Outer Space – Cyber Space – March 2001

Participants : Ivan Almar I Joachim Baptista I Michael Benson I Annick Bureaud I Ewen Chardronnet I Richard Clar I Jack Cherne I Jürgen Claus I Alexander van Dijk I Kitsou Dubois I Bronac Ferran I Frank M. Friedlaender I Flis Holland I Ted Krueger I Rob La Frenais I Brice Lancon I Louis Laidet I Régis Lescoublet I Lorelei Lisowsky I Roger Malina I Susan McKenna-Lawlor I William J. O’Neil I Anne Nigten I Marko Peljhan I Jean-Marc Philippe I Jane Prophet I Jocelyne Rotily I Nicola Triscott I Doug Vakoch I Chris Welch I Neal White I Arthur Woods I Dragan Zivadinov

Biography: Prof. dr. Ivan Almar
born 1932 Budapest, Hungary graduated in astronomy in 1954 at the Eotvos University, Budapest
background: astrophysics, astrophotometry, later since 1958 space research, optical tracking of satellites, upper-atmospheric research and satellite geodesy.
Director Satellite Geodetic Observatory (1972-82)
Dep. Director Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1982-1992)
DSc 1980, member of IAA since 1980
Co-chair of IAA SETI Committee, chairman of Terminology Committee
President of the Hungarian Scientific Council on Space Research, Hon. Chairman of the Hungarian Astronautical Society.
Member of COSPAR, AGU, NYAS, IAU

⇧ Participants

Biography: Director & Editor for documentaries, advertising & industrial films
Director for theater & performances
Doctorate (PHD) , Université Panthéon Paris II Assas (in progress). Topic : Transnational media in Europe since the origin.
Associate researcher, CNRS, Laboratory for communication & politics. Research on the public European space.

⇧ Participants

By the last quarter of the 90’s it was already clear that a fundamental shift in our abilities to “access” the universe was taking place within the inner spaces of the new information technologies. Apart from its myriad other uses, in a miraculous and almost metaphysical transformation, the internet, it suddenly became clear, had revealed itself capable of closing the gap between the great machines gathering information about the universe and the population at large. With the advent of vast and growing on-line archives packed with cutting-edge deep-space imagery and information, cyberspace proved a polymorphously versatile eye-piece for the most powerful telescopes and interplanetary probes. The “Hubble Deep Field” image of 1995, the deepest look into space and time ever made, reveals a profusion of spinning orange and yellow galaxies – the earliest ever photographed. Better than any other single image, it defines the perimeter between the known and the unknown, between the earliest verifiable moments of nature’s history and those that we can only speculate about. And it can be down-loaded, at its highest resolution, by anybody with net access. Hamlet’s nutshell universe, in other words, is not only possible: it’s under construction at the moment. In May of 2000 this database space exploration methodology was validated by none other than the US National Resource Council, which recommended that an initial 60 million dollars be allocated to create a “national virtual observatory.” With the quantity of information pouring down from the sky growing ever more unmanageable, it seems that the old style method of observation (in which astronomers point telescopes where they want to look) is gradually being replaced by something called “data mining” (in which many layers of prerecorded observations are examined, frequently for the first time). The sheer volume of information produced by our multitudinous space sensors has produced the phenomenon of supercomputer-wielding scientists who, despite unprecedented data-crunching abilities, are still only capable of seining at the shores of the deep data ocean. In a 9,000 word essay titled “A Space in Time,” which will be published in The Atlantic Monthly later this year, I focus on the philosophical, aesthetic, and even theological implications of cyberspace space exploration. I will draw on this text and use images to illustrate some of my findings.

Biography: Michael Benson is an American filmmaker and writer based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His life-long interest in space exploration has resulted in a series of texts during the last few years focussing on the unmanned exploration of space. Among them is “A Space in Time,” which will be published by The Atlantic Monthly this year. Benson’s feature-length film “Predictions of Fire”, which focussed on the multimedia collective art movement NSK and the history of Slovenia and Yugoslavia, won a number of international best documentary awards. Benson has since produced a 55-minute film on Hong Kong titled “Fragrant Harbor/UK->PRC/Pass the Glass,” and he is working on post-production for a feature-length global road movie titled “More Places Forever.” In December he filmed the first theatrical performance ever conducted in front of an audience in zero gravity – the Noordung G-0 Biomechanical Theater. In combination with material featuring other artists who have created work or conducted research in zero gravity, he plans to make a film titled “Zero.” It will focus on the emerging genre of zero-gravity art and trace its antecedents.

⇧ Participants

After its “Bibliographies” series, Leonardo is launching, via Olats, its French web activity, the “Chronologies” series. One of them will be dedicated to Space Art. The chronology will act as the backbone for other developments and contents around Space Art.

Biography: Specialist of art and technology. Coordinator of OLATS/Leonardo Observatory for the Arts and the Techno-Sciences. Executive director of CHAOS, non-profit organization which publishes the IDEA online/International Directory of Electronic Arts. Eletronic art critic. Lecturer at the art school of Aix-en-Provence.

⇧ Participants

L’AAA est un réseau international de groupes se consacrant au développement de leurs propres programmes spatiaux indépendants, loin des intérêts commerciaux, scientifiques ou militaires, qui s’est étendu rapidement via internet depuis 5 ans. Les astronautes autonomes travaillent au développement d’un réseau non-hiérarchique autour du globe et expérimentent différents types d’interactions psycho-sociales pour envisager la construction d’architectures de base pour des communautés en gravité zéro. La vidéo présentera quelques unes des rencontres de l’AAA, notamment : la Conférence Intergalactique à Vienne en 1997, à Bologne en 1998, le Festival Space 1999 à Londres, la convention AAA à Rimini (Ita), l’exposition World-Information à Bruxelles, les performances Aotearoa à Hamilton (NZ), le Festival Gravité Zéro en France, etc…

The Association of Autonomous Astronauts is a worldwide network of local community-based groups dedicated to their own independent space exploration programs, far from military, scientific or commercial interests. The AAA developed itself as a non-hierarchical network around the world and grew quickly through the Internet and through the events that it has organized since its launch in 1995. The Autonomous Astronauts are experimenting with different kinds of psycho-social relationships for building new forms of architecture for future zero-gravity communities. Ewen Chardronnet will present an AAA video with the technical help of Régis Lescoublet and, considering the recent projects of the U.S. Department of Defense, he will also focus on specifics links between Science-Fiction and propaganda and investigate the necessity for Space Artists to fight the militarisation of space. The video will show a summary of various AAA events : Vienna 1997 Intergalactic Conference, Bologna 1998 Conferenza Intergallatica, Space 1999 Festival in London, Rimini AAA Convention 1999, World-Information.org exhibition in Bruxelles 2000, AAA Aotearoa balloon launch (NZ), Utopia and Gravité Zéro Festival in France 2000, etc. The AAA wants to focus on how cyberspace helped the autonomous astronauts to meet each others and the role of this kind of network in the development of independents space-related projects.

Biography: Ewen Chardronnet was born in 1971. He is a journalist (upper graduated) and musician (electronic music). He has been active in the AAA worldwide network since 1996.
In 2000, he produced with Jason Skeet from London and Riccardo Balli from Bologna, records dedicated to the AAA: the “Rave in Space” CD, and the “333, Sonic Belligerenza” LP. He organized the AAA annual event, the “Gravité Zéro Festival” (October 23 to November 1) with his association “Ellipse”. The Gravité Zéro Festival started with a complete video report (with the help of the professional science-fiction association AELITA – Evangelisti/Della Chiesa/Gyge, and with the technical assistance of Coline Fomekong and Régis Lescoublet) on Utopia, the Science-Fiction 2000 Convention in Nantes. He continued with an AAA party in Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, and several AAA network meetings such as a video night, an exhibition, a private party, and concluded with a final “rave in space” at le Batofar in Paris.
He also organized (with TNT Magazine) for the AAA, the Tirnanog Free Festivals 1996 and 1997; gave a music performance and a talk for the AAA Conferenza Intergalattica in Bologna 1998; a “supersonic space adventures” concert (XKV8 band) for the AAA, during the World- Information.org Event in Brussels 2000.
Currently, his interests are related to space and the arts, electronic music, science fiction, politics and information networks. He studied science in university, and worked in weather analysis, GPS and surveillance systems. He began to study journalism; politics and information networks in Paris, and at the same time became involved in electronic music and various space and arts projects through the AAA in 1996. Currently, he is involved in a French AAA book project, and in Science-Fiction as a journalist. He regularly provides texts for the AAA.

⇧ Participants

The launch of a commemorative sounding rocket carrying a space art payload will herald the creation of the Portuguese Space Agency. Alma da Agua begins with the gathering of natural source water samples from all of the eight Portuguese-speaking countries. The individual water samples are to be carried into space aboard a Brazilian sounding rocket (Sonda III) where they will be combined by the action of several apparatuses. A video camera and downlink antenna will provide live coverage of the waters floating and mixing in space. After an ocean splashdown, the recovered mixed waters will be divided equally and returned to their departure points at cultural ceremonies in each of the participating countries.
Alma da Agua addresses metaphorically the possibility of greater technical unification and deeper collaboration of Portuguese speaking countries. It celebrates their common bond of language, thus helping to create a greater awareness to facilitate the launch of future collaborative efforts.

Biography: Richard Clar is a Southern California Space Artist now based in Paris. He is the Director of Art Technologies, Los Angeles/Paris. An early pioneer of art-in-space, Richard began interdisciplinary projects in 1982 with the design of a NASA approved art payload for the U.S. Space Shuttle. In 1995, in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory, he created a constellation sculpture in sun-synchronous orbit using 297 orbital debris objects. His focus on the creation of art-in-space utilizes data and processes related to the various facets of space. Subjects include the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Orbital Debris, issues of War, and aspects related to Water. Richard’s work seeks to engage a broad audience from varied cultural backgrounds. Currently, he is the Secretary of the International Academy of Astronautics Subcommittee on Art and Literature. He has served on the Graphic Arts Council Executive Board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

⇧ Participants

⇧ Participants

Stan VanDer Beek (1927-1983) became known as one of the members of the American Expanded Cinema. He was as well an artist searching for new kinds of enlarged presentations for the Expanded Cinema. In 1964/65 he opened his Movie Drome at Stony Point, New York: a self built space capsule to experience full sensual experience of film projection. His interest was a satellite based Cinema distribution system which he called Culture Intercom. It included a data bank of images distributed via satellites. Stan was an artist-in-residence at NASA from 1979-80. “I gave them no chance to reject my proposals”, he said. “When they refused one project, they had already another proposal on their desk.” Jürgen Claus presents a short Hommage to this poetic visionary artist on occasion of 35 years of Movie Drome.

Biography: Artist, author, and educator. Artist-in-residence, Institute for Humanistic Studies, Aspen, 1972; artistic collaborator, Olympic Games, Munich, 1970-72; fellow and research associate, Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT, Cambridge, 1983-88; lecturer in art and technology, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, 1986-; editorial advisor and international co-editor, Leonardo, International Journal, MIT Press, 1987-; director, Centre Overoth, Baelen, Belgium, 1989-; professor, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, 1991-2000; coordinator and participant, SolArt Global Network (with Nora Claus), 1993-; task leader, European Community Project, BIMODE-Development of bi-functional photovoltaic modules for building integration, 1997-2000. Awards: Kunstfonds e.V., Bonn, 1983; Institute for Foreign Relations, Stuttgart, 1987; Prix Lago Maggiore, Videoart Festival, Locarno 1988; European Solar Prize, Bonn 1995 (with Nora Claus); Deputy Governor, American Biographical Institute, Raleigh.
Various Solar Art Works in public Spaces; One man shows in about 50 galleries in Aspen, Berlin, Lisbon, Munich, Tokyo. 11 books. among others: “Expansion der Kunst” (Expansion of Art), 1970; “Planet Ocean”, 1972; “SonnenMeer” (SunOcean), 1995; “Kulturelement Sonne” (Cultural Element Sun), 1997.

⇧ Participants

In only a few years, the relationship between outer space and cyberspace has developed to a level where the Internet is now enabling us more and more real-time connectivity to humankind’s activities in outer space. From the landing of the Mars Pathfinder in 1997 to the more recent NEAR asteriod landing and the ongoing real-time coverage of the ISS build up, the succes of the Internet as a (communication) tool for space agencies is slowly bringing outer space into the realm of cyberspace. The objective of the EarthViews project is to further explore and define the future of this emerging relationship between outer space and cyberspace. The project’s goal is to mediate on the Internet, unedited, the factual outer space environment by visualising in near real time the journeys of unmanned exploratory spacecraft into the solar system.
In 1998, the EarthViews concept was selected to be part of the education and outreach activities of a European lunar mission called LunarSat and an initial feasibility study was performed at the ESA Office for Education and Outreach at ESTEC. Aimed to revitalise the goal of a definit human return to the Moon, the LunarSat mission was designed to perform a detailed mapping of the lunar South Pole region. For the EarthViews project, the optical cameras onboard the spacecraft would continuously take images of the Earth and Moon during the 120 days lunar transfer. These ‘EarthViews’ images were then to be distributed on the Internet in near real time, such that people were able to ‘virtually’ travel along to the Moon. Travelling on a sophisticated Weak Stability Boundary Transfer trajectory, the spacecraft would move out of the Earth-Moon system, revealing unprecedented views of this important region in the outer space environment.
During my presentation, I will draw on the LunarSat-EarthViews feasibility study to give an overview of the ideas behind the EarthViews concept.

Biography: I am an aerospace engineer, graduated from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of the Technical University of Delft in June 2000. My master thesis comprised the LunarSat-EarthViews feasibility study, which I performed at the ESA Office for Education and Outreach at ESTEC under supervision of Mr. Wubbo Ockels between September 1998 and May 2000. I first proposed the EarthViews concept to Mr. Ockels for the Euromoon2000 mission back in May 1998. At the time, he was project manager of the Euromoon2000 project. After Euromoon2000 was discontinued by ESA council, he invited me to perform the feasibility study for the lunarSAt mission, which came out of the legacy of Euromoon2000. I also performed my practical work period (stage) at the Office for education and outreach as member of the LunarSat Public Outreach and Education team.
I gave several presentations of the EarthViews project, last time during the International Conference on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon (ICEUM4 conference) at ESTEC (this is the paper I send you). Also gave a presentation about the EarthViews project during a mediamatic saloon (platform for new media projects) at BABY, a society for media creatives in Amsterdam.
Within the aerospace field, I am especially interested to communicate space to the public and to broaden the scope of aerospace, most importantly to bring art and space together. I am very interested in the relationship between outer space and cyberspace, because I believe that cyberspace is now what outer space was during the 60’s.
I am currently employed in the Internet field as digital movie editor for streaming media content on web.

⇧ Participants

Trajectoire entre la gravité zéro et la gravité 1, trajectoire des mouvements à l’intérieur du corps, trajectoire des corps dans leurs déplacements, trajectoire des humains dans des nouveaux environnements,…etc.
Nous avons mis en place un processus d’expérimentation des mouvements dansés dans des environnements ou la gravité est altérée : dans l’eau, sur trampoline et en apesanteur à bord des vols paraboliques.
L’objectif est :
– de travailler sur la perception de l’espace interne du corps, en relation avec l’espace externe . De ce rapport à la matière va surgir un état d’être du corps (corps et mental). Des corps d’hommes et de femmes avec des densités différentes, gardant leur masse mais modifiant leur rapport à la gravité et à la matière. De ces confrontations vont naître un espace poétique où l’image vidéo est toujours présente, puisqu’elle est notre mémoire ;
– de réfléchir en fonction du lieu et plus précisément des systèmes de projections à l’émergence de cet espace poétique directement lié à la perception du corps du danseur ;
– d’expérimenter des formes de représentation qui tenterait de réduire les barrières de langage qui existent pour la compréhension d’un travail plurisdisciplinaire ;
– trouver une parole sur l’expérience vécue, un écrit, des images pour exister aussi dans les colloques ou dans des articles ;
– inviter artistes et scientifiques qui sont dans le même type de recherche a des rencontres, des échanges et éventuellement des collaborations.

The trajectory between zero G and one G, trajectory of the movements within the body, trajectory of the bodies throughout their movements, trajectory of human beings within new environments, etc.
For this work, Kitsou Dubois proposed experimental processes of danced movements in altered gravity environments : water, trampoline, zero G during parabolic flights. The aim is :
– to work on the perception of the internal body space in relationship with the outside space ;
– to work on the emergence of the poetic space strongly related to the perception of the body of the dancer in relation to the space and more precisely in relation to the projections systems ;
– to experiment new forms of representation to try to bridge the gap between the different “languages spoken” in a multidisciplinaray programme :
– to “translate” what has been experienced into writtings so that it can be shared ;
– to invite artists and scientists working in the same area of reseach to share their experiences in seminars and developp new collaborations.

Biography: Chorégraphe, pédagogue et chercheuse en danse, Kitsou Dubois s’intéresse particulièrement à la relation Art/Science. Elle travaille depuis 10 ans avec la recherche spatiale sur la gestuelle et les processus d’orientation et de perception en apesanteur. Elle a expérimenté l’apesanteur à bord de 9 vols paraboliques proposés par la recherche spatiale française (CNES) entre 1990 et 1994, un vol à la Cité des Etoiles en Russie en septembre 2000, et sont actuellement prévus 3 vols avec l’Agence Spatiale Européenne en mai 2001.
Lauréate de la “Villa Medicis Hors-les-murs” en 1989 pour un séjour à la NASA, Kitsou Dubois a travaillé avec le CNES et proposé un entraînement des astronautes à partir des techniques de danse. Elle a pu ainsi participer à une dizaine de vols paraboliques et expérimenter l’apesanteur. C’est la première artiste chorégraphique au monde qui travaille avec la recherche spatiale sur la gestuelle en apesanteur. Docteur en Esthétique, Sciences et Technologie des arts, elle est artiste en résidence à l’Imperial College à Londres (grâce au programme mis en place par Arts Catalyst) en collaboration avec un groupe de scientifiques (neurophysiologue et bioméchaniciens) le biodynamic groupe.
Après avoir créé ” Gravité zéro ” une pièce sur les premières émotions inoubliables du vol en apesanteur, à Bagnolet , à la Grande Halle de la Villette à Paris et au théâtre Garonne à Toulouse, Kitsou Dubois cherche à créer un autre espace de représentation pour offrir et faire partager au spectateur sur terre les enjeux du corps sans poids et surtout la trajectoire qui existe entre le corps avec poids et le corps sans poids. C’est la deuxième étape : ” Trajectoire fluide “.

Choreographer, teacher and researcher in dance, Kitsou Dubois is particularly interested in the art/science relationship. She has been working for 10 years in collaboration with Space Research about gestures, movements, orientation processes and perception in weightlessness. Between 19990 and 1994, she experimented weightlessness during 9 parabolic flights with the French Space Research (CNS), a flight in collaboration with the Russian Space Research (Star City) in September 2000, and now three flights are planed with ESA in May 2001.
Fellow of the “Villa Medicis Hors-les-murs” programme in 989, Kitsou Dubois worked with the CNES and proposed a training protocol for the astronauts based on dance techniques. She has been the first choreographer and artist to work in collaboration with Space Research to experiment movements in weightlessness. Kitsou Dubois has a Ph.D in Aesthetics, Sciences and Technology in the Arts. She is currently artist in residence at the Imperial College, London (in a programme put together by Arts Catalyst) and collaborates with a group of scientists (neurophysiologists and biomecanics), the biodynamic group.
After her first choreography “Gravité Zéro”, performed at Bagnolet and the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, and at the Garonne Theater in Toulouse, Kitsou Dubois is now working on a new project “Trajectoire Fluide” (Fluid Trajectory). This new work aims to share with the audience, on earth, the perception of the weightless body, and moreover, the trajectory between a body with weight to a body without weight.

⇧ Participants

Biography: Bronac Ferran works as Senior Collaborative Arts officer at the Arts Council of England. She heads Unit dedicated to the support of innovative R&D and interdisciplinary practice and looks after Art and Science collaborations as well as work falling between and outside conventional artform categories. She was UK representative on the Council of Europe’s advisory group on art and culture a few years back and is currently chairing the programming group for the CODE Conference happening in Cambridge UK in April 2001 (see https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/events/code/)

⇧ Participants

The recent images from the TRACE instrument continue to provide a spectacular wealth of data to the scientist and a colorful light show to the layman. Both the public press and the scientific papers have been highly demonstrative of the spectacular results.

Biography: Manager emeritus, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory
Program Manager Soft X-ray Telescope Program
IAF Public Outreach Promoter
Mass Transit Studies Participant
‘Off the grid’ builder
Residential real estate developer
Real estate syndicator
Investment advisor
Classic car collector
World traveler

⇧ Participants

Contemporary theories of cognition emphasize the dynamic conjunction of the embodiment of organisms and their situatedness within an environment. Both the environment and the organism become mutually adapted by means of this relationship. While environments vary, they also have fundamental similarities that give rise to notions of physical laws and constants. In recent decades, a transformation of the ‘laws’ governing the physical behavior of both the environment and the organism has become possible – at the level of experience- in certain circumstances. Virtual environments generated through computational techniques and the micro-gravity environments of orbiting craft are instances in which the normative physics of common experience are modified. In the literature of both disciplines, issues of navigation, orientation, communication, and perception are being explored. Common issues that develop in both micro-gravity and virtual environments offer insights into the intrinsic properties of the adapted organism. In both cases, the embodiment of the organism may provide the critical framework in which to consider issues of design and interface. Examples will be drawn from student work from the design studios ‘Architecture of Extreme Environments’ and from current research projects at the School of Architecture of the University of Arkansas.

Biography: Ted Krueger is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Information Technology for the School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. He has exhibited, published and lectured on an international basis for 15 years. Currently, he is guest editing an issue of the journal Convergence on the topic of Intelligent Environments.

⇧ Participants

⇧ Participants

Biography: Louis Laidet graduated from ISEP (Paris) in 1963. National service: officer in French Air Force (1963-1964)
He has been working for CNES since 1965. He started working on satellite control systems and became head of the satellites tracking station of Bretigny in 1968.
In 1971 he started the development of the CNES space remote sensing program, and in 1976 became Director of GDTA (Groupement pour le Développement de la Télédétection Aérospatiale).
In 1983 he was appointed Space Attaché at the French Embassy in Washington where he spent 5 years developing and promoting collaborations between the American and French Space Programs, among them Topex-Poseidon oceanographic project, life science projects, ISS cooperation, etc.
In 1988 he joined CNES-HQ as Director for Communications.
Since 1998 he is Delegate for relations between CNES and international space related institutions.
Member of International Academy of Astronautics since 1981
Member of Board of Trusties of International Space University
Member of Board of Institut Français d’Histoire de l’Espace
Member of International Affairs Committee of AIAA
Member of AAAF, Eurisy, Euroscience, Eucosat, IAF.
Numerous publications on the following themes: Remote Sensing,
Communicating with the Public, Space and Poetry, French Space Program, etc.
Sports: Jogging, Tennis, Ski, Private pilot licence.

⇧ Participants

Biography: After studies in Fine Art School, he’s now involved in video editing. He includes this short documentary on AAA’s activities in his project of making films in his own video home-studio. He’s also realised a documentary (in process) and an article in SF-Mag on Utopia, a science-fiction festival in Nantes (France).

⇧ Participants

The Motion In Zero Gravity Project (MzG) is the second group to come out of the San Francisco Art Institute to have been be excepted onto NASA’s ‘Flight opportunity Program’ that allows students the opportunity to Fly the KC-135 aircraft.
A collaboration exploring the inside and outside ‘dimensions’ described by the human body within the spatial environment of zero gravity and technology. The team is conducting an experiment in sensory orientation using a pair of I-Glasses and programmed graphics which will monitor the body’s ability to percieve what is up and what is down.
We are working in two main areas : motion and perception, using the point of contact between the body and technology. Through close examination of the data-processed phantas , movements and flows of the visible and invisible body are given access to visual qualities as well as interpreted in a numerical formula. By interfacing the technological being with the need to escape gravity, the transformation of perceived orientation within the physical and virtual space is monitored and scanned to describe multiple dimensional positions and occurrences.
The ZgAL is working with MzG as an outlet for art projects and events. NASA requires the that SFAI MzG team focus purely on the scientific project At the last space art event in San Francisco in October 2000, titled ‘So you wanna be an Astronaut?’, Richard Lowenberg said that “It is the ability of people to work together” which is the key to intergrating the artists into space programs. Lorelei explores these points of contact through her work and her social sculptures attempt to push through the imaginary boundries between people.
Lorelei Lisowsky is the founder and director of the Zero-g Arts Lab in San Francisco and is also one of the team members of the MzG project who will be conducting the experiment and hopefully negotiating artwork on board the KC-135 in zero gravity.
The Team will be flying at the beginning of March 2001 at the Johnson Kennedy Space Center in Housten Texas, and documentation of the event, the experiment and artwork will be available by the end of March 2001.

Biography: Lorelei Lisowsky is a digital media, public performance artist, and researcher.
Working as an artist in public places for ten years, Lorelei experienced the power and potential for social interaction of the artist in the community. Co-founder Exploding Cinema in London, the New Cinema in SE Cornwall Arts Forum, Co Director Community Arts Resource in England. Lorelei has produced several works, based on the theme of weightlessness, using documentation of artists on parabolic flights in a video installation in SFAI’s Spring show 1999 ‘Conjunctions of Weightlessness’ and 14 Days to Go’ info-performance countdown to NASA. Since founding the Zero-g Arts Lab in San Francisco, she has organized three “Space Art” events and a tele-conferencing debate between an artist in Slovenia and artists in San Francisco. She presented her work at the Fourth Space Art Forum in London and attended Deaf2, Wiretap event, ‘Slow Crash- an afternoon in Zero Gravity’. She will fly her first Parabolic flight in March 2001 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

⇧ Participants

Biography: Directeur du Laboratoire d’Astronomie Spatiale de Marseille (CNRS), directeur du Center for Extreme-Ultraviolet, Berkeley, California, directeur de Leonardo.

⇧ Participants

Susan McKenna-Lawlor will describe how she experienced zero gravity during 12 parabolas aboard a Russian Elusian 76 aircraft.

Biography: Scientist, Susan McKenna-Lawlor is a Professor in the Department of Experimental Physics at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth as well as a Member of the Senate and of the Managing Board of that University. She is also Managing Director of her own Company Space Technology Ireland, Ltd. which builds instrumentation for space. She has acted as PI/CoI for various experiments flown on ESA, NASA and Russian missions. Currently she is participating in ESA’s SOHO, Cluster, Rosetta and Mars Express Missions and in NASA’s WIND and Gravity Probe B (Relativity) Missions.

⇧ Participants

Biography: Mr. O’Neil received his BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University with Distinction in 1961. He has an MSAE from USC. He worked at Boeing Airplane Company and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company prior to joining JPL in 1963. His assignments at JPL have included trajectory design and navigation for Surveyor–the first soft landing lunar spacecraft, Navigation Chief of Mariner Mars 1971–the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another planet, Navigation Chief for Viking–the first soft-landings on Mars, and Manager of the JPL Mission Design Department. Mr. O’Neil served as the Science and Mission Design Manager for Project Galileo during its development phase throughout the 1980’s. A few months after Galileo’s October 18, 1989 launch, Mr. O’Neil was appointed Galileo Project Manager. The Galileo spacecraft–an Orbiter and an Entry Probe–arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995 becoming the first to penetrate an outer planet atmosphere and the first to orbit an outer planet. On its circuitous route, Galileo became the first spacecraft to perform asteroid flybys–Gaspra in October 1991 and Ida in August 1993. Project Galileo discovered a natural satellite of Ida–the first ever sighting of an asteroid satellite. The Galileo Orbiter successfully completed its two-year primary mission scientific tour of the Jupiter System on December 7, 1997 and is now in an extended Jupiter tour to the end of this century.
In February 1998 Mr. O’Neil was appointed Chief Technologist for the Mars Exploration Program at JPL. He led the Mars Sample Return Mission Architecture Study and subsequently the implementation planning for the Mars Sample Return Project with first missions to be launched in 2003 and 2005 to return samples to Earth in 2008. On November 16, 1998 Mr. O’Neil was appointed Project Manager for the Mars 2003/2005 Sample Return Project, which will be the first project to bring samples from another planet to Earth. That Project was cancelled in April 2000 in the wake of the Mars ’98 Project failures. Mr. O’Neil has since been the manager of the newly formed JPL Systems Management Office. He will be retiring this spring for a sabbatical and then private consulting.
Mr. O’Neil has been honored with NASA’s highest award–the Distinguished Service Medal. He has also received the Purdue Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary Doctorate from the University of Padova, Italy–Galileo’s University. He resides with his wife in Sierra Madre, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. They have three adult children and two grandchildren. His outside interests include travel, downhill skiing, collecting classic Packard automobiles, and real estate investment.

⇧ Participants

After a successful presentation of several space art projects during the Dutch Electronic Art Festival in Rotterdam last November, some of the participants started a dialogue researching possibilities to join ideas and interest to produce an interdisciplinary space art project. The involved parties hope to establish channels to open up space facilities for interdisciplinary artistic and scientific collaboration. Currently we’re surveying the possibilities how and with whom we can establish an interdisciplinary as well as an intercultural research exchange environment.
Involved parties / people so far:
– Arts catalyst
– Arts council
– V2
– Marko Peljhan
– Dragan Zivadinov
– Star City
– Russian artists

Biography: Anne Nigten is manager of the V2 Lab, staff member of V2 Organization in Rotterdam and content manager of EncART (European Network for cyber ART). Over the last 13 years, she has been working as an independent media artist, and simultaneously fulfilled several management jobs for the media art sector in the Netherlands. Besides this Anne has practised several more technical oriented functions.
Anne has worked a.o. as chair lady for the Association of media artists Amsterdam, co initiator of flying desk Amsterdam, co initiator of the Free Media Kafe Amsterdam, project coordinator Utrecht School of the arts dept. interaction design, creative director desk.nl (part time).

⇧ Participants

Biography: Marko Peljhan was born in 1969 in Nova Gorica and resides in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has founded the arts organisation PROJEKT ATOL in 1992, its technical branch PACT SYSTEMS (Projekt Atol Communications Technologies) in 1995. He is the co-founder of LJUDMILA (Ljubljana Digital Media Lab) and coordinator of the MAKROLAB and INSULAR TECHNOLOGIES projects and initiatives. PACT has also worked with the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in 1999 and 2000 to organise 4 arts based parabolic flights, 3 for the Slovenian Noordung team and 1 in cooperation with Arts Catalyst for the Franco/British parabolic flight of Kitsu Dubois in 2000.

⇧ Participants

KEO is a project aiming at putting into orbit a space time capsule devised as to return to Earth safe and sound in 50,000 years. Aboard will be stored the greatest possible number of messages that every man, woman and child on our Planet today is invited to deliver to our far away grandchildren. KEO technical feasibility was proved at the 48th IAF International Astronautical Congress ­ Turin 1997. Initially KEO was planned to be launched in 2001. Two major facts contributed to postponing its launching to 2003 : 1) So far the thousands and thousands of collected messages do not yet represent the diversity of peoples on the Earth as 90% of them come from northern hemisphere countries. 2) Due to technical improvements achieved in working out the glass disks which support the information within KEO, the bearable live load temperature has increased from 250° to 480°.
Hence: Expanding message collection by two years would permit human representatively requested by KEO universal vocation. New partnerships set up with international organizations such as I.F.H.R, UNESCO, the French Embassies worldwide network, will speed up collecting messages in the southern hemisphere.
The reproportioning of the KEO space time capsule in process at the moment by E.A.D.S and C.N.E.S, will allow a significant reduction in the various protective shields dimension leading to a reduction of mass and size of the capsule.
KEO’s final specific dimensions will be known in the next month.

Biography: Artist (qualified geophysician), decides in 1966 to “forsake the rational for the intuitive.” 1967 / 1980 : traditional painter. (Exhibitions : Museum of Modern Art – Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, FIAC – Grand Palais). 1978 / 1980 Produces “variations graphiques” series of cathodic screen images. 1980: incorporates new technologies into his work. 1980 / 2001: Develops space art projects. 1986 / 1987: creates “Messages from mankind to the Universe” work of art composed of messages collected via Minitel all over France and beamed into the heart of the galaxy by the radio telescope in Nançay. 1985 /1990: produces the first sculptures using shape memory alloys. 1994 / 2001: Creates the “Sphere of Mars” and “KEO”.

⇧ Participants

An illustrated overview of the TechnoSphere website and artificial life engine with documentation and discussion of the realtime 3D version of TechnoSphere and our ideas for putting artificial life in space via a TechnoSphere/LunaSphere website which can be colonised by users from earth.

Biography: Jane Prophet is currently a research fellow at the University of Westminster and a lecturer in Fine Art at the Slade School of Art. Her body of work covers large scale installations, digital print, websites and CDROMs. Prophet has exhibited her work throughout the UK, Europe and Canada, as well as on the internet. Among her past projects is the award-winning website, TechnoSphere, made with Gordon Selley which reflects her interest in landscape and artificial life. A real time 3D interactive version, made with Mark Hurry, is part of the permanent exhibition in the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV at Bradford, UK.

⇧ Participants

Water has always been a crucial political and socioeconomic stake, but the question is: at the threshold of the 21st century, will we have to fear a World war for water?
Willing to make one’s contribution on such a relevant issue, Leonardo/OLATS/VIRTUAL AFRICA, in collaboration with the RIVER FESTIVAL and FLUIDARTS, has launched a multicultural and interdisciplinary 3-year project focused on the cultural and scientific context of water: “THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF WATER”
The project is divided into 2 sections:
* The first one, untitled “The Spirit of Water” examines the role of water in the artist’s creation, and will show how the element of water is most often perceived as the dwelling place of an ambivalent, magic, and mysterious world. In Africa, for instance, the Dogon say that water is inhabited by NOMMO, a spirit they revere and fear since he can bring rain and prosperity as well as drougth and misery.
* The second section – “The Power of Water” – addresses more scientific issues. Various questions will be considered such as: What can be done to preserve our natural resources of water and distribute them in a more equitable way? How can we struggle against risks of pollution and Epidemics? Some recent research indicate that water can also be found on Mars, and the new images collected by the Galileo spacecraft proved that water under a liquid form may have possibly existed on this satellite. So the question is: How these investigations can help resolve some of our water problems?
“THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF WATER” Is opened to scientists and artists of all countries and disciplines. A whole range of activities (online and offline) are planned:
* An exhibition online in the VIRTUAL AFRICA’s website
* A first seminar which will take place in the Museum of African and Oceanian Arts (EHESS), in Marseilles (France) : on November 5, and 6, 2001.
* A selection of articles and artworks will be published in the “Leonardo” journal of arts and sciences (published by MIT Press).

Biography: Jocelyne Rotily est Docteur en histoire de l’art et en civilisation américaine. Elle est spécialisée dans l’histoire du collectionnisme américain et dans l’étude de l’art moderne américain, y compris l’art des minorités. Depuis 1997, elle travaille pour Leonardo/L’OLATS en tant que chargée de projet et graphiste. Elle est responsable des projets on-line : ” Afrique Virtuelle “, exposition multidisciplinaire sur les cultures africaines contemporaines et traditionnelles ; ” Frank Malina, artiste cinétique et ingénieur en astronautique “. Elle est également chargée de recherche pour la Fondation Varian Fry, France, fondation dont le but est de diffuser, auprès du public le plus large et dans les établissements scolaires ou universitaires, le souvenir de la Résistance humanitaire organisée par Varian Fry et son équipe du ” Centre Américain de Secours “, installés à Marseille pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
Boursière à la Fondation Roberto Longhi à Florence et à l’Ecole Française de Rome, elle a écrit une étude biographique sur l’historien d’art américain Bernard Berenson mettant en exergue ses relations avec les intellectuels français (André Gide, Marcel Proust…), et sa contribution au développement du collectionnisme d’objets d’art de la Renaissance dans l’Amérique du début du siècle. Elle a publié pour des revues littéraires telles que ” L’infini ” et ” Critique ” quelques articles montrant son souci de construire d’étroites correspondances entre les arts visuels et la littérature. Spécialiste de l’histoire des relations artistiques entre la France et les Etats-Unis, elle vient de publier plus récemment un ouvrage intitulé ” Artistes américains à Paris, 1914-1939 ” (Paris, L’Harmattan, 1998) dans lequel elle examine le rôle joué par Paris et son avant-garde artistique dans la naissance d’un art typiquement américain.
Elle a enseigné à Harvard University dans le département d’Histoire de l’art et dans le département des Littératures et Langues Romanes. En France, elle a également enseigné des cours d’histoire de l’art américain (19ème et 20ème siècles), à l’Université de Provence (Aix-en-Provence).

Jocelyne Rotily is Doctor in Art History and in American Civilization. She is specialized in the history of American art collecting and in the study of modern American art, including arts of the minorities. Since 1996, she has been working for Leonardo/L’OLATS, as a curator, and graphic designer. She is in charge of two projects : ” Virtual Africa “, a multidisciplinary exhibition on traditional and contemporary African cultures ; and ” Frank J. Malina, Kinetic artist and Engineer in Astronautics “. She is also research assistant at the Varian Fry Foundation, in France, a foundation of which purpose is to bring to the largest public audience and to schools and universities in France the memory of the humanitarian resistance of Varian Fry and of the American rescue and relief organization he established in Marseilles during World War II.
As a fellow at the Roberto Longhi Foundation in Florence and at the Ecole Française de Rome, she first wrote a biographical study on the American art historian Bernard Berenson, focusing on his relationships with French intellectuals (André Gide and Marcel Proust…) and on his contribution to the development of Renaissance art collecting in the United States. She published a few articles in literary journals such as ” L’Infini ” and ” Critique ” in which she demonstrated her strong interest in building close connections between visual arts and literature. As a specialist in the history of French American artistic relationships, she more recently published a book untitled ” Artistes américains à Paris, 1914-1939 ” (Paris, L’Harmattan, 1999) in which she examines the role played by Paris and its artistic avant-garde in the birth of a typically ” American ” art.
She was a teacher at Harvard University in the Art History Department and in Romance Languages Department. In France, she also taught undergraduate classes on American art (19th and 20th centuries) at the University of Aix-en-Provence.

⇧ Participants

Nicola Triscott and Rob La Frenais of the Arts Catalyst will discuss their new space-art programme, aimed at increasing access for artists to space agencies and setting up collaborations with space scientists and technicians. Following their first parabolic flight with the Yuri Gagarin Centre at Star City, Russia, they will discuss the ethical, theoretical and practical implications of making the zero G experience more widely available. They will raise the issue of developing zero G art into an ‘advanced’ form – as propounded by the work of Kitsou Dubois. They will speculate on ways in which artists might be able to collaborate with space activity in the future, apart from parabolic flights, and the potential for cultural-political lobbying by public bodies to encourage space agencies to become more open to arts activity in their programmes.

Biography: Nicola Triscott is the director and founder of the Arts Catalyst, the UK’s science-art agency, which has been organising collaborative projects between scientists and artists since 1993. Its work in space art is principally concerned with issues of access to specialist environments. Arts Catalyst set up a collaboration between choreographer Kitsou Dubois and the Biodynamics Group at Imperial College, led by Prof. Robert Schroter, and made a successful proposal to the European Space Agency for an experiment, currently scheduled to take place on the ESA parabolic campaign in October 2001. With Rob La Frenais and Marko Peljhan, she organised – and was a participant on – a parabolic flight in September 2000 with the Yuri Gagarin Centre, Star City, which carried Kitsou Dubois and a 5-person team, as well as other artists and scientists. The Arts Catalyst’s 2nd UK Space-Art Forum in November 2000 in London took the specific theme of art in altered gravity to encourage more artists to consider working in this environment.

Rob La Frenais is the curator of the Arts Catalyst. He has been organizing visual art projects on an international level since 1987, curating major projects with artists such as James Turrell, Marina Abramovic, Stelarc and Orlan. From 1979 to 1987 he was the editor of Performance Magazine, a UK-based European cross-artform journal. He joined the Arts Catalyst in 1997
and with Nicola Triscott organized shows such as ‘Atomic’, featuring the nuclear artist James Acord, and the major international conferences ‘Eye of the Storm’ and ‘Cosmic Chances’ at the Royal Institution, London, as well as setting up and chairing the UK Space Art Forum, taking place in 1999 and 2000. In August 1999 he took part in the first dedicated artists’ parabolic flight to take place in Russia with the Yuri Gagarin Training Centre, organized by Marko Peljhan for Dragan Zivadinov’s Noordung company. He describes himself as a reluctant conscript to the artist cosmonaut corps.

⇧ Participants

Using categories suggested by philosopher Michel Foucault, cyberspace can be seen as an “other space” with specific characteristics. With advances in technology, increasingly cyberspace provides access to yet another kind of space: outer space. To provide a framework from which to examine space art, Foucault’s thoughts on heterotopias will be contrasted with his notions about disciplinary spaces. Each type of space has characteristic features, which facilitate experiences either of control and regimentation (in disciplinary spaces) or of liberation and new possibilities (in heterotopias). Drawing on his background as a clinical psychologist, Doug will introduce the characteristics of these different types of spaces through illustrations from psychotherapeutic spaces. Then, the potential value of these categories for explicating space art in both cyberspace and veridical space will be examined, drawing upon examples of art presented at this workshop. Particular attention will be given to four characteristics of heterotopic spaces that can provide a liberating influence: 1) these spaces are both sealed off and permeable, 2) they are open to a multiplicity of times, 3) they contain within themselves several sites that would otherwise be mutually incompatible, and 4) they provide arenas in which a stability and safety not characteristic of other spaces can be actualized.

Biography: Doug Vakoch is the SETI Institute’s resident social scientist. His primary focus is identifying ways that different civilizations might create messages that could be transmitted across interstellar space. He is particularly interested in how we might compose messages that would begin to express what it’s like to be human, in the process creating art projects that are informed by science and technology. In addition to his work in composing interstellar messages, he conducts research on the history of the extraterrestrial life debate, policy issues related to SETI, and possible psychological and religious responses to detecting a signal from extraterrestrial intelligence. His empirical research in psychology has covered a range of topics in psycholinguistics and psychotherapeutic communication, including studies of the differing worldviews of psychotherapists as well as experiments testing his evolutionary model of speech perception.

⇧ Participants

The “smaller, faster, cheaper” space mission design approach has radically altered interplanetary exploration. Streamlined missions have traded lower cost and faster schedules against higher risk.
Applying this approach artistically, the intention is to stage an internet-based event, disseminating outcomes electronically. Selected artists will be placed in enclosed environments. Limited as to size and mass of their materials, the ‘artonauts’ have 24 hours to work. Throughout, their activities will be broadcast by webcam and also monitored/task-set by a central ‘mission control, their only external contact.

Biography: Dr Chris Welch is Principal Lecturer in Astronautics and Space Systems at Kingston University in the United Kingdom where his research interests include non-chemical spacecraft propulsion and satellite design and manufacture. He is Chair of the UK’s Space Education Council, a Council Member and Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, Vice-Chair of the International Space University Affiliate Campus Conference and a member of the IAF Space and Education Committee and the IAA Subcommitte on Art and Literature. A frequent TV and radio broadcaster on astronautics, Chris’ only other claims to fame are that he made it the final twenty candidates to fly to the Mir space station on the UK-USSR Juno mission in 1989 and has written what he believes to be the first ever paper on the design of extraterrestrial gardens.

Flis Holland is taking a gap year between School and University, where she will study for MEng in Satellite Engineering. She is currently a volunteer space education worker; assistant at Space School UK, is on the committee of their alumni association, is webmaster for both the Space Education Council and Friends of Space School. Since October 2000 she has been a corresponding member of the IAF Space and Education Committee and a member of the IAA Subcomitte on Art and Literature.
After an exhibition of her art work in Newcastle, UK during the summer of 2000 she has continued to develop her artskills and became interested in space art, and in bringing the artistic and scientific/engineering communities closer together. Together with Chris Welch she has proposed a parabolic flight piece to the Arts Catalyst Space Art Forum in the UK and is now working on plans for a space art exhibition.

⇧ Participants

The thrust of this enquiry stems from an observation of our pan-scientific and technological cultures’ dependance for efficient ‘enviroments’ or ‘models’ in which experiments, research and production are conducted (clinical / bio chemical / pharmaceutical / microelectronics / space exploration etc).In order to achieve the required results, data or value, a physically ‘clean’ or ‘sterile’ environment is increasingly essential.
The ultimate ‘clean’ or ‘sterile’ environment could easily be imagined within a timeless state in the vacuum of outer space, or at the heart of a mathematical model or simulation in the memory of a microchip. Yet it is the contaminated, unclean physical world which we each inhabit.
The artistic enquiry is then shaped by this notion of a perfect, clean space or model, and whether it can inform artistic practices which so often rely on form and space, created in the studio, gallery or physically contaminated world.

Biography: Neal White is currently acting as the Creative Director of Soda, a company he co-founded after completing an MA at Middlesex University’s Centre for Electronic Arts (Digital Art and Technology) in 1996. Soda develops online software, fine art and research projects.
Neal has exhibited widely from his own practise, as well as in collaboration with other members of Soda, recently including; City Racing – London, Avatar – Museum of Modern Art – Stockholm, Soda – Lux Gallery London, artist in residence at The Human Genome Mapping Project – Hinxton, Cambridgeshire and Artlab 5 – Imperial College – London.
Neal is currently working as artist in residence for Soda with Pfizer Ltd, developing a Bookworks commission with author Lawrence Norfolk, and undertaking research for the Sterile Environmments project – culminating in a touring exhibition, ‘Clean Room’, organised by Arts Catalyst and sponsored by the Arts Council of England.

⇧ Participants

In Jan. 2000 the European Space Agency commissioned a study to examine Science Fiction literature and the arts in order to find examples or descriptions of future or innovative technologies that may have potential for further development. The study was carried out by the Maison d’Ailleurs “The House of Elsewhere” a museum of Science Fiction in Yverdon-les-Bains. Switzerland and by the OURS Foundation – a non-profit cultural and astronautical organization. The study was developed and involved the participation of more than 200 space and Science Fiction experts and resulted in more than 600 pages of documentation.

Biography: Space Artist, President of the OURS Foundation, Chairman of the Art and Literature Sub-Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics. Currently, CEO of Swissart GmbH which developed and manages the Swissart Network – the Swiss Art Portal as well as other Internet projects for industry and the European Space Agency. Originator of various art-in-space projects including the Cosmic Dancer Sculpture (1993) and Ars Ad Astra: the 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit (1995) both projects realized on the Mir Space Station.

⇧ Participants

The original website of the conference
http://archive.olats.org/space/13avril/2001/mono_index.php