously, but I worry that it doesn't really reflect the, I don't know, subtlety? of what we're doing here? The livestock habitats? The experiments? The smell of this place? The positive energy?'

Her charming inflections, those sing-song interrogatives, got me every time; gave me a pang even when she wasn't in the room. We had been comparing notes. She wanted to create a type of screen that would be large enough to send messages back to the people left on Earth, and what was I doing? Drafting yet another presentation to the First Moon Committee, that's what. Like Winstanley said: it was deeds versus words all over again, but around here words were generally my department and deeds had a habit of winning.

How these, her, acts of celestial signage, of interplanetary publication, might be achieved was unclear; as yet unspecified. It was her area not mine. Most likely it would take our own Vallerga-Lijn array. A vast field of giant spectro-heliostats, self-sufficient, power units soaking up the rays and then all of them turning like sunflowers to focus their beams back toward the Earth. Synchronised hydraulics working in silent harmony, winking on and off and using prisms to disperse the solar reflection into a seven colour rainbow, to spell out one letter at a time across the field in a simultaneous dot-matrix flash that was – we knew – as beautiful as the sun glinting off distant car windscreens in those old films that none of us could bear, any longer, to watch.

Whether we had the resources to achieve such a feat of engineering, I didn't know. I imagined an analogue variant. What would it take? Some terrestrial hook-up, obviously, and maybe that wouldn't be so bad? A team of men on the ground as it were – no offence! – to create shadow-casting structures. Out of what, though? Clouds? Vast gossamer banners? I imagined these great kites tracking against the turning Earth so we could use what was left of the atmosphere to create a gravitational lens, to focus sunlight across the intervenient space. A celestial shadow theatre, stringing words along our creeping penumbra, our slow and perpetual evening.

Was it even theoretically possible? Probably not, although God knows, finding the necessary number of skilled hands would not be a problem, nor fertile brains. All that brawn was crying out, after all, for something to do. They were desperate enough to please, now.

Of course they were.

Crying over spilt milk as usual!

Leaving it too late!

But as to the amount of energy needed, let alone the perhaps more pressing question of what we might have left to say to them that wasn't simply rubbing it in!

'Well, I haven't got time to rewrite it,' I said. 'The committee meets tomorrow and I've seen the agenda: I'm on first, ready or not. There's no getting around it.'

'Preaching to the converted,' she said.

'I know,' I conceded. 'I worry that all I'm doing is contributing to some awful, self-congratulatory bureaucratisation.'

'Digging over old ground,' she said, pointedly. 'I know. But the thing is, we won that battle. We're here, aren't we? And they're not. No harm in restating it, though, I suppose.'

I smiled: 'Thanks, hun. No, you're right. We have to say it over and over again, I think. Otherwise we might forget what we were fighting for.'

We both watched the monitor in silence as Africa appeared on the horizon, sunlight winking off the westernmost spectro-heliostats .

I could imagine their great mirrors swivelling; almost hear the hiss of hydraulics, smell the grease and metal that was warmed anew each day by the Saharan sun. I admired her for wanting to reply. It meant something. I felt regret and desire tugging at me, too, like the tide. I wanted to feed it, to suckle it like a child in my arms, but what good would that do?

On the monitor I could see that vast Saharan grid flashing into life and running its test routine of noughts and crosses, targets and tunnels, vertical and horizontal wipes, before it began to spell out their own message, to us.

It was the same two things every day, automated and spelt out one letter or character at a time.

'ŽAO MI JE,' they said. 'DÉSOLÉ...BOCSÁNAT...ბოდიში...' and on and on through the endless-seeming list of translations until they had said sorry in every language, which was when the second cycle would begin: 'NDIHMË!' they said. 'KÖMƏK...SUTE...მიშველეთ...HELP!'

–

© Tony White, 2011

'Occupy the Moon' was commissioned by The Arts Catalyst to accompany Republic of the Moon exhibition 2011-2012 a pdf of the story can be downloaded from the exhibition page.

Tony White is a writer and the author of novels including Foxy-T (Faber and Faber), and his short stories have appeared in numerous publications, exhibition catalogues and collections. Tony has been writer in residence at the Science Museum, London, Leverhulme Trust writer in residence at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and a compere at the Free University of Glastonbury. In 2010 Tony collaborated with Blast Theory to write Ivy4evr, an interactive, SMS-based, mobile phone drama for young people commissioned by Channel 4, which was recently nominated for a BIMA award. Tony White is chair of London arts radio station Resonance 104.4fm and blogs at http://pieceofpaperpress.wordpress.com

Downloads

• Occupy the Moon by Tony White (pdf 115KB)

Related articles and events

• Republic of the Moon
• Republic of the Moon: Artists’ Breakfast
• KOSMICA Liverpool

Weekend Astronauts Needed

07/11/2011

Weekend Astronauts Needed

15 December 2011 - 26 February 2012 (plus a rehursal and evening performance on 15 December)
We can offer £50 per day as payment

Astronaut performers needed for 'Enter At Own Risk' during Republic of the Moon exhibition we are co-curating with FACT, Liverpool.  We are looking for one or two actors/artists, local to Liverpool, for a performance-based work based on astronaut training during the Apollo space missions for this exhibition.  We seek a solo performer with a background and interest in physical theatre/dance for this piece. There are no lines to be learnt. The selected performer will renact a small repertoire of moves related to space travel and moon landing, whilst wearing a spacesuit costume, as devised by the artists.

The performer/s is required for weekends, 2-6pm Saturdays and Sundays for the duration of the exhibiton (15 December 2011 - 26 February 2012) additionally for the opening night on Thursday 15 December. In addition, a short period of time is required for rehearsal and liase with the artists who concieved the piece. This will take place close to the exhibition dates.  Due to costume constraints the performer needs to be between 5 foot 5 inches to 5 foot 10 inches tall and physically fit.

Apply by email outlining your suitability for this role, height and all dates available to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 10am Monday 14 November 2011.

Interviews on Monday 21 November held at FACT, Liverpool

Related articles and events

• Republic of the Moon

Primate Cinema comes to London

06/10/2011

The dual screen video installation will see The Arts Catalyst space transformed into a gallery for a month, open Tuesday-Sunday, 12-6pm and late opening until 8pm every Thursday.

The exhibition's opening will be marked by a symposium, Cinema as Primatology in which artist Rachel Mayeri and her comparative psychologist collaborator Dr Sarah Jane Vick, will be speaking about the project and their work with the chimpanzees in the Budongo Trail at Edinburgh Zoo.  The symposium on Tuesday 18 October 2011 4-6pm is free and details are here.  

Watch the trailer of Primate Cinema: Apes as Family here.

 

 

Read what the what people are saying about the work:

The Guardian

New Scientist blog

i09

the daily what

 

 

Related articles and events

• Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, Rachel Mayeri
• Cinema as Primatology symposium

Full Moon Symposium

04/10/2011

8 October 2011 (International Observe the Moon Night), 11am – 6pm at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Rozenstraat 59, Amsterdam

Moon Life speculates on the possibility that humans will live in space in the future. The project examines the potentialities and challenges of life on the Moon not only in the fields of architecture and design but also for social, public and political life. Artists, architects and designers are encouraged to radical thinking towards concepts of habitat design for the Moon to create a platform for the public to engage with these notions and discuss the ‘publicness’ of the possibility for living on the Moon.

The Full Moon symposium brings together scientists, architects, designers and artists to present and exchange their ideas, visions and designs for (daily) life on the Moon and in space.

Arts Catalyst curator, Rob La Frenais joins an international line up of participants whose presentations include:

Alicia Framis speaks about the objectives and output of the Moon Life Foundation, an interdisciplinary project examining the potentialities and challenges of life on the Moon not only in the fields of architecture and design but also for social, public and political life.

Ben Droste, founder of Space Expedition Curacao. The mission of SXC is to contribute to opening up new worlds for humanity, specifically with regards to science, education, economic growth, sustainability and leisure.

Design studio Edhv is responsible for the graphic design of the website for the design of the logo for the Moon Life Foundation. They will also discuss the concept behind the glass and porcelain table ware designed for the Moon Life Concept Store.

DUS architects introduce their Worldmoon project, a silver jewel made for the Moon Life Concept Store.

Architect John Lonsdale expands on his ideas for a sustainable Moon base made out of Moon dust.

Curator Rob La Frenais presents the Arts Catalyst project Republic of the Moon which proposes an artist's micronation – a Republic of the Moon, an exhibition project aimed to start thinking about methods of governance, diplomacy and autonomy of this future artist's territory.

Industrial designer Satyendra Pakhalé, will talk about his 'Moonwākā', an object to help first time Moon travellers adjust eye-hand coordination, and about his curiosity regarding aviation and space.

Tao Sambolec will speak about the works he developed for the Moon Life Concept Store: ‘Teeth Phone’  and ‘Low Frequency Fire Place’.

LIQUIFER Systems Group introduces their practice, specialized in space systems design and engineering projects for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Industry.

Andreas Vogler is the co-founder of the architecture and design team Architecture and Vision. He will introduce various projects including ‘AtlasCoelestisZeroG’, a kinetic sculpture for microgravity environments and ‘MoonCapital’, a second generation habitation on the Moon.

Special screening of a video by astronaut Frank de Winne made when he was living in the international space station for six months.

More information: http://moon-life.org

Related articles and events

• Republic of the Moon

The Moon - a new artists autonomous territory

15/09/2011

"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever" - Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, 1911

Curator Rob La Frenais will join the ISEA11 panel discussing:Political Discourse on the New Media on Wednes­day, 21 Sep­tem­ber, 2011, 2.45 - 4.05pm

How will we live on the Moon? Despite long-term plans to send humans to Mars, in the short term the Moon is the most likely place to rehearse living away from the Earth. It is envisaged that sooner or later a small outpost of humans and robots will be established, possibly living in tunnels drilled under the Moon's surface and quite possibly established by emerging superpowers such as China or India.

It is likely that a future moon habitat would be a human/robotic presence on the South Pole or the Moon where water ice is expected to be found. So how might artists respond to this new territory, which technically belongs to everyone? One strategy could be the pre-emptive setting up of a micronation which could claim the Moon independent of national or commercial interests.This strategy has already been used by artists such as Slovenia's Neue Slovenisch Kunst (NSK) who issued their own passports, the Danish group N55 or artists like Antti Laitinen. Alexandra Mir famously declared herself the 'First Woman on The Moon' on a Dutch beach.

The initial idea came from a recent International Astronautical Federation meeting in Paris attended by the exhibition curators, in which issues of space governance were discussed. A United Nations official with an interest in the peaceful uses of space stated, “The last thing we want to propose is a Republic of the Moon”. We wondered: why not? So we propose to set up, in advance, an artist's micronation - a Republic of the Moon and will communicate with specific artists and groups inviting them to participate, to start thinking about methods of governance, diplomacy and autonomy of this future artist's territory.

For more see ISEA11 and Republic of the Moon

Downloads

• RF The Moon - a new artists autonomous territory for ISEA 11

Related articles and events

• Republic of the Moon

Primate Cinema news

09/09/2011

Rachel Mayeri's Primate Cinema: Apes as Family got a warm reception at Ars Electronica this week.  Watch Rachel talking about the dual-screen video installation in Austria below and check out more about the project and see a trailer for the full 22 minute film here. Note: this is amateur audience-filmed footage and the audio is at times poor quality.

 

Related articles and events

• Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, Rachel Mayeri
• O.K Cyberarts 11

O.K Cyberarts 11

01/08/2011

Rachel Mayeri's new work has been awarded an honourary mention in this year's Prix Ars Electronica and been selected for the O.K Cyberarts 11 exhibition 1-7 September in Linz, Austria.  Pigeon d’Or, a piece by Tuur Van Balen exhibited at The Arts Catalyst in last year's show Further Instructions, has also been honoured at this year's Prix with an award of distinction for hybrid art. Pigeon d’Or will also be exhibited at O.K Cyberarts 11.

The LA-based video artist Mayeri has made a film for chimpanzees to watch, using their responses as a way of imagining what their inner worlds might be like. Shown as a multi-channel video installation, Primate Cinema: Apes as Family is Mayeri's work about the chimpanzees, their responses to visual media and reactions to a film created expressly for them. For this work, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, Mayeri collaborated with comparative psychologist, Dr Sarah Jane Vick who studies chimp behaviour, looking at aspects of personality and emotional expression.

Rachel Mayeri's videos, installations, and writing projects explore the intersection of art and science through topics ranging from the history of special effects to the human animal. Mayeri’s “animated documentaries” combine motion graphics and live-action, documentary and storytelling.  She has created a series of experimental videos inspired by primates including Primate Cinema: Baboons as Friends (2007), a Hollywood style re-enactment of a baboon social drama with human actors.

Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, was made with financial support from a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, Arts Council England and the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies.

Related articles and events

• Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, Rachel Mayeri
• Further Instructions

Livestream video: Synthesis

04/07/2011

We Need To Talk About Synthia

Panel discussion & artists presentations on synthetic biology
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/we-need-to-talk-about-synthia

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/we-need-to-talk-about-synthia

We Need To Talk About Synthia is a panel discussion and artists’ presentations, exploring the cultural and societal implications of synthetic biology. Panelists are Professor John Ward, Head of Synbion, the UCL-Birkbeck Synthetic Biology Network, Oron Catts, Director of SymbioticA, The Centre for Biological Arts School at the University of Western Australia, and Dr Alistair Elfick, University of Edinburgh. It will be chaired by Dr Jane Calvert.

Artists’ presentations by Tuur Van Balen, Andy Gracie, and Daisy Ginsberg.

Related articles and events

13 July KOSMICA line up announced

28/06/2011

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Carey Young will discuss her recent artistic works which critique and satirise the ‘management’ and legal control of outer space. Using recent discoveries in astrophysics and space imaging, as well as creating new propositions in copyright law, her works use cameraless photography, installation, text and sculpture to investigate links between outer space law and ideas of landscape, colonialism and the ‘real’. Her touring solo show Memento Park is currently at mima, Middlesbrough.

Empress Stah is a London based aerial artist and avant garde cabaret performer with a life long ambition to make a show in Outer Space. Stah recently came one step closer to realising this dream when she experienced microgravity for the first time, aboard a commercial flight with the Zero G Corporation.  She will be presenting footage taken aboard this flight and will talk about the thinking behind her project 'Stah-Lite in Space'; what she intends to do in Zero G when she gets her hands on the Russian's plane; and will outline her vision for her forthcoming show 'Stah-Lite and the Stah Whores Corporation'.

Ansuman Biswas works in a wide variety of media, but his central concern lies between science, work and religion. For the last decade he has been working on 'Zero Genie' projects conceived as a response to the structure and history of the space program  and its exploration as a First World, high investment pursuit over the last 50 years.  The Zero Genie project is a collaboration with Jem Finer, who appeared in June's KOSMICA.

The KOSMICA series is curated by Nahum Mantra and is endorsed by ITACCUS, the International Astronautical Federation's Committee on the Cultural Utilisation of Space.

The event will be live streamed and you can watch on: www.artscatalyst.org   

KOSMICA is a free event, but space is limited so please book today.

Directions to The Arts Catalyst can be found here.  The event will be held on the first floor and there is no lift; please contact The Arts Catalyst to discuss any specific access needs.

Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 2: Geopolitics & Autonomy

31/05/2011

Already published in this series:  Cahier No. 1: Architecture (ISBN 978-3-7757-2679-5) is now available - order online here

Downloads

• API Arctic Geopolitics & Autonomy pdf (4MB)

Related articles and events

• Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 1: Architecture
• Arctic Perspective in London
• Arctic Perspective in Dortmund
• Autonomous technology and art in the North
• Report on the Arctic Perspective open space conference
• Winners of Arctic Perspective Initiative announced

Report on the Arctic Perspective open space conference

03/11/2010

The meeting, held at the HMKV Phoenix Halle, included some of the world's top thinkers, leaders and artists dealing with the Arctic region, its geopolitics and inhabitants. The participants shared ideas concerning the sustainability of the circumpolar region intertwining a variety of perspectives and topics such as: culture, ecology, technology, autonomy and traditional knowledge. The group decided on several directions for strategies of collaboration between northern communities and the Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) in order to further their mandate of providing greater autonomy through strategies of open systems sharing.

Ideas to be put into practice include a community based workshop and lab that will provide outreach and education facilities for learning techniques of fabrication, hands on technology repair techniques, new media authoring and literacy, a system of hydroponic community gardens that will be powered entirely from renewable energies and many other exciting proposals. API focuses on empowerment through the authorship, ownership and use of enabling technologies both traditional and contemporary. The workshop was decided to be built in Igloolik, Nunavut, and will serve as a model of autonomy, energy independence, community learning, and artistic production for the community as well as to house experts in order to share their knowledge with and learn from the local inhabitants as an ongoing process of exchange between northern and southern experts.

The conference was truly an international gathering, reflecting the importance of the North on every scale, from the geopolitical to the individual. Attendees included (among others); Paul Quassa(CA/NU), a chief negotiator of the Nunavut Land Claim, Sven-Roald Nysto (NO) former president of the Sami Parliament, Alun Anderson (UK) author of  After the Ice , Barry Scott Zellen (US), author of  On Thin Ice: The Inuit, the State, and the Challenge of Arctic Sovereignty , Michael Bravo (UK), convener of the Circumpolar History and Public Policy Research Group, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University, and Johan Berte (BE) lead designer for the Princess Elizabeth Station in Antarctica.

By involving leaders from the North and the South, from political perspectives and cultural production, and from industry to ecology, a range of issues were identified and goals of advancing issues important to all northern peoples, including among others:

 " climate adaptation and sustainability

 " the preservation and use of native languages

 " using technology, both advanced and traditional, for greater autonomy

Through the conference, API and the participants have started to draft the Phoenix Declaration stating the importance of the circumpolar region within the world's systems and collaboration with the peoples who have lived there for thousands of years. While the topic of the Arctic is visible in many sectors of society, the declaration stands for the principles of true collaboration and partnership in order to forge a better world. The Arctic is at the forefront of issues surrounding theimpacts of climate changes, and can serve as a model of adaptation and the convergence of traditional knowledge and science with new technologies for the rest of the world.

The Arctic Perspective Initiative aims to empower local citizens of the North via open and free media, communications and sensing technologies. It comprises an international group of individuals and non-profit organisations. The API partners include The Arts Catalyst (UK), HMKV (Germany), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), C-TASC (Canada) and Lorna (Iceland). API is the brainchild of artists Marko Peljhan and Matthew Biederman.

Related articles and events

• Arctic Perspective Initiative
• Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 1: Architecture
• Arctic Perspective Initiative media workshops in Iqaluit
• Arctic Perspective Open Space Conference

A Journey Through The Great Glen - Adam Dant

04/10/2010

Adam Dant's new map is a novel and unusual method for charting several sites en-route from HICA (Highland Institute of Contemporary Art) to the Library of Outlandia, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst for the perambulatory bus tour as part of The Great Glen Artists Airshow 2010.

The bus journey followed the strike slip fault along the Caledonian Canal by way of the A852 provides travellers with Dant's particular historical and geographic perspective.  For those wanting to capture the experience of the event take a look at: this short film and images from the bus tour.

A Journey Through The Great Glen by Adam Dant, 2010, published by The Arts Catalyst is available now, £3 (inc UK postage and packing) order at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or though paypal

A Treetop Odyssey at the ICA

13/09/2010

Tickets on sale now for A Treetop Odyssey - book online at ICA.org.uk

A screening and discussion event organised by The Arts Catalyst/LCACE/QMUW focusing attention on the one of the world’s most inaccessible and under-explored area, tropical rainforest canopies. Some of the rarest plants and animals on earth are found in such locations, where undiscovered species live exclusively in these tree tops and never set foot on the forest floor. Until now, the rainforest canopy has been virtually inaccessible to scientists.

This event will start with a screening of Werner Herzog’s 2004 film, The White Diamond, which eloquently illustrates the complexity of human desire and our need to further explore the planet and its resources. Set in the Kaiteur Falls in the heart of Guyana, it features the efforts of one of the world’s leading dendronautics engineers, Dr Graham Dorrington, in his attempts to test his airship designed to explore the forest canopy.

The screening will be followed by presentations and discussions by a unique group of botanists, artists and engineers, all pioneering the use of airships and dirigibles to explore the rainforest canopy. They will discuss their work and its wider implication in areas as diverse as the future of medicine and culture.

Speakers will include Dr Graham Dorrington (Queen Mary, University of London), Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin (Art Orienté Objet).

£9 / £8 Concessions / £7 ICA Members

This event is a partnership between The Arts Catalyst, Queen Mary, University of London and LCACE and has been developed as part of The Inside Out Festival.

Related articles and events

• A Treetop Odyssey

Further Instructions

23/08/2010

Situated on the experimental edge of the London Design Festival, the show features two new projects: one exploring the use of tumour targeting nano-gold particles as hypothetical family heirlooms, the other proposing the use of feral pigeons and synthetic biology for aesthetic interventions in urban metabolisms.

22-26 September, Wednesday 10am-3pm, Thursday-Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-4pm
The Arts Catalyst, 50-54 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PS.

Artists' websites

www.revitalcohen.com, www.tuurvanbalen.com

Arctic Perspective in Dortmund

11/07/2010

The Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a non-profit, international group of individuals and organizations whose goal is to direct attention to the global cultural and ecological significance of the polar regions. These are zones of contemporary geopolitical conflict and at the same time potential spaces for transnational and intercultural cooperation and collaboration. The exhibition Arctic Perspective documents the development of a mobile work and habitation system which can be used for nomadic dwelling, environmental monitoring and media based work “on the land”, away from the established Arctic settlements as well as its connection to traditional knowledge and culture. The exhibition focuses on the notions of architecture, geopolitics, autonomy, technology, and landscape, while featuring other positive, northern initiatives and projects that reflect these notions and values of API.

Related articles and events

• Arctic Perspective in London
• Arctic Perspective Initiative
• Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 1: Architecture
• Arctic Perspective Initiative media workshops in Iqaluit
• Arctic Perspective Initiative (blog)

Antennae’s Interspecies issue

28/06/2010

Interspecies communication is now more than ever a key topic in contemporary academic and artistic debates.  Through the propelling enthusiasm and deep anxieties characteristic of recent post-humanism approaches, interspecies communication has become something of a chimerical entity. We all, in one way or another, communicate to animals, especially with our closest pets. The cat and the dog have co-habited with us long enough to allow the development of a shared syntax made of body language, sounds, habits and rituals which enable a bi-lateral communication. Anthropomorphism plays, of course, a part in our communicational exchanges with animals. When do we really see the real animal, or when do we just see ourselves reflected in it?

This issue of Antennae is entirely dedicated to Interspecies, an exhibition, curated by The Arts Catalyst, that bravely gathered the work of eight artists whose practice is entirely dedicated to bridging of the communicational boundaries between animals and humans. Through an inventive and original set of methodologies, each artist established communicational exchanges
with the animal, aiming at overcoming the anthropomorphic format.

The Arts Catalyst deals with many varied areas connected with art, science and society, but when it comes to animal studies and surrounding issues they had a lot to discover. As Rob La Frenais, curator of The Arts Catalyst explains: “When we decided to develop a project to coincide with Darwin 200 and had a few ideas about what was out there. We knew Donna Haraway had moved from cyborgs to biological species (or dogs at least) and were aware of the strong feelings generated with the public by issues about animal experimentation. But, like diving into a deep pool, we became aware of a huge community of interest into whose affairs we were swimming. Thanks, animal studies crowd, for waiting for us to catch up”.

That strong commitment to a very charged field of scrutiny has been reflected by the extraordinary efforts of the Interspecies artists. Kira O'Reilly endured extreme weather and sleeplessness in her work Falling asleep with a pig, and redesigned a second piece completely, after discussing the work in a pub by Donna Haraway. Anthony Hall struggled to keep his fish alive after a mystery illness killed a few, and kept a unique animal-human communication system going despite great difficulty. Ruth Maclennan spent days and days observing men and their hawks, bringing back extraordinary and intimate footage of their interaction on the Northumberland moors. As for the animals involved, we cannot comment without entering an ethical minefield, but we hope that, in the process, we kept them warm and well fed.

With the existing work by Rachel Mayeri bringing new insights into links between smouldering glances and baboon betrayal and Snaebornsdottir/Wilson's Radio Animal caravan injecting a unique social focus to the exhibition by collecting stories about infestation and invasion by animals, Interspecies has offered fresh and original perspectives on human-animal relations for new audiences. The artist who most of all inspired this project, Nicholas Primat has unfortunately passed away. This issue is dedicated to Primat, who died a year ago.

Giovanni Aloi
Editor in Chief, Antennae Project

Rob La Frenais
Curator, The Arts Catalyst

Interspecies London and Interspecies London symposium, October 2009

 

 

 

 

Related articles and events

• INTERSPECIES - artists collaborating with animals (blog)
• Interspecies collisions (blog)
• Interspecies opening pics (blog)

Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 1: Architecture

21/05/2010

Arctic Perspective Cahier No. 1: Architecture
€ 19.80
ORDER ONLINE

Edited by Andreas Müller, graphic design by Ziga Testen
English
2010. 148 pp., 92 ills., 16 in color
16,50 x 24,00 cm hardcover
ISBN 978-3-7757-2679-5

This cahier documents the Arctic Perspective Initiative (API)'s open architecture competition to design a mobile media-based work and habitation unit, capable of functioning in extreme cold and powered by renewable energy, and explores the manifold questions surrounding the Arctic and its architecture through a series of commissioned essays by Robert Kronenburg, Marilyn Walker, Carsten Krohn and Jeremie Michael McGowan, with contributions by John Ross and Stijn Verhoeff, Matthew Biederman and Marko Peljhan.

The cahier is edited by Andreas Muller and published by Hatje Cantz and the API partners, HMKV, Projekt Atol, C-TASC, Lorna and The Arts Catalyst.

Forthcoming cahiers in the Arctic Perspective Initiative series:
Cahier No 2: Landscape. Editor: Inke Arns
Cahier No 3: Geopolitics & Autonomy. Editors: Michael Bravo & Nicola Triscott
Cahier No 4: Technology. Editor: Adam Hyde

Arctic Perspective Initiative media workshops in Iqaluit

17/05/2010

Team members of the Arctic Perspective Initiative (API)  - Marko Peljhan, Matthew Biederman, August Black - are in Iqualuit in the Canadian Arctic giving free workshop presentations on open source and free software tools for video and audio production and distrbution. The workshops are for local independent media video and audio producers and are running from 18 - 23 May. Interested participants will take part in a live stream to Canada House, London, on 20 May during the talk Contemporary Nomadism: Autonomy & Technology in the North at the opening of the Arctic Perspective exhibition. 

Related articles and events

• Arctic Perspective Initiative
• Contemporary Nomadism: Autonomy & Technology in the North
• Arctic Perspective in London
• Arctic Perspective Initiative (blog)

Arctic Perspective in London

13/05/2010

The Arctic Perspective Initiative is an international group of artists, designers and media workers, led by artists Marko Peljhan and Matthew Biederman with collaborators Nejc Trost, Samo Stopar, Andrej Bizjak together with Miha Bratina and Ziga Testen. Partners include HMKV (Germany), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), C-TASC (Canada), Lorna (Iceland) and The Arts Catalyst (UK).

Arctic Perspective highlights the cultural, geopolitical and ecological significance of the Arctic and its indigenous cultures. The London exhibition presents work from the project's collaboration with the people of Igloolik, Kinngait, Iqaluit, Mittimatalik and Kanngiqtugaapik in Nunavut, Canada, and other Arctic communities. The focus of this work is the design of a habitable mobile media unit, and infrastructure, to be powered by renewable energy sources. Designed to be used by Inuit and other people of the Arctic for creative media production such as filmmaking, communications and monitoring the environment, the unit’s mobility is essential for those living away from settlements for periods of up to two weeks, moving, living and working on the land.

Arctic Perspective Initiative

Contemporary Nomadism: Autonomy & Technology in the North

For more press information please contact: Jo Fells .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Related articles and events

• Arctic Perspective Initiative
• Contemporary Nomadism: Autonomy & Technology in the North
• Arctic Perspective Initiative (blog)

Available for tour - The Case of the Deviant Toad

22/04/2010

Following it's very positive reception at the Royal Institution, Brandon Ballengée's exhibition is now available for touring.

The accompanying art|science|ecology book Malamp: The Occurance of Deformities in Amphibians, published by The Arts Catalyst and Yorkshire Sculpture Park also available now.

The exhibition presents specimens, video works and high-resolution scanned images of malformed toads by the artist and ecological researcher Brandon Ballengée and addresses ideas around biodiversity and ecological change, and particularly focuses on global species decline.

For more details about exhibition touring please contact:

Gillean Dickie .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 020 7375 3690

Related articles and events

• The Case of the Deviant Toad
• Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians, Brandon Ballengée.
• Deformed toadlets in Yorkshire Sculpture Park (blog)

Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians, Brandon Ballengée.

29/01/2010

Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians, Brandon Ballengée. Edited by Nicola Triscott/Miranda Pope.

To coincide with  The Case of the Deviant Toad exhibition at the Royal Institution we are launching Malamp, The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians by Brandon Ballengée. This monograph, jointly published by The Arts Catalyst and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, brings together Ballengée’s UK research with findings from his global amphibian studies. It includes texts on his practice from arts, science and ecological perspectives, including a keynote essay by the renowned art critic and curator Lucy R Lippard. Additional contributors include Clare Lilley, Head Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Nicola Triscott, Director of The Arts Catalyst; Dr Stanley K Sessions, Professor of Biology, Hartwick College and Dr Kerry Kriger, Director of Save the Frogs. The publication is richly illustrated with extraordinary photographs, Ballengée’s drawings and other artworks.

Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians, Brandon Ballengée. Edited by Nicola Triscott/Miranda Pope. 72 page, softback. £15.95. ISBN 978-0-9534546-7-9

Buy online at Cornerhouse.

Announcing Autonomous Infrastructures symposium

15/12/2009

Planetary Breakdown - autonomous infrastructures for sustainable futures

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Wednesday 10 March 2010, 10am-6pm
£40/£30 concessions (incuding lunch and refreshments)
Bursaries are available for artists, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
This one-day symposium brings together an exceptional range of artists, academics and other industry experts to look at future approaches to living. It will explore the possibility of creating new autonomous infrastructures across energy, trade and transport, offering a space for everyone to contribute to an active dialogue about our futures. Confirmed speakers include: writer on Utopian Futures Malcolm Miles and international artists Lise Autogena, HeHe, Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson, Kate Rich, Ashok Sukumaran and Shaina Anand. Following the symposium, at 6.30pm, AV Festival 10 and BALTIC present a free lecture by artist Gustav Metzger, booking required.
Produced by Intersections (Newcastle University), The Arts Catalyst and AV Festival 10.

Bookings

Downloads

• AV Festival 10 brochure pdf

The Case of the Deviant Toad

14/12/2009

The Arts Catalyst, the contemporary art organisation that creates bridges between artists and scientists as they address issues about our changing world, presents an exhibition of specimens, video works and high-resolution scanned images of malformed toads by the artist and ecological researcher Brandon Ballengée.

The exhibition is accompanied by the launch of a new art|science|ecology book by Brandon Ballengée, Malamp: The Occurence of Deformities in Amphibians, published by The Arts Catalyst and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Ballengée's artistic practice is immersed in the study and exchange of ideas around biodiversity and ecological change, and particularly focuses on global species decline. His practice incorporates primary biological research, ecological surveys, field trips, environmental activism and exhibitions, often collaborating with scientists and members of the public.

Ballengee, now based in New York. has worked with The Arts Catalyst since 2006 leading field trips to Gunpowder Park, Essex and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield to collect specimens, highlighting environmental changes which impact on biodiversity. 

Events:

Monday 15 March 2010

6.30pm Café Scientifique - discussion about the work of artist and ecological researcher Brandon Ballengée, chaired by Nicola Triscott, Director of The Arts Catalyst

7.30pm Book launch and exhibition opening

Exhibition open 16 – 31 March 2010, Monday to Friday, 9am to 11pm.  Admission free

For more details and images please contact:

Jo Fells .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 020 7375 3690

 

Related articles and events

• The Case of the Deviant Toad, Brandon Ballengée
• Malamp UK, Brandon Ballengée
• Ecoventions: Art & Ecology Projects, Brandon Ballengée

Uncover sites of secrecy and technology

14/12/2009

Dark Places

24 November 2009 - 23 January 2010
John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ

The Office of Experiments’ (OOE) Overt Research Project sets a background for the show by mapping and recording advanced labs and facilities that are unwittingly – or purposefully – concealed from public view. The work features an interpretive slideshow and a field guide to local sites through an information kiosk. Elsewhere in the gallery, OOE brings together The Mike Kenner Archive, revealing years of campaigning by one man into the public biochemical warfare experiments conducted by Porton Down, Salisbury.

Victoria Halford and Steve Beard’s film Voodoo Science Park traces a secret geography of the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire, where train crashes and industrial accidents are re-created to examine their destructive pathways. Mixing fact and fiction, the film imagines a delayed encounter between poet William Blake and political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, drawing affinities to this unique site.

Beatriz da Costa’s A Memorial for the Still Living is a sombre reflection on endangered species of the British Isles. Presenting a selection of rare animal, insect and reptile specimens, including loans from the Natural History and Horniman Museums, da Costa identifies these collections – and the bleak future they imply – as ‘dark places’ of zoological science.

Steve Rowell, a collaborator with the US-based group the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), in his solo project Ultimate High Ground UK, uncovers shared US-UK spaces of military power. Realised as a multiscreen video installation, the work focuses upon RAF Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire, a satellite ground station and communications intercept site, known for its distinctive radome structures.

Dark Places is revealed in greater depth in a filmed artists’ interview, on show throughout and a special publication, featuring a new essay by writer and critic Sally O’Reilly.

Events:

Secrecy and Technology Bus Tour - The Cold War Legacy in the South
Saturday 23 January 2010, 10am-6pm.Tickets £10

Artists from the Office of Experiments and other experts lead this fascinating bus tour of critical sites of advanced technological development in the South of England. The tour will focus on sites that emerged during the tensions and paranoias of the Cold War. Participants will need to bring photo ID and may bring cameras or other recording equipment and materials, as desired. Tickets cost £10, with lunch and refreshments provided.  To book call 023 8059 2158 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Children’s Workshop: Secret Species
Saturday 12 December 2009, 11.30am-3.30pm

Using mixed media and sculpture, create and document your own endangered species or creature that might exist in the hidden locations uncovered by the artists. Will your creature dwell in dark places or become a delightful discovery? Let your imagination decide. Led by artist Lizzie Jones. To book call 023 8059 2160 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Dark Places is commissioned by The Arts Catalyst and co-curated with the Office of Experiments, John Hansard Gallery and SCAN and funded by Arts Council England. The OOE’s Overt Research Project is supported by UCL Department of Geography and The Media School, Bournemouth University, led by Neal White with Steve Rowell and Lisa Haskel.

John Hansard Gallery: open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 5pm, Saturday 11am - 4pm(closed 24 December 2009 to 4 January 2010)

www.hansardgallery.org.uk

www.artscatalyst.org

www.scansite.org

www.o-o-e.org

For media information and images contact: Jo Fells,  020 7375 3690 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Related articles and events

• Dark Places

Winners of Arctic Perspective Initiative announced

01/12/2009

Three architects – Richard Carbonnier (Canada), Giuseppe Mecca (Italy), and Catherine Rannou (France) – have been selected as the joint winners of the Arctic Perspective Initiative open architecture competition. The challenge of this international competition was to design a zero-footprint mobile research unit for use by local populations in the Arctic. The unit is intended to facilitate a diverse range of technological research opportunities, such as remote sensing, environmental monitoring, video editing and streaming, and communications systems.

The three winning entries, each awarded €1500, were selected by an expert jury from 103 submissions from architects and engineers in more than 30 countries. The competition was the first phase of a design process, the next phase of which will involve working with the winning submissions through a collaborative design effort with local community members from Nunavut, Canada. A prototype unit will be tested in the field next year in Igloolik, Nunavut, by local media workers, hunters, youth and elders of the community.

API is committed to the empowerment and sustainable development of Northern communities through the collaboration and combination of science, arts, engineering and culture. The unit aims to serve as a model for mobile research in the north, incorporating proven local expertise, sustainable resources, and high tech solutions, while promoting open source data sharing strategies and management. All required power will come from green sources.

The Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a transnational art, science, and culture work group composed of HMKV (Germany), The Arts Catalyst (UK), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), Lorna (Iceland) and C-TASC (Canada), API is the brainchild of Marko Peljhan and Matthew Biederman, who met and worked together for the first time as crewmembers of the Makrolab in Blair Atholl, Scotland in 2002, a project produced by The Arts Catalyst.

For more information:

Contact Nicola Triscott, director on 020 7375 3690 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Downloads

• API Press Release

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