MICROWAVE // International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong, ROC 2013
TERRA0: DIY Space Travel / Global Art / Spatial representations.
Can artists prepare us for space?
藝術家可以帶領我們到太空嗎？
Sarah Jane Pell
白莎靜（澳洲）
Abstract
Many space-related arts projects demonstrate that artists explore grand ideas, and naturally hack new technologies by working in dynamic formats and experimental contexts to support exploration. Artists are increasingly multi-tasking their professions: ‘artist-researchers’, ‘artist-collaborators’, ‘artist-explorers’, ‘artist-inventors’ and so on. Artists are competing for government tenders alongside, or with industry, they are establishing start-ups to hold individual contracts with space agencies, and/or commissioned or competing for project grants, prizes, residencies and fellowships in space and related domains. So too, artists are also involved in field-research, and they are contributing new tools and approaches to science and exploration, and producing outputs as wide-ranging as peer-reviewed publications to patents, exhibitions to analogue environments, lab experiments to multi-media interactive systems.
Pell presents an overview of her practice and the theme emerging from her experience in the deep sea and inspiration from outer space. She details various projects from 2002-2012 that examine human exploration of extreme environments as a rite of passage and a broader metaphor for the human condition including new designs for future imaginings for the evolution of our species. Projects include installations and artworks comprising of experimental prototype life support systems, performances conducted as live-laboratory-style investigations; and trans-disciplinary projects with industry partners to design lunar habitat architecture and subsea habitat missions. In 2013, Pell began researching interaction design and human computing in novel bodily interfaces suitable for exertion games
Pell will argue, that examination of these and other international artist-led projects, demonstrate that artists are not only illustrators of (space) science or engineering, rather they are fundamental enablers and disruptors, capable of provoking radical insight through poetics and aesthetics and potential catalysts for the adaptation of our species through disruption, imagination and invention. Furthermore, when artists experiment, they contribute new ways to leverage and enable the kinds of steps required for Interstellar Exploration.
會談摘要
不少和太空有關的藝術計劃，展現藝術家對宏大理念的興趣，以及將新科技化為己用，成為實驗和探索工具的本性。藝術家身份日益多元：藝術家可以是研究員、合作者、探索者及發明家等等。藝術家亦參與競投政府計劃招標；他們與各式企業合作，成立組織，以便跟太空總署協商，為求在太空研究或其他領域中獲得委約、資金、獎項、駐場計劃、或是成為研究一員。 藝術家時有參與實地研究，對科學研究貢獻新工具和方法；展現所得成果的方式，亦五花八門，可以是學術文獻、專利產品、展覽、實驗、以至多媒體互動系統。
白莎靜教授將分享她多年來的實踐，以及她探索深海，受太空啟發所整合的命題。她將詳談於過去十年的各式計劃，以人類探索極端環境為主題，並將之視為一個儀式，從而引發對人類生存的思考，例如為未來人類進化作充滿奇想的設計。這些計劃包括具實驗味道的生命維持系統裝置和藝術作品，彷如現場實驗室探究的表演，以及和企業合作，研究月球和深海居所建設的跨學科計劃。本年起，白教授開始研究互動設計和人類電腦計算，以製作適合體感遊戲使用的介面。
由這些計劃和其他藝術家發起的計劃所見，藝術家不單只可為科學家或工程師畫圖，更是不可或缺的推進或擾亂者，以詩意和美感重構、想像和發明，誘發前所未見的洞察，為人類迎接將來種種挑戰鋪路。此外，藝術家探索時，往往提供新想法，使星際探索更為可行。
TERRA0 | 17th Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong 02-23 NOV 2013
'Keynote Conference Panel' Image Credits - Ellen Pau
Keynote Conference | Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre | Hong Kong City University
Keynote Speakers included:
- Richard Castelli (France)
- Sarah Jane Pell (Australia)
- Derek de Kerckhove (Canada)
- Masaki Fujihata (Japan)
- Rob la Frenais (UK)