Voyager / 140 AU

Slovenia / 2013-2014

The project investigates the possible forms of artistic practice in space, the composite of art and science and the processes of science culturalization. Art is a constitutive practice enabling entities to explore and manifest themselves as human. The existing space programmes focus mainly on how to understand the farthest of surroundings and how to develop technological solutions, but tend to overlook the importance of implementing artistic developmental practices and methodologies, condensed in the question: What is it like to be a human in space?

Voyager/ 140 AU is a digital proto-life form consisting of three differential equations that mimic a metabolic loop. The properties of this system are such that they result in a periodically oscillating signal, which is perturbed by information collected from the PLS (plasma science experiment) instrument mounted on the Voyager space probe. The internal parameter oscillations in combination with external data generate a dynamic supremacist figure, which forms the visual output of the installation and draws the viewer’s anthropomorphic gaze.

Authors: Špela Petrič & Miha Turšič

Cooperators: Maja Murnik, Slavko Glamočanin, Miha Tomšič, Jan van Muijlwijk, Patrik Ritosa

Partner institutions: MIT Kavli Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA (PLS data)

Produced by: Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies – KSEVT

Project is part of the exhibition Liminal agents.

Co-production: City of Women and ŠKUC Gallery. In cooperation with Kapelica Gallery