Terra nullius
Terra nullius is an expression in international law that refers to a “virgin territory” an unoccupied land, one that never has been claimed by a state. In the age of ubiquitous global surveillance apparatus and civilian satellites, virtually no territory within mankind’s reach remains untainted by personal or national ownership. There are only a few exceptions, namely parts of Antarctica, the international sea, and the outer space. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 declares that all celestial bodies are immune to claims of sovereignty. What then, beyond the capitalist bodies logic of resources acquisition and profitable scientific advances, continues to fuel our extraterrestrial ambitions?
Samson Young, Board of Director, Microwave
The Martian Rose (2007/9), C-LAB, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong, 2013
The 17th Microwave International New Media Arts Festival 2013 is an annual international new media festival based in Hong Kong. Contextualised within the framework of human’s future and the impending Mars exploration programs, the curatorial theme of the 2013 festival, titled Terra 0, points to space exploration, the universe and fantasising about possible future extraterrestrial habitats.
C-LAB's Howard Boland & Laura Cinti were invited to exhibit their The Martian Rose (2007/9) exploring extreme environments and life beyond terrestrial settings. In this work, roses were exposed to Martian environment for 6 hours in a planetary chamber at the Mars Simulation Laboratory (University of Aarhus) in Denmark. The death of the rose after its exposure reminds us of Mars’ hostile and destructive environment. Suspended from the ceiling, the installation, alludes to a probe in space…a floating grave.
Back on Earth Tobias Klein's Virtual Synchronicity, a live installation, explores the ephemeral and transitory nature of cosmic day and night cycles where real-time web-based synchronised data of sunsets are projected onto silicone tubings. Suspended from the ceiling, the installation captures the transitory phenomenon of sunsets.
Virtual Synchonicity (2012), Tobias Klein, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong, 2013
The Virtual Synchronity becomes an autark event - when simulation becomes simulacra. Through modulation and precise timing, the work achieves the creation of artificial time zones - synchronized web-realities with the daily returning phenomena of the sunset.
Tobias Klein, Artist
On 10th February 2009 at 16:56 UTC, two artificial earth satellites - Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 - collided at a speed of approximately 11.7 km/s. Both satellites broke into thousands of particles that subsequently spread into various orbits and contribute to what is commonly referred to as ‘space debris’. Until today, almost 2000 remainders of this collision - all of them greater than 10 centimetres - are known, catalogued and tracked by radar stations.
Reni Hofmüller and Jogi Hofmüller, Artists
Using data from the International Space Station, orbiting around Earth, Reni Hofmüller & Jogi Hofmüller's Coallision - a real-time audiovisual installation that sonifies space debris at specific locations - allows the audience to see, and sometimes hear, the positions of 120 of these debris remainders from the 2009 collision.
The ISS activates Reni and Jogi Hofmueller's installation in real time passing HK at Microwave pic.twitter.com/UJdqPg9uba
— Rob La Frenais (@eminencegris) November 9, 2013
Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Migration Bird Facility (2011 - ongoing), Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong, 2013
Looking at the Moon as an real and imaginative future, Agnes Meyer-Brandis' Moon Goose Analogue: Lunar Migration Bird Facility is based on Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone (1603) where 'Moon Geese' fly to the Moon on a “voyage of utopian discovery”. Meyer-Brandis expands on and attempts to actualise this story by raising eleven geese that are named after astronauts and embarks on a programme training the geese to fly and undertake expeditions in a remote Moon analogue habitat. In the installation, the video of their training regime is screened alongside a control room where we can see videos of the geese in their current habitat simulating conditions of the Moon.
Space Maintenance / Lost in Space, WE COLONISED THE MOON (2009 - 2013), Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong, 2013
A continual performance of an arduous ballet in homemade weightlessness in DIY planetarium of laser cut star maps and OHPs.
WE COLONISED THE MOON, Artists
WE COLONISED THE MOON's Space Maintenance / Lost in Space is an installation based on a series of performative studio experiments that both remediates and captures the aesthetics of weightlessness.
Live Moon Smelling’, WE COLONISED THE MOON, Festival Grand Opening, Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong, 2013
The exhibition opening act by WE COLONISED THE MOON was the biggest live moon smelling event on Earth. The audience were each given helium balloons and toothpicks, and on synchronised popping of the balloons, a synthesised moon smell (made by flavorist Steve Pearce of Omega Ingredients, UK) was released from the balloons.
Microwave International New Media Arts Festival 2013 on TVB Pearl News, Hong Kong
Microwave Festival 2013 Teaser Trailer
