June 22, 2007
Space Junk Spotting
Responsibility and Re-Use
In the more than fifty years that have passed since the conquest of space began, we have succeeded in filling orbits around the earth with surplus satellites, rocket waste, and other debris. We can view this space junk as archeology in the making or, indeed, as a garbage dump in a class of its own.
Space Junk Spotting is a tactical platform for researching this phenomenon, one that seeks to encourage various interpretations for reusing this space excavation site / garbage dump, which is already there and is constantly growing. In this phase, the project thematizes the extent of the pollution in the usable orbits around earth, the ownership of the threatening waste and, consequently, the responsibility for it, and the possibilities of recycling it...
The project shown here is composed of mechanical and programming equipment linked to a database at a U.S. government-owned space observatory; this database contains the fullest possible data on the extent of the pollution and presents remarkable scientific methods for determining the position of space junk. In this way, the wider Internet public is offered a folder of information about space debris (you'll need to download Google Earth), which is strewn across the popular three-dimensional interface Google Earth.
The tactical potential of this catalogue is the possibility it provides for finding a creative and constructive solution to the problem of reusing material whose position in usable orbits is already determined, without the enormous initial costs that arise whenever rockets are shot into space...
Collaborators: Saso Sedlacek, Boštjan Špetic, Jure Cuhalev, Anže Cesar, Almir Karic, Mirae Seo, Yosuke Hayashi,Yu Fukui Thanks to: Atsuhito Sekiguchi, Falk Wittel, Ferenc Kun, Takanori Endo, Kiberpipa, Err0r Production: Galerija Kapelica Project was supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana, Sipronika, d.o.o., IAMAS (Institute and Academy for Advanced Media Art and Science, Japan). [via VVork]
Posted by jo at June 22, 2007 04:31 PM
