Tomas Saraceno, Marko Peljhan, Simon Faithfull, Kitsou Dubois, Tim Otto Roth, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Liuccia Buzzoni, Ayako Ono
Exhibition at the ESA/DLR International Space Exploration Conference (ISEC)
8-9 November 2007, Berlin, Germany
An exhibition of art projects demonstrating the potential cultural dimension of space exploration was shown as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) and DLR ISEC conference, which was for an invited audience of stakeholders from the space community. The exhibition was commissioned by the European Space Agency and curated by The Arts Catalyst and is presented in collaboration with transmediale, the Berlin-based festival for art and digital culture. The presentation emerged from an ESA study, undertaken by The Arts Catalyst, into cultural utilisation of the International Space Station programme.
Tomas Saraceno (Italy/Argentina)
Microscale, Macroscale and Beyond (sculpture, projection, drawings)
Tomas Saraceno’s long-term vision is to create a floating utopia above the earth in order to solve the world's population problem. Saraceno’s work draws on physics, chemistry and engineering, as well as more traditional artistic disciplines, to explore ideas for the future. Saraceno made a new floating sculpture especially for this event, comprising 32 helium filled modules made from transparent and iridescent materials, a prototype for a solar powered cloud. He will also showed images of his visions of future possible habitation of the sky.
Simon Faithfull (UK)
Escape Vehicle No 6 (video)
Simon Faithfull’s launch of a chair into space was commissioned by The Arts Catalyst for its Artists Airshow in 2004. The video shows a domestic chair - in fact a balsa-wood copy suspended from a meteorological balloon - at first rush away from the fields and roads, then ascend through clouds and finally, against the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space, begin to disintegrate. The empty chair invites the viewer to imagine taking a journey to an uninhabitable realm where it is impossible to breath, the temperature is minus 60 below and the sky now resembles the blackness of space above the curve of the now-distant Earth.
Kitsou Dubois (France)
Immersion-Transmission:
Choreographic research between 0g and 1g (video)
As a choreographer for weightless conditions for over 12 years, Dubois’ video allows the viewer to share the experience of movement of dancers and acrobats in parabolic flight (created on a European Space Agency flight), where moments of stability alternate with moments when space-time references disappear. The result is uncertainty about one’s own perception of a dance experience that becomes confused with a dream of flight. Performances and installations are created from these experiences.
Marko Peljhan (Slovenia)
Prozrachny Mir - LADSAT001 2007-2017
An Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation Initiative (installation)
The Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation Initiative (I-TASC) is a decentralised network of individuals and organisations working collaboratively in the fields of art, engineering, science and technology on the interdisciplinary development and tactical deployment of renewable energy, waste recycling systems, sustainable architecture and open-format, open-source media. The Prozrachny Mir - LADSAT001 EOS and S/F COM microsat constellation is envisioned as an open protocol earth observation network and store and forward communications system. The LADSAT001 and LADSAT002 will be launched in the 2009-2012 period to support the I-TASC art/science research labs in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Tim Otto Roth (Germany)
Cosmic Flash (video)
Tim Otto Roth’s proposal for the International Space Station (ISS). Using a joystick tool, a member of the ESA astronaut corps on the ISS would record whenever they have an experience of a cosmic flash, caused by cosmic rays coming from sunflares or supernovas. This would trigger a large flash from a European iconic building, such as the Eiffel Tower and potentially on the screens of subscribed mobile phone users.
Agnes Meyer-Brandis (Germany)
Pause (video)
Showing the artist’s preparations for and participation in a DLR parabolic flight, to undertake her project Cloud Core Scanner, an artistic experiment in weightlessness.
Liuccia Buzzoni (Italy)
The Colour in Space (video and prototype)
Collaborative experiment with an astronaut of the personal experience of colour.
Ayako Ono (Japan)
Zen Garden on Earth's Moon and Mars (video)
Ayako Ono’s video of her proposal for zen gardens on the Earth's moon and Mars, shaped by planetary rovers. There were also demonstrations of the Mars rover developed by the Automation & Robotics section of ESA.
Images at top, L-R: Escape Vehicle No. 6, Simon Faithfull, Cosmic Flash, Tim Otto Roth, Inversion-Transmission, Kitsou Dubois, Microscale, Macroscale and Beyond, Tomas Saraceno
Back to The Arts Catalyst's main International Space Station Cultural Utilisation Study page
