Current private space activities are influencing the global priorities and attitudes of the public sector. This shift in opportunity, focus and possibility is explored in depth to ask how can we as an international community of artists, thinkers and designers embark on a truly trans-disciplinary response to this new frontier of exploration and mutual discovery?

International curators and artists will present a range of exemplary space-related arts initiatives including: showcase projects by the European Space Agency (ESA) topical team Arts & Science members and visions for the ESA Arts initiative; the NASA Art Project; 15 new artworks commissioned for the Moon on-board a Lunar Lander mission 2014 by The Moon Art Project, as initiated by the Carnegie-Mellon University, Studio for Creative Inquiry; a message from the artist-commander leading the current NASA HI-SEAS Mars Simulation; presentations of contemporary Australian space arts activities; and review the historical context from which this work builds. It is our intention to demonstrate that prior activities, artefacts and aesthetics resulting from space-related artist access and interactions with space assets are significant.

We see an opportunity to reference a rich and varied history of artists working with satellite utilisation, human space flight, exploration, and other space-related research from the lab to the sea, for the purpose of inspiring, provoking and leading open discussions which shall champion the inclusion of the arts as another and vital means of reflecting Australia’s 2011 Principals for a National Industry Space Policy. In April 2013, the Federal Government announced Australian first national space policy: Australia’s Satellite Utilisation Policy. The document v1.1.2013 provides a vision to develop Australian space expertise, provide funding for the ongoing research into satellite systems, develop infrastructure to meet the projected growth in Australian demand for satellite data, and provide input to international space law.

16:00                           Opening Introduction/provocation by Panel Chair – S.J. Pell

                              

16:05 – 16:20             Kerrie Dougherty ‘Why should we care about space art?’

16:25 – 16:40             Barbara Imhof  ‘ESA Art Science’

16:45 – 16:50             Angelo Vermeulen  ‘Art-Science in Space’

16:50 – 17:05             Zina Kaye  ‘Space Junk’

17:10 – 17:15               Lowry Burgess  ‘Moon Arts Project’

17:20 – 17:35            Sarah Jane Pell ‘Art(ist)s in Space’

17:40 – 18:00             Panel Discussion & Open Forum

Showcasing works by contemporary space artists and related space professionals:

Video #1                     Ayako Ono (JP) ‘space instruments’ 1:00

Video #2                     Christian Waldvogel (CH) ‘the Earth turns without me’ 3:00

Video #3                     Bradley Pitts (US) ‘SINGULAR OSCILLATIONS’ 3:00

Kerrie Dougherty is Curator of Space Technology at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and is also a member of the Faculty of the International Space University, based in Strasbourg, France. She combines a background in cultural heritage management with a lifelong passion for space exploration, science fiction and popular culture.

Kerrie has worked in the space heritage and space education field since 1984 and is a specialist in the history of Australian space activities, co-authoring Space Australia, the first popular history of Australian space activities. In addition to developing Australia’s first major space exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, Kerrie has consulted on the development of space exhibits for other institutions in Australia and internationally. She has also curated several major popular culture exhibitions and advised on the creation of space-themed stamps and other collectables. Kerrie has authored or contributed to a number of scholarly and popular books, conference papers, articles and blog posts on space history, space education and space and society. She has also contributed to guidebooks on Star Wars and Doctor Who.

A recipient of the Australian Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society of Australia, Kerrie is an elected Member of the International Academy of Astronautics and serves on the Board of the World Space Week Association. Since 2001, she has lectured in space and society studies for the International Space University, covering aspects of space history and the human cultural response to space.

 

Barbara Imhof is an internationally active space architect and her projects deal with spaceflight parameters and thus include aspects of sustainability. The designs deal with living with limited resources, minimal and transformable spaces, resource-conserving systems and the spatial implications of related socio-psychological factors. In trans-disciplinary teams she also works in the field of arts-based research and co-chairs the Topical Team of Arts & Science for the European Space Agency.

Barbara Imhof is the co-founder and CEO of LIQUIFER Systems Group, an interdisciplinary team consisting of natural scientists, engineers and designers. She is currently leading projects of applied research in the field of bionics, spaceflight, robotics and architecture. Imhof also directs the LIQUIFER team in the EU FP7 project SHEE Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments, a prototype that is being developed for the moon and Mars, and also for terrestrial extremes such as disaster areas. Internationally renowned institutions and space agencies are partners and clients in her work.

Barbara Imhof has been publishing books, essays and papers in the fields of space architecture, design and arts-based research. Since 15 years she has been teaching at various prestigious universities, such as the ETH Zurich, Chalmers University, Gothenburg, University of Applied Arts, Vienna and Vienna University of Technology (VUT). She received her education in architecture at the VUT, the Bartlett School, London, SCI-ARC, Los Angeles, and she graduated from the University of Applied Arts in the studio of Wolf Prix. Barbara Imhof has a Master of Science from the International Space University, Strasbourg, and received her doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology.

www.esaartscience.com

 

Angelo Vermeulen is a visual artist, biologist, space researcher, community organizer, and author. His original PhD training in ecology, environmental pollution and teratology plays a crucial role in his art. Vermeulen creates art installations that are often open, experimental setups that incorporate ecological processes and living organisms. His projects include ‘Blue Shift’, a Darwinian art project in collaboration with evolutionary biologist Prof. Luc De Meester, and ‘Seeker’, an evolving co-created spaceship sculpture. ‘Biomodd’ is Vermeulen’s most well-known and longest running project. It is a worldwide series of cross-cultural, symbiotic installations in which ecology, game culture, and social interaction converge.  In 2009 he launched ‘Space Ecologies Art and Design (SEAD)’, a platform for artistic research on architectures and politics of space colonization. He collaborates with the MELiSSA research program of the European Space Agency (ESA), and is also a member of the ESA Topical Team Arts and Science (ETTAS).

In 2011 his space-related work led him to start a new PhD at Delft University of Technology. In 2012 he was appointed Crew Commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation in Hawaii. Angelo co-authored the book ‘Baudelaire in Cyberspace: Dialogues on Art, Science and Digital Culture’ with art philosopher Antoon Van den Braembussche, and gives talks about his work around the world. He is a Lecturer at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium, and received several fellowships: 2010 TED Fellow, 2013-2014 TED Senior Fellow, and 2012 Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design Fellow at Parsons, New York. In 2012 he received the Witteveen+BosArt+Technology Award. His art works have been exhibited in the US, Europe, Southeast Asia and New Zealand.

 

Distinguished Fellow at the STUDIO, Lowry Burgess is an internationally renowned environmental artist and a Professor of Art and former Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.  He has founded and administrated many departments, programs and institutions during his 45 years as an educator in the arts. He has created curricula in the arts and humanities in the US and Europe while serving for twelve years on the National Humanities Faculty.  Burgess created the first official art payload to be taken into outer space by NASA and his other artworks are in museums in the US and in Europe. He has awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kellogg Foundation. Burgess is the author of the Toronto Manifesto, which calls for the valuing of cultural artifacts and their importance to human identity and existence and was written as a response to the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas in Afghanistan.

http://studioforcreativeinquiry.org/peoples/lowry-burgess

 

Zina Kaye was born and grew up in London and left her job as Editor of Boardroom Magazine to move to Sydney in the early 90s. She earned a BA Honours (Class 1) in Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. Since the 90s Kaye has worked in a variety of mediums including net.art, public sculpture, data visualisation, installation and painting. Her work often explores the science behind the radio spectrum, big engineering, climate change, behaviour and astronomy. Kaye has shown work internationally. She created a surveillance art airplane titled Observatine with a joint grant from the Australia Council for the Arts and the European Media Fund and this was shown at the Farnborough Artists Air Show in the UK. Significant exhibited art installations include The Line Ahead at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Melbourne Airport 2004 and Hyperplex at Westfield Shopping Centre, Bondi Junction as part of the Terminus Project public art series (2007).

Since 2007 Kaye has been working on public art commissions and collaborations. As a founding partner at digital agency Holly, her main job is realising high technology/high design projects. Zina works out how people will interact with technology in human to machine and service design projects. She has been working with interactivity since 1995 and operates with the assumption that great design is the application of compelling aesthetics to a robust operationalized structure.

Zina holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and her recent research has been in the effects of reputation on gamification, crowd sourcing and the art value chain. Zina has convened art and technology media labs in social change, robotics, streaming media, astronomy, tactical media and data visualization.

 

Sarah Jane Pell is an artist, researcher, public speaker and author. She is also an ADAS Occupational Diver with over 500 hours commercial dives logged – spent mostly in zero visibility imagining she was on an artist-in-space residency. Sarah established the ARTi Aquabatics Research Team initiative in 2002 as an interdisciplinary platform to explore long-duration human-underwater interactions with the intention to devise novel human-factors feedback and bio-tech-aquatic technologies for human-ocean and space exploration, and inspire new forms of art. Her artworks explore the body, psyche and the depths of interactions with the natural world – usually underwater. Pieces such as ‘Hydrophilia’ and ‘Undercurrent’ directly reference her diving and experience in extreme environments, with interwoven ideas of speculative fiction and Da Vinci-inspired technologies such as a dual re-breather of ‘Interdepend’ and the improbable life-support system of ‘Odyssey’ in live laboratory-style installations and durational performances echoing space analogue themes.

Pell graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Art (Drawing) at the Victorian College of the Arts. She holds a Masters in Human Performance and PhD proposing ‘Aquabatics as new works of Live Art’ awarded Best PhD (Art & Science) by Leonardo LABS, MIT 2006. She is also a graduate of the Singularity University and the first artist alumna of the International Space University. Dr. Pell is currently appointed to the Standards Australia Committee SF-017 Occupational Diving; Co-Chair of the European Space Agency Topical Team Arts; and RMIT University Visiting Research Fellow. Dr. Pell is Official Crew (Aquanaut & Expedition Artist) of the Atlantica Expeditions Undersea Habitat Mission and a TED Fellow.

http://www.sarahjanepell.com