Space: The New Frontier For Art?

Space: The New Frontier for Art?
By Jonah Brucker-Cohen ([email protected])

As technology speeds into the 21st century, it's inevitable new
spaces to experience art
will materialize. From the virtual Guggenheim to the Whitney's Artport,
major institutions are taking notice and creating hybrid physical /
online worlds where artists can exhibit their work. These new platforms
for both artist and audience allow for mainstream access to commissioned
work and a global avenue for audience interaction in the art making
process through online participation. But what lies beyond the
terrestrial and digital horizon for art? What new territories are left
for exploration?

Joining the venue-pioneering mission, London's Tate Gallery is taking
one "giant leap" into a new frontier for the art world: Space.
Tate in Space (www.tate.org.uk) has commissioned artist Susan Collins
to create a fictional venture by the museum meant to provoke dialog
about the possibilities of intergalactic art.
"Tate in Space is really more involved with examining the (primarily wester=
n)
cultural ambitions of an institution and cultural production rather
than space art per se," explains Collins who worked with the Mullard
Space Science Laboratory, University College London on the
feasibility of launching a Tate Satellite "[Tate in Space] seeks to
provide a thorough
examination, history and discussion into issues surrounding space art
and is intended to raise questions, provoke thought and encourage
discourse in relation to ourselves and our own ambitions." The online
gallery includes pictures of earth from the orbiting satellite, programs
for audience participation, and a submission form to send designs of
your own model for the orbiting gallery.

Although anti-gravity museum gift-shops might be a world away, artists
are beginning to embrace the potential of this new landscape. Arthur
Wood's "Cosmic Dancer" (1993) (www.cosmicdancer.com), an aluminum
snake-like sculpture that inhabited the MIR space station was built
specifically for a weightless environment as an art piece that would
enliven the drab conditions inside the vessel. His focus in creating the
work was to exploit the physiological, philosophical and new sensory
experiences of space travel. Similarly, artist Richard Clar's
(www.arttechnologies.com) project "Earth Star" (1997) features a ceramic
artwork created in space and comprised of rock samples that react to
heat generated by the spacecraft's re-entry. Other past space projects
including Frank Pietronigro's "Research Project Number 33" focus on
performance in weightless environments such as dancing, "action
painting", and video documentation.

Recently, Dublin-based artist Anna Hill's (www.annahill.net) project,
"Space Synapse" highlights the interactive possibilities between
space-based art and earth-based installation. The work is an autonomous
communications device developed in cooperation with the European Space
Agency that will blast into orbit and be deployed inside the
International Space Station (ISS). Despite Tate in Space's emphasis on
space functioning as a separate entity for art experience, Hill, a
graduate of RCA's Interaction Design program, asks how connections
between the two realms can augment new forms of creative expression.

In her case, Space Synapse will interact with art projects in gallery
and site-specific locations across the planet. For instance, her
earth-based work "An Eye Open to the Night" reacts to Space Synapse's
orbit and consists of a beehive-like structure visitors can
enter. "Copper windpipes directed at the sea will utilize solar energy
to power an interactive device triggered by frequencies from the ISS and
Space Synapse during hours of daylight," Hill explains. "An antenna will
pick up broadcast frequencies (when the ISS orbit appears on the
horizon) that will open the pipes allowing wind music to play within the
shelter."

As we explore new areas of artistic expression beyond earthly realms,
possibilities seem limitless. Projects like Tate in Space, Space
Synapse, and Earth Star are merely starting points for interpreting not
only the physical and psychological impacts of space travel, but also
the interactive relationship between planet and space. "Twentieth
century culture with all its specialist knowledge and material concerns
is, I think, in crisis, " Hill admits. "Yet we rely on the natural world
and need a sense of the spiritual implicit within it." If that's the
case, the answers might actually be in the stars.

-Jonah Brucker-Cohen ([email protected])

Related Space Art Links:

Tate in Space
http://www.tate.org.uk
Anna Hill - Space Synapse -
http://www.annahill.net
Ars Astronautica - Space Art Web Project -
http://www.spaceart.net/
Arthur Woods - Cosmic Dancer on Mir
-http://www.cosmicdancer.com/
Arts Catalyst - the science-art agency
http://www.artscatalyst.org/
International Association of Astronomical
Art http://www.iaaa.org/
KEO http://www.keo.org/
Leonardo On-Line Space Art Special Project
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/spaceart/space.html
Leonardo Space Art Working Group
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/spaceart/spaceartproject.html
Richard Clar - Art Techologies