Satellite Investigator: an artist-in-residence at the University of British Columbia
- Paper number
IAC-06-E1.3.04
- Author
Ms. Joanna Griffin, Joanna Griffin, United Kingdom
- Year
2006
- Abstract
This paper is a report on a an artist-in-residence scheme at the University of British Columbia which I used to research satellites. Being part of the University gave me access to talk to people from various faculties about the different uses they make of satellites, for example the Physics department houses a ground station for the satellite called MOST which observes distant stars. The residency is funded by the Arts Council of England. I’ve been researching satellites for some years now with the overall aim of making work that looks at what our connection is to this orbital environment, punctuated and described by the presence and architectural formations of man-made satellites. For the last four years I have been looking into the historical, economic and technological factors that have kept the satellite an elite, power-based technology commandeered largely by a few nations and from within relatively closed institutions such as the military, scientific research centres and universities. It’s a complicated arena and therefore a long-term project. It strongly relates to an ongoing enquiry in my work with modern technological structures, their cultural politics, inscribed mythologies and with dialogues of watching between myself, as an artist, and the structure, as an instrument of surveillance. The orbits of satellites represent a significant built environment that is out of sight and largely out of mind. From this stem complications around who controls this space and what the technology is used for. Is there a culture to this environment and if so what is the dominant culture? What happens when individuals outside of this culture also want access to the view from above? During the six month residency from January to July 2006 I will be working with students from the Fine Art and Physics departments collecting recordings of conversations with students and faculty involved in satellite related study. The actions constitute a resistance to the partitioning and hiding of knowledge, that are in part a result of education systems, through a grass-roots attempt to bridge the art/science divide. Using campus radio and Internet radio, the conversations collected will be remixed and broadcast as a way of distributing the information gleaned to a wider public.
- Abstract document