“SPACE DANCE IN THE TUBE, EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION” – HOW TO GET BACK THE KINETIC SENSE, HOW TO EXPRESS THE UNITY IN THE SPACE

By FUKUHARA TETSURO

“Space Dance in the Tube” is an exhibition, a workshop, and a performance with a new communication based on the whole body to get an awareness about the familiar relationship between the body and the space.. Now we have 6 spaces for this project using by 6 tubes, “Space for Balance”, “Space for Darkness”, “Space for Light”, “Space for Play Tag”, “Space for Posture”, and “Space for Real & Virtual.” We think that this project is very useful for scientific education, communication, experience of art & science, new experience of rehabilitation, developing a health.

Yuichi Takayanagi, Director of Tama Science Museum, Ex-Commentator of NHK TV

FUKUHARA TETSURO

Fukuhara Tetsuro, Japan, 07/06/1948

Director and Space Dance Choreographer of Tokyo Space Dance

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/tokyo/sd/

email: jv4t-fkhr(at)asahi-net.or.jp

ARTISTIC PROPOSALS ON CULTURAL APPLICATION OF JEM 2009 ISS ART EXPERIMENT PROGRAM

By TAKURO OSAKA

“If I were to create art in space, it would be composed of light.” Souichi Noguchi, the Japanese astronaut, commented after the STS-114 mission to artists at a debriefing session held at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music in October 2005. He stated that through his visual experience in outer space, he felt that light had an artistic
potential in space. The statement was a great inspiration for me as a creator of light art and as a professional who conducts studies on space and art, and gave me the opportunity to write this paper. (Mission Debriefing Session by Astronaut Noguchi, 2005)

In 2008, when the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) “KIBO” will be docked to the ISS (International Space Station), the pilot mission for artistic experiments will begin. Prior to this mission, since 1996, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has been conducting research on the effective application of cultural-social sciences to JEM, and since 2000, has carried out experiments pursuing the theme “Potential of Art in Space”.

The artistic experiments in the space shuttle by astronauts Doi (STS-87 Mission, 1997) and Noguchi (STS-114 Mission, 2005) are from this project. The present paper will report on the artistic experiments that started in 2000 and introduce the designs of the art pilot mission to be launch in 2008, and discuss the potential of art in space.

TAKURO OSAKA

Prof Takuro Osaka , Japanese, 1948, Professor of Comprehensive Human Sciences University of Tsukuba, http://www.takuro-osaka.com, osaka(at)geijutsu.tsukuba.ac.jp
Member of IEAD (Institute of Environmental Art and Design) and the pilot mission applying cultural-social sciences, JAXA. Pioneer of light art in Japan. Major representative works include the “Cosmic Ray Series” and “Lunar Project”. He experienced Zero G Art on a parabolic flight. His art will be exhibited at the ISS between ’08 and ’10.

MEDIATED PERCEPTION: TOWARDS AN EXPERIENCE OF EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

By TED KRUEGER

At a NASA sponsored conference on Human Systems I reminded the audience of the impact that a photo of the earthrise over a moonscape had on the perception of our planetary condition. The making of this image marked an important moment in the history of human experience. I suggested that a similar event may mark the first voyage to Mars when the blue planet fades into the background of stars before the red one becomes prominent. The sense of profound isolation may not be pleasant but should make for an interesting moment of reflection. One similar to, but I expect orders of magnitude greater than, when mariners first ventured out of sight of land. These experiences have value to our culture in that they shape our understanding of ourselves. Much of what can be learned about extreme environments will be in the form of data, measurements that we can compare to others that we have made in order to shape an understanding of the new in relation to the known. Some have suggested that extreme environments such as those found in extraterrestrial, undersea or polar environments require interrogation by robotic and remote sensing techniques rather than by human exploration and habitation. While these techniques are capable of providing representations that can be understood intellectually, they are incapable of providing a direct experience. Others argue that human beings are the most robust and versatile autonomous control systems available and must be included on missions for that reason. But beyond functionality and instrumentality, arguments that will be continuously eroded by technological innovation in any case, I argue for the irreplaceability of human presence in extreme environments on the grounds of human experience.

However, there is a contradiction here. Extreme environments, as noted by Louis Bec (2007) , do not exist a priori but depend upon the relationship between an environment and the organism in question. We count those as extreme that are hostile to life and are able to venture into them only by virtue of our technological interventions. We participate to the extent that we can remain within a protective technological bubble. These technologies reduce or eliminate the experience of the extreme conditions even as they protect the organism from it. But, can technologies be developed to open extreme environments to experience rather than shielding us from them? I believe that prototype devices have already been developed that show how this can be accomplished. Perceptual prostheses of the kind described here will enable the direct perception of hostile conditions from with in the technological womb. While humans are physiologically capable of experiencing many salient features of their terrestrial environment, this may not be the case for extreme and alien environments. These environments may require the immediate awareness of other spectra or conditions by means of technologically mediated perception. Prosthetic perception may become a key enabling technology for the habitation of extreme conditions in addition to providing the principle justification for a human presence in them.

TED KRUEGER

Ted Krueger is the Associate Dean of Architecture at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he directs the PhD Program in the Architectural Sciences. His research interests include Human-Environment interaction, cognition and perception. He is currently developing prosthetic devices that will allow humans a range of experience that is not presently available to them.

THE FRONTIERS OF INVESTIGATION

By NICOLA TRISCOTT and ROB LA FRENAIS

The Arts Catalyst develops experimental art that practically and critically engages with science and technology, particularly science’s cultural, social and political contexts – where possible through artists’ direct engagement with its processes and technologies.

Provoked by subjects and places that we, as non-specialists, “cannot” do, access, understand or affect – particularly where they impact profoundly on our lives and futures, we work with artists to create contexts and opportunities for them to work at the frontiers of scientific investigation and application (including genetics, nuclear physics, space science, ecology, neuroscience and new materials) and in hard-to-access environments, such as biotech labs, experimental reactors, space agencies, zero gravity and remote environments. We are interested in the new forms and techniques of artistic expression that these engagements can activate and in the dialogue and cultural shifts that these interventions provoke within science, within art and in society.

NICOLA TRISCOTT

Nicola Triscott is the founding Director and Rob La Frenais the Curator of The Arts Catalyst, an independent non-profit arts commissioning organisation. The Arts Catalyst has an office base in London and international networks and activities.

NORMAL TO AN ABNORMAL DEGREE

By MIKE PHILLIPS

This paper discusses interventions made by the author and collaborators into the extreme territories that lie outside ‘normal’ human frames of reference. In the space-between the speed of a building, the collective archetypal view from space and the frame-by-frame memory of a catastrophe, lies a new perspective that relocates us from the foreground to the vanishing point. The view through the Albertian window has lost its relevance, it is no longer reassuring, it just doesn’t look ‘normal’ anymore.

MIKE PHILLIPS

Mike Phillips, UK, 1962. Reader in Digital Art & Technology, University of Plymouth, School of Computing, Communications & Electronics, Faculty of Technology. www.nascent-research.net. mike.phillips(at)plymouth.ac.uk.

Phillips is director of i-DAT and heads the Nascent Art & Technology Research Group [www.nascent-research.net]. His transdisciplinary R&D orbits digital architectures and transmedia publishing, and is manifest in two key research projects: Arch-OS [www.arch-os.com], an ‘Operating System’ for contemporary architecture (‘software for buildings’) and the LiquidPress [www.liquidpress.net] which explores the evolution and mutation of publishing and broadcasting technologies. These projects and other work can be found on the i-DAT web site at: www.i-dat.org.