SPACE BEYOND BORDERS:
INTERNATIONAL ARTS IN SPACE EXPLORATION SPACE ARTISTS CONTRIBUTIONS
The following videos, in this category, were produced by various international professional space artists who have achived distinction in the arts, humaniteis and cutlure in space exploration and wished to contribtue their work and voices to ISDC2016 through these formal submission.
INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Program Video 24
I SEE THE EARTH WORLD PREMIERE: YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA 2008
Frank Pietronigro, Concept Artist, Art Director
Lowry Burgess, Music Director
Celestine Star, Project Manger and Video Editor
Celebrating NASA’s 50th Anniversary with Commander Peggy Whitson and Crewmember Garret Reisman, 16th Expedition of the International Space Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Crew Member Garret Reisman 16th Expedition of the International Space Station
In memory of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to gaze upon our earth in it’s entirety from space. His words, “I see the earth and the earth is beautiful”, first words spoken from space.
In the past ZGAC’s team of collaborating artists, universities, space scientists, space agency managers and musician collaborated on a historic work that took place in 2008. A Cosmic Antiphony, with music co-created by the Deep Space Signaling Group (DSSG), at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University and Celestine Start of Golden Star Productions, the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium, Space Generation Advisory Council and Yuri’s Night Bay area organization.
The message from the International Space Station (ISS) was facilitated by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and NASA Ames Research Center. In celebration of NASA’s 50th Anniversary, we see Commander Peggy Whitson and Crew Member Garret Reisman say hello from the16th Expedition of the International Space Station that was flying above people celebrating below.
At 8:22 pm PST, as the International Space Station appeared in the sky overhead, raising to about 55 degrees, more than halfway to the zenith above the Northeastern horizon, at 8:25 pm, shining at the magnitude of –2.2, bright enough to see with the naked eye. The ISS arced then faded from view low on the Southeast sky at about 8:27 pm.
Delivering a powerful ‘Unifying Moment in the history of mankind as 15,000 people enjoyed I See The Earth showing simultaneously on all stage screens. I See The Earth, was a call to the participants of Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2008, held at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA on April 12, 2008 and to all the hundreds of Yuri’s Night 2008 participants celebrating around the world to participate in a “Unifying Moment” honoring Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.
OK GO – UPSIDE DOWN & INSIDE OUT
Los Angeles bandmembers Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy Ross learned much for early space artists like Kitsou Dubois as we watch this latest video from this amazing group of artists who formed as a quartet in Chicago in 1998 moving shortly to Los Angeles. OK Go continues to fearlessly dream and build new worlds in a time when creative boundaries have all but dissolved in the spirit of the ISDC2016 theme Space Beyond Borders.
LOWRY BURGESS SPACE ARTIST
Jonathan Minard and Michael Pisano, Producers
The Moon Arts project began in 2008 when Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh robotics company, called for a meeting with Dean Robinson of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon. As a result, a sculpture will be shuttled to the moon from Cape Kennedy in 2016 on an Astrobotic Robotic Lunar mission aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket, and exist there for potentially billions of years. It contains elements representing all the Arts and Humanities (art, architecture, design, music, drama, ballet, and poetry) –all engaging the most advanced sciences, engineering, technologies, and material science–from the nano- and micro- scales, to the infinite scales including ever ongoing deep space radio-wave transmissions.
MOON ARTS PROJECT
JAPAN
Program Video: 27
HITEN by Ishiguro Setsuko, Creator
HITEN Project1&2 photo by JAXA©2009
HITEN project1. danced parabolic flight by two dancers (Huang Kai, Motoko Hirayama).
HITEN project2. danced on the International Space Station by an astronaut, Dr. Koichi Wakata, in 2009.
HITEN project3. danced on the International Space Station by an astronaut, Ms. Naoko Yamazaki, in 2010.
Motions of human beings on the earth are completely governed by gravity. For the people who have watched astronauts floating in space, such scenes are surprisingly refreshing released from the constrictions of gravity, human motions produce beauty that has not ever seen before.
HITEN are regarded as celestial beings who fly through the air to praise Buddha’s dignity and guard his world. More specifically, they rejoice over Buddha’s doings by performing music, showering flowers and wafting incense as they fly through the air. HITEN- the flying deities- in the Buddhist tradition have their origins in Europe, through (Silk Road) India from where they were brought to China and Japan. The most beautiful images of them are found in the grottoes of Dunhuang (China). This dance focuses on Dunhuang cave art and analyzes the physical characteristics and dance postures of these figures of HITEN .Moreover, depictions of HITEN in Japan are considered, in particular those of the murals from the Horyuji Golden Hall-oldest wooden temple in the world.
From these research, I could find effective movements in zero gravity and bending backward and triangle posture (Zazen) as ‘HITEN’ is one of the artistic rules in zero gravity.
AUSTRALIA
PRELUDE FOR CELLO AND THREE VIOLINS
Dr. Ioannis MICHALOUDIS (Michalous)
On a cellist shadow the projection of outer space images becomes body parts.
WE ARE ALL EXPLORER FISH
Dr. Sarah Jane Pell, Writer/Director/Producer, RMIT University, Australia
Co-commissioned by Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre for the Trondheim Biennale for Art and Technology ‘Meta.Morf 2016 – Nice to be in orbit!’ 2016
Gripped by an obsession for Earthly connection, Amulet the first human born in low Earth orbit, agrees to work on the new Mars outpost. If she survives, others will follow and she will not be alone.
URL: http://www.explorerfishmovie.com
FRANCE
L’ART DE VOLER, The Art of Flying
Kitsou Dubois
During the creation of the show “Attractions Plurielles”, Kitsou Dubois, the “weightless choreographer” tells the singular approach she fallows for 25 years : mix scientific research and artistic work about the body in microgravity. Art of Flying is the video diary of this creation. For Kitsou, time is come to pass on. This interactive web documentary proposes to live this weightless sensation.
MEXICO
Password: cupertino
MATTERS OF GRAVITY
Nahum, Ale de la Puente
Zero Gravity: A silent question. When we are born we pass in an instant from the dark to the light, from weightlessness to heaviness; here is our first contact with life. In dreams we remember this primitive state of lightness and so we dream of flying. Our planet and its life are molded by gravity and yet this force is the weakest in the universe. We find its mysterious presence in our bodies, in our language and we fight against it to grow and to reach the stars.
Matters of Gravity (La Gravedad de los Asuntos) highlights the fundamental principles of humankind. With a lightness to be able to fly together, but with a gravity that inevitably makes us fall again. Every one of us, here on Earth, is attached to a force that goes beyond all comprehension but not beyond our lives. Two years of reflection and a few seconds in zero gravity were the origins of a series of artist works that have been completed at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia. There, on board the iconic Ilyushin 76 MDK, 9 artists and 1 scientist from Mexico were subject to an environment of weightlessness. A few seconds were enough to experience eternity, to tell a story, to break a paradigm, to liberate a molecule, to have an illusion, to experience movement without references, to create poetry out of falling bodies, to make the useless become useful and to search for the impossible embrace.
www.facebook.com/LaGravedadDeLosAsuntos
THE NETHERLANDS
COGITO
Daniela de Paulis, Creator
‘COGITO is the recording of a live performance presented as part of the Design Biennale in Ljubljana in November 2014, during which brain waves of people visiting the exhibition were sent into space as a beacon transmission lasting one hour, using the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in The Netherlands’
UNITED STATES
EARTHLINGS’ GREETINGS
Deborah Kelly and Christian J. Heinrich, Creators
This collaboration between Deborah Kelly and Christian J Heinrich offers a one-minute long video artwork made to be sent into deep space as a message to our future friends.
TALES FROM SPACE
Chiara Passa, Creator
“Tales from Space” is a generative video installation that develops in a hollow space or under a dome. The viewer is surrounded by the projections and listens to short sentences about the concept of super-space. The words, generating a barrage of random points, blacks holes, micro-flash-dimensions and macro shapes of light that intersect each other; envelope themselves, double back, widen and shrink, depending on the spectrum modulation of the sound narrative that is based on the concept of quantum mechanics.
SELECTED NEBULAE
Samuel Pellman and Miranda Raimondi, Creators
Selected Nebulae consists of a suite of short pieces inspired by images taken of nebulae in deep space by the orbiting “Great Observatories” (Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra, and Compton). The technology of the space age has been accompanied by the development of digital technology that has made it possible for artists to depict the unusual conditions and environments that our exploration of space has revealed to us. These short pieces have been composed for virtual instruments that have been carefully tuned according to the ageless, simple-ratio arithmetic of just intonation. The processes for synthesizing the sound have also been closely linked to those for generating the video animation, with the result becoming a form of visual music. The artists have also explored algorithmic processes with the computer to assist with the design of sonic textures that can be reminiscent of the richness and ethereality of the serene and immense objects featured in the Great Observatory photography.
SPACE BEYOND BORDERS:
ARTS IN SPACE EXPLORATION HISTORICAL VIDEOS
The following videos included in the program were produced by various international artists and organizations prior to ISDC2016. These creators continue to defline and expand, education about and influence the evolution of an artistic, cultural and humanitian resonse to space by building arts and space science and engineering collaborations. Enjoy the results.
SWITZERLAND
COSMIC DANCER: A Space Art Intervention
Arthur Woods, Creator
On May 22, 1993, an artwork that was conceived, realized and launched as a declared, authorized and scientifically-reasoned “space art project,” lifted off for its flight to the Russian Mir space station on a Soyuz launcher. A few days later this artwork called the Cosmic Dancer created by the Swiss-American artist Arthur Woods, became a part of the living space of the cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station in Earth orbit.
In September 1992, a proposal to launch a Cosmic Dancer to the Russian Mir space station was submitted to NPO Energia via their partner Kayser-Threde GmbH located in Munich, Germany. In November of that year, a “Letter of Intent” was signed and negotiations for the launch date, the price and the determination of the technical specifications commenced.
In December 1992, a contract was signed with Kayser-Threde GmbH to launch the artwork to the Mir space station on a Progress supply vehicle with launch opportunities in March or May of 1993.
The Cosmic Dancer is a painted geometric form made out of welded aluminum tubing measuring approximately 35 x 35 x 40 centimeters and weighing exactly one kilogram. These dimensions were prescribed by the parameters of the Mir station environment as were the Lascaux acrylic paints that were pre-tested and certified for their suitability in the orbital habitat.
UNITED STATES
Program Video Link: 37
PBS KQED SPARK 2005
WORKSHOP ON SPACE ARTISTS RESIDENCIES AND COLLABORATION
Workshop Organizing Committee:
Lowry Burgess, Dan Goods, Isabel Hawkins, Lorelei Lisowski, and Frank Pietronigro
A short SPARK feature on the Workshop on Space Artist’s Residencies and Collaborations where artists and scientists from several prominent national and international institutions convened at Carnegie Mellon University West Coast Campus at the NASA Ames Research Park, Moffett Field, California, to discuss and prepare for future collaboration in arts and space science. A link to the resulting report is below.
The Workshop,which is being organized by the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium, The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, the Center for Science Education at Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, and artists and scientists from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be open to invited participants on Thursday, February 10, 2005, and will conclude with a public event at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, at 8 pm on Saturday, February 12.
ZGAC STEAM SCREEN 2007 PRESENTS
FRANK PIETRONIGRO LIVE FROM YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA
FRANK PIETRONIGRO SPACE ARTIST AND ARTRONAUT
Original Video Footage Courtesy of NASA
Featuring Frank Pietronigro at the ZGAC STEAM SCREEN arts, humanities and culture in space exploration twelve hours documentary program presented at Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2007 held at NASA Ames Research Center. This artists discusses then shows his 1998 space arts work Research Project Number 33: Investigating the Creative Process in a Microgravity Environment. Developed as a part of NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Program and created in collaboration with the San Francisco Art Institute, the Texas and California Space Grant Consortia this project shows the artist’s body floated within a three-dimensional painting that he created in zero gravity aboard NASA’s KC135 turbojet. Frank called his zero gravity art ‘Drift Paintings.’
Program Video Link: 39
YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA 2007 REMIX VIDEO II
Celestine Star, Golden Star Productions, Event VJ and YNBA2007 REMIX VIDEO II Video Editor
Never seen before video of this amzing event that took place at NASA Ames Research Center in 2007 as edited by Celestine Star of Golden Star Production. VJ, Celestine Star was in charge of the main stage show VJing along with Koshio, whose works are highlighted in this program. Featuring, Pete Worden, NASA Ames Center Director 2007, along with Anousheh Anasari and many other Golden Star Produciton filmed moments that gives videwers a witness to some of the sites and sounds of Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2007.
ABOUT YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA 2007
On April 13, 2007, the Bay Area joined the world in a celebration of space exploration with a unique convergence of artists, scientists, astronauts, performers and musicians. The evening kicked off with perspectives from pioneering space traveler, Anousheh Anasari, and world-renowned expert in astrobiology and terraformation, Dr. Chris McKay of the Space Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center.
Yuri’s Night is a commemoration of humankind’s first venture into space, by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. This gathering bridges national, cultural, generational and social barriers to ignite excitement about what is new on the horizon in space exploration and to remind us of what humanity is capable of. Yuri’s Night Bay Area was held at Moffett Field in the NASA Ames Research Center’s massive SOFIA hangar, home to the world’s largest aerial observatory.
This video shows some of dazzling array of interactive art installations and science demos, interleaved with musical performances by some of the world’s finest electronic musicians. The hangar and adjoining tarmac were filled with space-inspired art installations and cutting-edge interactive technology and science demonstrations including innovations from the worlds of robotics, engineering, chemistry, and astronomy, all presented by NASA and Bay Area scientists and engineers. There were interactive virtual worlds to explore including NASA World Wind, Gigapan, Second Life, and Burning Man Earth. The audience got to contemplate StarZipper, created by internationally renowned artist Michael Light and collaborator Dave Rattray, as well as art and interactive installations by Beverly Reiser and Mark McGothigan, Peter Foucault, Frank Pietronigro and many others. Demonstrations were offered with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) human powered vehicle and NASA robots, including the next generation of rovers and a videoconference with a live robotics competition.
YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA 2008
YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA 2008 SPACE TIME MIX 1
Peter Kosho McKenna, Creator
Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2008 Space Time Mix 1 and 2 are Artistic montage created in real time for Center Stage at the Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2008 Party, Moffett Field, Mt View, Ca.
Program Video Link: 41
YURI’S NIGHT BAY AREA 2008 SPACE TIME MIX 2
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1QyNbSSN0E
ZGAC STEAM SCREEN SPACE ARTS TRACK PROGRAM
SPACE BEYOND BORDERS: EDUCATIONAL LINKS
ARTS, HUMANITIES AND CULTURE IN SPACE EXPLORATION ORGANIZATIONS
INTERNEATIONAL
ITACCUS
The Committee for the Cultural Utilization of Space (ITACCUS) seeks to promote and facilitate the innovative utilization of space (data, systems, applications) by organizations in the cultural sectors of society internationally, including all areas of the arts and humanities, including the fine arts, entertainment, popular culture and tourism. In a cultural context, it may include cultural production, cultural preservation, cultural representation, cultural education and cultural development.
www.facebook.com/IAFspaceculture/
LEONARDO OLATS: SPACE AND THE ARTS
The French branch of Leonardo/Isast (the International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology) and the Foundation – a non-profit cultural and astronautical organization based in Switzerland have embarked on an ambitious project to comprehensively document this vast and new genre of space art.
SPACEARTS – THE SPACE ART DATABASE
In the past century a new and highly diverse genre of art has emerged – Space Art. Artists have been at the forefront of space exploration since its very beginning.
Their works of imagination have stimulated and catalyzed a new human endeavor. Works of art and literature about space have both anticipated and stimulated space development while exploring destinations and technological concepts that were often too dangerous, too distant or too advanced for the science and technology of the moment. Artists have worked closely with space scientists and engineers to help them to visualize and develop their scientific and technological concepts making the dream of space exploration a reality. Science Fiction literature with a space theme combined with cinematography has since become one of the most popular and financially successful art forms of all time. As such it stimulates the public’s fascination with space exploration and likewise has a positive influence on maintaining the public’s support for further space development. Today, a new breed of contemporary artists have initiated projects to explore outer space on their own terms by realizing their art beyond Earth or with their own bodies in weightlessness. The goal of “Spacearts – the Space Art Database” is to document this important and exciting art form and to make it be publicly accessible on this website.
FRANCE
FESTIVAL @RTS OUTSIDERES 2003
SPACE ART
Jean-Luc Soret, Curator, Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Ville de Paris
Le Festival @rt Outsiders défie cette année les lois de la pesanteur et présente des installations, des films, des conférences en relation avec l’espace. Ces œuvres audacieuses, originales, poétiques ou engagées illustrent une véritable épopée, celle de la conquête spatiale de l’imaginaire à laquelle nous convient ces artistes du troisième type.
MEXICO
THE ARTS CATALYST: KOSMICA
KOSMICA has earned an international reputation as the most original gatherings about outer space bringing together those interested in sharing cultural ideas about us and the universe. Each event is unique: bringing together the cosmically curious and culturally quirky space community for a social mix of art–space programs – a film screening, performance or live concert with a short presentation, talk and debate about alternative and cultural uses of space. KOSMICA has presented over 100 artists and space explorers in more than 20 sessions in the UK, France, Belgium and Mexico. Some of the popular topics of KOSMICA include the history of alcohol in space, sex in zero gravity, nostalgia for the Earth and women in space. This series is under the direction of the artist Nahum in association with The Arts Catalyst and it is endorsed by ITACCUS, the International Astronautical Federation’s Committee on the Cultural Utilization of Space.
www.facebook.com/KosmicaSeries/
UNITED KINGDOM
ARTS CATALYST
In September 2001, the Arts Catalyst took a group of London and Russian artists, scientists and philosophers to Star City, Russia, to undertake projects in zero gravity, utilizing the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre’s parabolic flight program.
TATE IN SPACE
Susan Collins, Creator
In order to fulfill their mission to extend access to British and International modern and contemporary art, the Tate Trustees have been considering for some time how they could find new dimensions to Tate’s work. They have therefore determined that the next Tate site should be in space. At this stage a number of practical aspects of the project are being tested and an early pre-opening program is being taken forward. This will clearly continue the Tate tradition of innovation and exploration, and provide a radical new location for the display of the Collection and for educational projects. We are very pleased to announce the launch online of our Tate in Space program.
UNITED STATES
FREE ENTERPRISE
The Art of Citizen Space Exploration, Tyler Stallings and Marko Peljhan, Curators
UCR ARTSblock with curators, Tyler Stallings and Marko Peljhan, presented the first contemporary art exhibition in the U.S. to present an international array of artists and organizations who are exploring the potential democratization of space exploration and the intersection between artistic production and civilian space travel. The possibility of fulfilling the human dream to fly into space has been encouraged by a major political and cultural shift away from state-sponsored space activities—which were controlled by agencies such as NASA in the USA, JAXA in Japan and RKA in Russia—towards a private enterprise model. This 2013 exhibition was presented at the California Museum of Photography, Sweeney Gallery, Culver Center of the Arts in Riverside, California.
ZGAC STEAM SCREENINGS
Frank Pietronigro, Curator, ZGAC Co-Founder and Project Director
Frank Pietronigro is an artist, author and new media professor while serving the space arts and sciences communities as Chair, for Space Arts Track for National Space Society’s 35th and 36th International Space Development Conferences. In his capacity as Professor, in the Web Design New Media School at the Academy of Art University, in San Francisco, this year he leads a team of international design students to produce amazing, fresh new videos for you to enjoy at ISDC2016 presented in the Explorations In Motion Graphics Section.
As Co-Founder and Project Director of the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium his efforts support a international arts, humanities and culture in space organization dedicated to fostering greater access for artists to space flight technology and zero gravity through the creation of international partnerships with space explorers, arts organizations, corporations and leading universities. He is also a member of the International Astronautical Federation’s Technical Activities Committee for the Cultural Utilization of Space (ITTACUS).
He continues to teach with the Bay Area Video Coalition.