March 28, 2007
Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation
INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR
I-TASC FOR THE INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR :: Friday March 30, 2007 : I-TASC settles for two years at Espace :: Mendes-France, Poitiers, France :: Free entrance.
I-TASC (Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation) is an official project of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. I-TASC is a decentralized network of individuals and organisations working collaboratively in the fields of art, engineering, science and technology on interdisciplinary development and tactical deployment of renewable energy, waste recycling systems, sustainable architecture and open-format, open-source media. I-TASC is a lichen-like structure sharing and integrating local knowledge, resources and skills across six continents in order to symbiotically engage with common issues concerning the air, ocean, earth and space.
The science centre Espace Mendes-France and Ellipse join the I-TASC project to organize a series of events during the 2007-2008 International Polar Year. An I-TASC terminal will be installed in the Espace Mendes-France for the duration of IPY. It will provide information in real time on the activities of the I-TASC project and display environmental data collected by the Automatic Weather station deployed, by I-TASC since winter 2007, near the South-African base of SANAE in the Dronning Maud Land region of the Antarctic.
FRIDAY MARCH 30, 2007 : OPENING DAY
17h: presentation of the I-TASC initiative
Marko Peljhan (Slovenia), artist and initiator of the project
Stephen Kovats Canada), associate member and artistic director of Berlin Transmediale Festival
Ewen Chardronnet (France), associate and member of Ellipse
18h30: inauguration of terminal I-TASC
drinks and buffet
21h: Signal Territory performance by Mx&Nullo (rx:tx, Slovenia) In the Planetarium of the EMF http://www.rx-tx.org
Free entrance.
Access: Espace Mendes-France, 1 Place de la Cathidrale, 86000 Poitiers,
France; Contact: ewen[at]e-ngo.org
I-TASC in the Espace Mendhs-France of Poitiers is a co-production of Ellipse (Tours, Fr), Projekt Atol (Slovenia) and the EMF of Poitiers, France. The project is supported by EU Culture 2000 program.
http://www.i-tasc.org
http://www.ipy.org
http://e-ngo.org
http://www.maison-des-sciences.org
What is I-TASC's first project?
Acknowledging that Antarctica and the Arctic are critical departure points in developing a complex understanding of common ground, I-TASC has proposed to establish in the Arctic and Antarctica the framework conditions for collaborative projects between artists, scientists, tactical media workers and engineers within three broad topical fields: migration, weather and communications. This is envisaged through the installation and maintenance of two mobile research stations in the Arctic and Antarctica between 2007-2009 and the construction and launching of a nano-satellite in a high sun-synchronous elliptical polar orbit to enable research and contact between the two stations and the sharing of sensor data with other IPY projects. The I-TASC stations in the Arctic and Antarctica will be solar/wind powered, zero-environmental impact communications, research and living units capable of sustaining up to 8 crew members for long periods of work in isolation / insulation conditions (60-180 days). Onboard renewable-energy systems, bioreactor / biological sewage processing, water recycling systems, satellite and HF communication systems and radar infrastructure will provide I-TASC crews with the tools/resources needed to conduct joint or independent work in remote polar field-research environments. The I-TASC base station for Antarctica has been given the name LADOMIR. It is named for the utopian poem of the same name written in 1920 by the Russian Futurist Velimir Khlebnikov, which describes the universal landscape of the future through the destruction of the old world and its synthesis in the new. The word is a combination of LAD, meaning both harmony and living creature, and MIR, both peace and world, universe. Adopting the related constructivist notion of FAKTURA, which can be understood as the conferring of tactile and sensorial qualities onto abstract elements, LADOMIR will be dedicated to producing readable / tangible surfaces which the public will be able to use to reflect on vague or otherwise invisible systems and environmental data from Antarctica and the Arctic. Communication, weather and migration are seen as three multiple-dynamic global energy systems which can be explored to understand how our planet functions on natural, social and technological levels, and the knowledge inherent in each can in turn be applied as primary sources for new cognitive and evolutionary strategies, with implications for global ecology and future human exploration of space.
The first I-TASC Reconnaissance and Communication Expedition (RECE) to Antarctica from Dec 2006-Feb 2007 was codenamed: GROUNDHOG. The objective of GROUNDHOG (translated from the Norwegian word Grunehogna) was to construct and deploy our first Automatic Weather Station, Remote Sensor and Packet Radio Unit in support of I-TASCs future operations in Antarctica from 2007 onwards. The expedition crew installed the solar and wind powered unit at 710 40.433' S 020 48.700' W in order to autonomously transmit daily environmental data via HF packet radio to SANAE IV base and from there to the I-TASC partner websites and IPY public via the internet. The site has been identified as the location for the installation and testing of the prototype I-TASC LICHEN mobile base station module in the 2007/2008 Antarctic summer season. The LICHEN module will test systems and train crew ahead of the installation of the I-TASC LADOMIR mobile base station at Grunehogna between Dec 2008 - March 2009 which will host artists, scientists and engineers conducting research and collaborative work in the Dronning Maud Land sector of Antarctica during the International Polar Year.
The first I-TASC expedition crew to Antarctica consisted of Amanda Rodrigues Alves (Brazil); Adam Hyde (New Zealand); Thomas Mulcaire (South Africa expedition leader); Ntsikelelo Ntshingila (South Africa/Swaziland). The crew departed Cape Town harbour for Antarctica on 7 December on board the South African National Antarctic Program supply ship SA Agulhas and spent 42 days at SANAE base and on field reconnaissance expeditions in Dronnig Maud Land.
Posted by jo at March 28, 2007 12:48 PM
