Space Art

Fragility & Beauty – Earth from Space

Nils Sparwasser (DE), Robert Meisner (DE), Rupert Huber (AT)

Join us on a journey around the world with breathtaking satellite images of our planet. Robert Meisner (ESA) and Nils Sparwasser (DLR) show how beautiful, fragile and endangered our planet is and how we are changing the surface of the Earth at an unprecedented speed. Be fascinated by the possibilities of Earth observation satellites, which today permanently provide us with information about the state of our planet.

Taking the pulse of our planet from space

Simonetta Cheli (IT) , Robert Meisner (DE)

The view of the Earth from space is the only perspective that allows us to observe changes on our planet. To demonstrate the relevance and value of Earth observation in terms of environmental and socio-economic benefits, the journey takes us to current issues around climate change with a virtual presentation.

Superlative telescopes: In the desert and far behind the moon

Dr. Dietmar Hager — Stargazer Observatory (AT)

The well-known Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has reached its limits. Modern telescopes will have to work outside visible light to make new discoveries possible. The JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) is one of the successors. It will be supported by Earth-based telescopes, such as the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which is currently being built in Chile. The talk reaches out from the HST to the JWST and the GMT and gives an idea of how new insights will revolutionize our understanding of space.

LIQUID SKY

Mauricio Lacrampette (CL), Santiago Valdivieso (CL), Diego Gajardo (CL), Lucas Margotta (CL)

Liquid Sky is a ritual in which the interaction between the live image of the Atacama sky, the Ars Electronica attendees in Linz and a series of machines, mechanical gestures and data flows are assembled in a rhizome of trans-local feedback. Distinction between observer and observed is blurred, giving rise to the possibility of a collective tele-contemplation, using the fluctuating image of the sky as a means of global encounter.

TerraPort

Dorotea Dolinšek (SI)

TerraPort is a machine derived from the human desire for interplanetary travel and for initiating life on other planets. It is a prototype of the terraforming process of the Martian regolith, in which the artist’s intimate body is invested along with generations of soybeans as a model organism. In a cyclical process, the infertile substrate composed in line with the data collected from Mars orbiters is enriched, generation by generation, by the organic matter sourced from the artist’s female body.