PROCESS
“Test drives”
“Human universe colonization”
Keywords: social impact, space, arts as a way to communicate
Who?
Artists: “Quadrature” made up by Juliane Götz and Sebastian Neitsch, whose research focuses on data and physical experiments.
In collaboration with Silvia Bonoli and Raul Angulo, astrophysicists from the Donostia International Physics Center, and the support of local community science groups.
Installation developed in Tabakalera MediaLab (Donostia, Spain), with the collaboration of Ars Electronica.
What?
This audiovisual installation, created through tracking and gathering the data generated by 590 former spy satellites. Supraspectives follows and calculates satellite trajectories in real time, reconstructing the images captured through an artistic process of speculative reinterpretation.
The installation is generated by remixing images with the data from these satellites and from other ones passing close to the exhibition venue. The installation incorporates on screen data relating to the satellites with which it connects live, such as their country of origin and the year of launch.
A motorized antenna was built and placed on the roof of Tabakalera to transform live radio signals into sounds that were incorporated into the piece.
Why?
The research carried out is based on data interpretation and physical experimentation, exploring our planet and the cosmos, and analysing military space activity and how a large number of these satellites can be considered space junk, despite the fact that they continue to fly overhead. Supraspectatives raise awareness of the phenomena that are hardly accessible to most people.
Results
The resulting audiovisual installation addresses, through an artistic interpretation of scientific data, questions related to the unexplored aspects of human life and the universe. The artwork shows the contrast between stunning earth images taken from outer space as it raises critical awareness about human universe colonization, often related to military and surveillance purposes. The creation process incorporated citizen science actions carried out together with the astronomy group of Tabakalera’s MediaLab and the local amateur radio community.
Sources
Götz, J. and Neitsch, S., 2020. Supraspectives. [online] Quadrature.co. Available at: https://quadrature.co/work/supraspectives/ [Accessed 18 March 2022].