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Text: The Maison d'Ailleurs (House of Elsewhere), founded in 1976 in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland) by French encyclopedist Pierre Versins, is the only public museum exclusively dedicated to Science Fiction, Utopia and Extraordinary Journeys and one of the only permanent places devoted to the genre.

The museum has an impressive collection of more than 60'000 pieces: a constantly growing research library, rich with 40'000 books in 40 languages, and a variety of objects related to Science Fiction and Utopia: original paintings, illustrations, posters, discs, movies, games and toys, etc.

The richness of the collection attracts specialists from all over the world. Publishers and artists often rely on its huge iconographic fund for their work. A collaboration with "L'Agence Martienne" (France), a specialised press agency, has lead to the creation of an important image database which provides illustrations for magazines, books, fairs, etc.

Each year the museum holds several temporary exhibitions, presenting the greatest artists in the SF field (H. R. Giger, Jean Fontaine, BillyBoy*, Plonk et Replonk, Moebius, among many others), promoting new talents from all over Europe and exploring the main themes of modern SF, like space travel, future urbanism, etc. An important Space Art exhibition was held at Maison d'Ailleurs in 1992 (International Space Year), with occidental as well as russian artists.

The exhibits presented in the museum are also shown across Europe in libraries, festivals, etc. and help promote SF art.

Thanks to Maison d'Ailleurs an association of professional SF illustrators, Art&Fact, has been created in France in 2000. The museum is the main sponsor to the Art&Fact award for best illustrator of the year published in France. Several of the members of Art&Fact have been chosen to illustrate a recent brochure commissioned by the European Space Agency and co-ordinated by the museum and the OURS Foundation, a space art non-profit organisation. Claude Nicollier was also one of the guests of the museum during the exhibition "Vues de l'esprit" (Mind's Views) presenting the new trends in European SF cover art.

The Maison d'Ailleurs created a network of professional writers in the field (AELITA) and will soon join the "Réseau Romand Culture scientifique et Cité", which already links around thirty swiss science museums in their search to make their knowledge available to a wide audience. Collaborations are therefore at the core of the developement process of the Maison d'Ailleurs.

Through all these activities and because of its close relations with several organisations in the space and art communities (ESA, art foundations, galleries, museums, etc.), as well as with individual artists, the Maison d'Ailleurs is now a well-recognised centre for Science Fiction art, constantly trying to go beyond the boundaries of the genre.

Muller Hitoshi

Space Art: From computer graphics

Abstract: In this presentation, some computer graphics clips will be shown. These years, Muller has made CG clips of scientific visualization ranging from an astronomical scale to a molecular scale. After moving to the art university, he started collaboration with artists.

"Luna Project", which was planned and produced by Osaka Takuro is one of them. The project was realized as a work in the "Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2000" held in Jul. to Sep. 2000 at Niigata prefecture in Japan. Although the "Luna project" was held in a traditional view of Japanese rice fields, the event was full of cosmic feelings. Some topics will be talked from the project.

Now Osaka and Muller are also proposing another "space art" projects to NASDA(National Space Development Agency of Japan) as one of a "Feasibility study" for the space resources like ISS.

Text: In this presentation, we would like to start by showing our computer graphics works in order to introduce our preceding works.

1. "The Origin of the Moon"

"The Origin of the Moon" (Muller H, Kokubo E, Ichinose K. 1998) is a 4 minutes scientific visualization movie.

The calculation is based on "the giant impact hypothesis". The giant impact theory is a most plausible hypothesis that explains how our moon formed (Stevenson 1987). In this simulation Kokubo etal investigate the evolution of a circumterrestrial disk of debris by using 10,000-body simulation. Consequently, in most cases the disk evolution results in the formation a single large moon (Kokubo et al 2000).

The movie seems to be a successful example of collaborative work between theoretical planetary science and computer graphics.

2."Luna Project"

The "Luna Project" is also a good example of collaboration between artists and scientists. The Luna Project which was proposed and organized by Osaka T. was held on 2000 in Niigata, Japan.

The idea of the project is quite simple. In a traditional rice field on a mountain slope, eighteen metal mirrors were installed. These half fixed mirrors can be calibrated in angle in order to gather the moonlight at an observing spot.

The observing place was open to public on the full moon nights. There were three full moon nights during the project. On the first full moon night only few mirrors could catch the moonlight. It was due to the error of calibration. The calibration of these mirrors were not easy because the distance from the observing place to the farthest mirror was up to 400m. Two scientists including Muller gathered from Tokyo to the venue of the Luna Project to resolve the difficulty. The answer to resolve it is simple one. Before the scientists group joined, all mirrors' position were fixed on the calculation of the moon orbit. All mirrors should have been calibrated in less than 1 degree in angle.

It was very severe condition. So we changed the tactics to the new one that we adjusted each mirror directly.

Between the position of the mirror and the observing place, we contacted each other on using transceivers on the previous night of the full moon. In adjusting the best angle of the mirrors, the observing place had been slightly shifted in proportion to the daily change of the moon orbit. By using this method, on the second full moon night, next day of the adjusting, all mirrors could catch the moonlight perfectly.

3. The chemical light in zero gravity

We are planning to make a chemical light ball in zero gravity space. The detail of this plan will appear in the near future.

Acknowledgments: I thank Prof. Osaka Takuro who invites me to the world of "space art", Mitsumori Shiro in The Institute for Future Technology and the staff of NASDA for arranging meetings and discussions.

References

Hitoshi MIURA,etal (1998) "The Origin of the Moon" Computer Visualization Symposium '98, Nikkei Science, pp 49

E. Kokubo and S. Ida (2000) "Evolution of a Circumterrestrial Disk and Formation of a Single Moon", Icarus, 148, 419

Stevenson,D.J.(1987) Annu.Rev.EarthPlanet Sci.,15,271

Hiroyuki Iwamoto

NASDA's Activities related to Art and Culture

Abstract: NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan) has been investigating the following issues in cooperation with some universities and some institutes. (1) Investigation of the existence of relationship between space and culture in Japan. (2) Investigation of the possible utilizations of space activities from cultural and human-science aspects. (3) Promotion of the ISS utilization from human-science aspects. This is the reason why I would like to point out that space activities become more popular and familiar to our every day life and we have to consider space activities not only from technological (R&D) viewpoints but also from cultural and human-science's viewpoints. I will introduce our concrete activities related to art and culture. For example, (a) the study of microgravity and future expression of Arts, (b) Arts under new philosophy of nature, Mankind and Earth, (c) Feasibility Study for the various utilizations of JEM (Japanese Experimental Module for International Space Station), (d) Virtual Lunar Development Project, etc.

Julien Knebusch

Is Planet-Earth an object? Philosophical questions raised by some works of electronic art

Abstract: In this lecture we will deal with different works of electronic art related to space art (but not exclusively) taking the planet Earth as an "artistic material". We will analyze their common features and underline the contribution of theoreticians to this phenomena.

This first step corresponding to a "rereading" of some works of electronic art is accompanied by a questioning of these works in a philosophical perspective. How have these artists considered Earth to be a thing, an object? In this respect we will for example explore the words borrowed by these artists form space scientists for designating Earth.

These works will be contextualised in a contemporary philosophical debate on the ontological status of Planet Earth. By so doing we will try to find a special cultural and philosophical meaning for these works of art.

Text: In this presentation, I will submit an essay of a typology of contemporary electronic artworks using the Planet Earth as "artistic material". We will question these artworks from an ontological point of view and try to analyse which relationship they have with outer-space imaginery in general.

The planet Earth as a theme appears throughout artistic production, it is certainly not monopolized by electronic artists. The Earth has for example been poeticized in literature (The Lusiads of Luis de Camoes, or the poem Vents of Saint-John Perse), in conceptual art (Manzoni, Huebler) or in contempary art (John Miller or Laura Simmons ¹.

These artworks challenge to my mind a fundamental philosophical question, that of the ontological status of the copernican Earth. The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk claims that a double (ontological) revolution has taken place in the XVI century ². The discovery of the infinite univers by Copernicus has destroyed the celestial spheres, since one can no longer inhabit the sky (as in the cosmographic tradition). In a similar way, the circumnavigation by Magellan of the Earth has opened immense planetary territories which destroy local ontologies. How do we live with the knowledge that our Earth is so vast? Where should we be (Michel Serres ³ ? We will ask ourselves how electronic artists who transform the planet into art have responded to this question.

The Earth taken from outside

The first group of artists works on the vision of the Earth from outside (the phenomenon of the "Overview Effect" ⁴), like Pierre Comte (Signature Terre, 1989) or Tom Van Sant (Eye on Earth, 1986) for example.

We ask ourselves how to interpret the meaning of the "Overview Effect" in these artworks. Do they still belong to the western apollonian tradition or do they signifiy a breaking with it (the Earth becomes the place to which one returns and is no longer the one from which one leaves) ?

The digital and electronic Earth

Another group of artworks deal with the planetary connectivity of humans, as in art of communication (Fred Forest, Sculpture téléphonique planétaire, 1985), or "Art réseau" (Ascott, Roy, Le conte de fées planétaire, 1983).

In these artworks the planetary Earth is not envisioned geographically, but rather conceptually. It is a shift in the apprehension of the essence of Earth. The Earth from a support upon which we walk (geography) becomes a subject/being with whom we are in a dynamic relationship. We are in a relationship with the idea of Earth.

The artworks on Gaïa

A third group of artists, like Shin'ichi Takemura and the Japonese collectif Sensorium, experiment with the idea of a living planet (Breathing Earth, 1998-2000 ; or World Ear 1996/1997) ⁵.

These sensual relationship to Earth come close to the one of the French philospoher Michel Serres in his book Le Contrat naturel ⁶.The Earth is sensed as a body, which the German philosopher Husserl had judged impossible in his famous text Umsturz der kopernikanischen Lehre (1934).

"To extend oneself over the globe…"

A fourth group of artworks explores the relationship to Planet Earth again in a different way. The artwork Le Bleu du ciel (1994) of Stéphan Barron is focused on the perception of planetary dimensions (the consciousness is to be "extended over the globe" ⁷).

The perspective on Earth is no longer apollonian. Apollo's point of view is taken back to the ground of the planet. The view glides along the surface, thus the globe is apprehended as a surface and not as an object. The artist obtains the global perspective by reconstituting the global surface, and not by raising himself from Earth.

References

¹ MOMA exhibition Mapping (1994) from the 6th October to 20 December 1994, organised by the curator Robert Storr.
² Sloterdijk, Peter, Sphären, t. 2 Globen, Frankfurt a. Main, Suhrkamp, 1999, 1013 p.
³ Serres, Michel, Atlas, Paris, Flammarion, 1996 (1994), 279 p.
⁴ White, Frank, The Overview Effect. Space Exploration and Human Evolution, American Institue of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Second Edition, 1998, 314 p.
⁵ www.sensorium.org
⁶ Serres, Michel, Le Contrat naturel, Paris, Flammarion, 1992 (1990), 191p.
⁷ Barron, Stéphan, Art planétaire. Earth Art, CD-Rom, Ecole Régionale Supérieure d'Expression Plastique, Tourcoing, 2000.

Text: On 1998, I started the "Cosmic Ray Series" projects. In the projects, cosmic rays are captured with a detecting device. The detected signals are treated as trigger signals for the blue lights of LEDs which are embedded in a installation system.
The concept of this work is "The atmosphere" and "Appearance/Disappearance". The "Lunar Project" is another installation work. In the "Luna Project", to capture the moonlight eighteen metal mirrors (150cm x 150cm) were installed in the rice field. On July 16 2000, the day of a long total eclipse of the moon, the project was launched. By these works, I tried to express the profundity of the space and the meaning of humankind existence.

On 2001, we have proposed another "space art" projects to NASDA (National Space Development Agency of Japan) as one of a "Feasibility study" for the space resources like the ISS. In relation to this project, we made six interviews with Japanese astronauts. After the interviews, I felt the art in space might be the process to evolving and fitting of some parts of the concepts of the art on land. There were two impressive things I felt through the interviews.
Firstly, it was the role of the art. I think art has always sent powerful messages for people to renew their conventional lifestyles and traditional views of the world.
In contrast, astronauts whom we made interviews to, tend to expect that the art may play a "medical" role like a tranquilizer. Secondly, I heard the astronaut unanimously talked the beauty and preciousness of the earth.
Adding to this, they said the communication between space and ground were great consolation to them in their space life.
One of the important theme of Space Art might be the communication among three bodies: Human, The Earth and Space.
Or "The unified feeling of Human, The earth and Space".

In near future, our species will stay in space for a long time.
By those people, many conventional concepts will be inspected again.
After these works, people will produce a new view of the world including the Art.
I would like to call it "The Space Art".

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank Shiro Mitumori, Misuzu Onuki, Motoko Uchitomi,Yoshiya Fukuda, Keita Hasizuka for helpful discussions, and Japanese astronauts for accepting our interviews willingly.
I also thank Dr. Muller Hitoshi who has gave me technical supports and advices through some projects and on writing this paper.

Andrea Polli

Atmospherics/Weather Works: The Sonification of Meteorological Data

Abstract: Atmospherics/Weather Works is a system designed to create sound compositions based on various types of storms (cyclones, for example) and other meteorological events generated directly from historical data gathered on site or through remote sensing or produced by a highly detailed and physically accurate simulation of the weather.

The weather is almost always presented through static or animated visuals for interpretation and study. However, some if not most of the variables generated (variables like surface temperature, normalized pressure, cover layer moisture, etc.) rarely contain information that is visual. What if this highly detailed and physically accurate data was interpreted sonically? What kinds of patterns of sound are formed by the patterns of movement and flow of the atmosphere and the unpredictability of storms?

This presentation discusses a collaboration between artist Andrea Polli and Dr. Glenn Van Knowe a Senior Research Scientist at MESO (Mesoscale Environmental Simulations and Operations), a leading firm in the development and application of atmospheric and other geophysical models for research and real-time applications. Dr. Van Knowe and his colleagues use the Mesoscale Atmospheric Simulation System (MASS) to create a highly detailed simulation of the weather based on terrain, initial conditions, and other factors. Polli and Van Knowe have discovered that a system similar to one Polli created for sound performance with eye movements, the Intuitive Ocusonics system; could read the data of a weather model to create a sound composition.

Other sources of data include The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which manages a unique source of environmental satellite data with over 260 terabytes of digital satellite information. The presentation will include a sample of data sonification experiments using data from the Canadian Ecodistrict Climate Normals from 1961-1990. The climate normals information originated from point-based weather station data obtained from Environment Canada (1994).

The collaboration is in it's beginning stages, but some of the challenges already encountered to be discussed in this presentation are: basic issues of data formatting, communication and data transfer, balancing time for art research projects with time for commercial projects, defining a 'storm' or significant meteorological event, interpreting and finding meaning in the data structure.

Text: Introduction: The weather is almost always presented through static or animated visuals for interpretation and study. However, most of the variables generated (surface temperature, normalized pressure, cover layer moisture, etc.) do not describe visual information. What if this highly detailed data was interpreted sonically? What kinds of patterns of sound are formed by the patterns of movement of the atmosphere and the unpredictability of storms?

I recently started a collaboration with Dr. Glenn Van Knowe a Senior Research Scientist at MESO (Mesoscale Environmental Simulations and Operations), a leading firm in the development and application of atmospheric and other geophysical models for research and real-time applications. Dr. Van Knowe and his colleagues use the Mesoscale Atmospheric Simulation System (MASS) to create a highly detailed simulation of the weather based on terrain, initial conditions, and other factors. [1] Together, we discovered that a system similar to one I created for sound performance with eye movements, the Intuitive Ocusonics system; could read the data of a weather model to create a sound composition. [2]

The collaboration is in it's beginning stages, but some of the challenges already encountered are: data formatting, communication and data transfer, balancing time for art research projects with commercial projects, defining a 'storm' or significant atmospheric event, and interpreting and finding meaning in the data structure.

The Data: Where does the initial data come from and how does the MASS simulation work? Environmental satellites have been around for almost 40 years. In 1966, NASA launched the first satellite able to see weather systems in motion. In 1974, the first prototype GOES satellite (geosynchronous orbiting environmental satellite) was launched to provide continuous monitoring of the Earth's atmosphere and surface over a large region of the Western Hemisphere, circling above the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit matching the Earth's rotation about its axis. These satellites and the polar orbiting POES satellites launched by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) currently support environmental monitoring applications including weather analysis and forecasting, climate research and prediction, global sea surface temperature measurements, atmospheric soundings, volcanic eruption monitoring, forest fire detection, and global vegetation analysis. [3]

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) manages a database of over 260 terabytes of digital satellite information from GOES, POES and various NASA research satellites and Department of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites. By the year 2010, the operational meteorological satellite systems will be merged into a single program, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). [4]

MASS takes real data inputs from satellite or surface readings and couples the information with global and regional models. The model's output can be used as first guess for objective analysis or as lateral boundary conditions. There are several MASS output file formats: 3D 'diag files' in the form of a 3D array, 2D horizontal (x-y plane) 'plot' files that provide a specific 2-dimensional horizontal slice of various user-defined variables, 2D vertical cross sections (x-z plane), 1D x,y simulated point observations created from any point in the world, and 1D vertical profile (x,z) simulated point atmospheric soundings. The spatial scale can be from global to cloud scale and the temporal scale can be as short as five minute intervals. Our first plan is to work with the 1 dimensional data sets as pitch controllers to see if a line of melody can be generated.

As an example, I used a freely available data set from the Canadian Ecodistrict Climate Normals from 1961-1990. [5] The data was taken in sequential order, no attempt was made to filter the values. [6] Three data sets: solar radiation, sunlight, and temperature were simultaneously parsed to drive three pre-recorded sound samples of helioseismology (propogating sound waves in the sun) from GONG, the global oscillation network group.[7] The system that drives the composition was created in Max/MSP and allows for real-time human interaction to change samples, and alter pitch, speed, and duration on a macro scale. In this case, the only human interaction was the setting of initial values and samples.

Weather Re-creation: An expansion of this project came from special effects designer Chuck Varga, who suggested that the system drive a physical weather simulation. Varga is a special effects designer with Joachem and Meeh, one of the premiere special effects houses in New York that provides Broadway and other shows with realistic weather on cue. Varga is working with me and Dr. Van Knowe on developing a portable computer driven system of weather simulation based on input data. The weather simulator could be driven by data from the Meso simulation, from actual data gathered from sites, or from a pre-written musical composition.

Endnotes:

1. http://www.meso.com/mass-user/masshome.htm

2. http://homepage.interaccess.com/~apolli/avision.html

3. http://noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/ml/education.html

GOES data http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/servlets/GoesBrowser

4. http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/satelliteresourcesabout.html

5. http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/ecostrat/data_files.html

6. http://www.andreapolli.com/studio/atmospherics/atmosweb.mov

7. The GONG project is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Solar Observatory which is operated under a cooperative agreement between the Association of Universities

Dinis Ribeiro

Water Awareness: Growing the Missing "Corpus Callosum" through Space Art

Abstract:

What is the Alma da Agua Awareness Initiative?

The creation of the A.L.M.A computer network is to be heralded by the launch of a commemorative sounding rocket carrying a space art payload. A.L.M.A stands for Agrupamento Lusófono Multidisciplinar da Água, which means "Water-Related Multidisciplinary Network" in the Portuguese language. Alma da Água or "soul of the water" seeks to involve a very wide variety of institutions within the communities in the Portuguese speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, S. Tomé & Príncipe and East Timor. The "Alma da Água" awareness initiative has already begun with the ongoing gathering of natural source water samples from all of the eight Portuguese-speaking countries that are to be carried into space aboard a Brazilian sounding rocket where the samples will be mixed in microgravity. There will be a multi-cultural arts & science festival taking place on the day of the launch to celebrate the activation of the network. The A.L.M.A computer network linking the eight countries will foster greater technical and artistic cooperation among Portuguese language users with water-related issues as a unifying theme.

Assessment of ongoing collaboration

Some of the strong points are:

- The concept in its deep simplicity has proven to be quite powerful in addressing simultaneously several aspects.
- Portugal and Brazil are developing their cooperation in information technology.
- Cooperation between ESA and Brazil is increasing.
- A Portuguese survey of African art is underway.
- The initiative can be addressed as a public private partnership.
- Viability study funded by ESA is nearly finished.

Some of the challenges are:

- A strong enough sponsor from the water industry has not yet been selected.
- Extending the computer network to some African countries is problematic.
- Completion of study is waiting for the results from Portuguese elections to be able to include a viable budget.

Is there a real need for this awareness initiative?

The collaboration between artists and engineers sometimes resembles the one that should occur between the two hemispheres of the healthy human brain. Is this just a coincidence? The "corpus callosum" consists of more than 200 million nerve fibres. Without this connection, each of the two hemispheres of the brain functions virtually independently, largely unaware of the other hemisphere. If we think of all the world's individuals as neurons belonging to some kind of huge "brain" made up by all of humankind, with the "rational engineers", acting as an analogue for the left hemisphere of the brain and the "visionary artists" as an analogue for the right hemisphere, we might become more deeply aware of the importance of the "bridge" between art and science. The proposed A.L.M.A. computer network is not made of neurons, but if it were, they would have to follow architectures similar to the anatomical and physiological reality of the corpus callosum.

Alma da Agua: A Space Awareness Initiative is a collaboration between Dinis Ribeiro and Richard Clar.

Robert Schroter

The control of movement - insight from experience of micro-gravity

Abstract: The project was initiated as the result of zero gravity experiences of dance by Kitsou Dubois. The concept of the "subjective vertical" has been developed by her to explain the way the human body will always try to right itself, even when there is no "up" or "down". She also believes that astronauts need a new dimension to their training that will enable them to develop their own mobility, identity and physical expression. The Biodynamics Group at Imperial College is keen to pioneer novel methods of investigating the control of movement, both in athletes and patients with spinal injuries. The opportunity to investigate the delicate control of voluntary movement of the dancer and other trained subjects in micro-gravity provides an exciting new avenue for research. Current micro-gravity studies focus on giving a small magnetic stimulus to nerves in the brain and monitoring the responses in the spinal cord and peripheral nerves supplying the muscles of the limbs.

It is hoped that the research will stimulate new ideas for movement patterns and body control in space that are of artistic interest to a dancer and of scientific value in helping elucidate the way the brain controls peripheral movement.

The collaborative process has been a long one with considerable effort being made by all parties to understand alien concepts and disciplines. It has required both scientists and artists to respect the other's approach in tackling ill-defined challenges that have required very detailed scrutiny. Furthermore, this international, close-working collaboration has had to cope with the difficulties introduced by language and geographical separation of the partners. The challenges to the creation of an integrated team have been considerable.

Text: The collaboration was initiated as the result of zero gravity experiences of dance by Kitsou Dubois. The concept of the "subjective vertical" has been developed by her as a fundamental building block for movement - the source of orientation and posture - even when there is no "up" or "down". She considers too that mastering this ability prevents disorientation and space sickness. She also believes that astronauts, both professional and tourist, need a new dimension to their training that will enable them to develop their own mobility, identity and physical expression. The BioDynamics Group at Imperial College, London is keen to pioneer novel methods of investigating the control of movement in both athletes and patients with spinal injuries. The opportunity to investigate the delicate control of voluntary movement of the dancer and other trained subjects in micro-gravity provides an exciting new avenue for research.

This collaborative venture between Kitsou's dance team from France and the scientific team, consisting of scientists from a wide range of disciplines - from engineering to neuroscience - at Imperial College is being facilitated by the science-art agency The Arts Catalyst. The project, which began in 1999, won the Wellcome Trust - Gulbenkian Foundation SciArt Award in 2000.

It is hoped that the research will stimulate new ideas for movement patterns and body control in space that are of artistic interest to a dancer and of scientific value in helping elucidate the way the brain controls peripheral movement. It is central to the integrated team's philosophy that the two groups will feed not only their own individual intellectual developments, but also those of each other.

Currently, scientific studies are being undertaken in both the terrestrial laboratory and in the micro-gravity environment using the ESA parabolic flight program. These studies concentrate on giving a small magnetic stimulus to the subject's brain and monitoring the responses in the spinal cord and peripheral nerves supplying the muscles of the limbs whilst performing a range of voluntary tasks in different postures. Differences between dancers, who have a highly developed sense of orientation and body motion, and normal untrained subjects are being investigated. This will lead, hopefully, to a more detailed understanding of the mechanics of movement.

The collaboration has been a highly educational one for all involved. The process, which is still very much on-going, has been a long one with considerable effort being made by all parties to understand alien concepts and disciplines. It has required both scientists and artists to respect the other's approach in tackling ill-defined challenges that have demanded very detailed scrutiny. Furthermore, this international, close-working collaboration has had to cope with the difficulties introduced by language and geographical separation of the partners. The challenges to the creation of an integrated team have been considerable. The lessons being learned are possibly pertinent to the successful outcome of other such ventures.

It is clear that considerable self-restraint is necessary for those involved in the work. It is difficult for scientists of differing backgrounds to explain to each other simply, yet thoroughly, difficult concepts involving much prior understanding. This is very many times more difficult in discussions between the scientists and artists in the team. It is essential to be extremely self critical and prepared to explain oneself in a number of different ways with unlimited patience.

Scientists tend to be highly analytical in both thinking and explanation, reducing untidy real issues to a simplified form that they can handle; they do not always re-synthesise their models in ways that can be appreciated by untrained colleagues. Artists are perhaps less analytical and reductive in their thinking and expression of experiences and ideas; this poses major challenges to scientists in any dialogue.

Dance training is associated with the ability of the individual to perform to the highest level with total commitment within the framework of a performance, and all effort is focused on being creative with immediate delivery. The artist is individualistic and will feel personally vulnerable. In science, one is frequently required to step back from the immediate problem as posed, and dig deep into the underlying received knowledge, rather than move forward uncritically. The individual scientist will seek acceptance of views by the group. This difference in culture can cause stress across the combined group and has had to be addressed in this collaboration a number of times. In addition, the geographical separation between artists and scientists has been a source of tension. All this has lead occasionally to a loss of common understanding of the project objectives, with the danger of a loss of momentum. Feelings of isolation, with the belief that ones long term needs are being ignored, have been expressed on occasions.

It has proved essential for all partners to meet as often as possible because remote communication by email or phone has sometimes been counter-productive when discussing complex or sensitive matters. Cultural differences, both in discipline and nationality, leading to misunderstanding and friction, have required vigilance at all times. These difficulties are being overcome by creating and controlling a relaxed non-threatening environment for discussions without time pressures. Everyone has had to learn to speak slowly without the use of jargon and it has proved helpful to break meetings up into reasonably short discussions because of potential mental fatigue and its adverse consequences.

Nicola Triscott & Rob Lafrenais

M.I.R. Flight 001

Abstract: In October 2001, through its relationship with the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, the Arts Catalyst with Projekt Atol enabled a group of UK and Russian artists and scientists to visit Star City in Russia, heart of the Russian space programme, and undertake projects on a parabolic 'zero gravity' flight. This was a test flight for the MIR (Microgravity Interdisciplinary Research) consortium, launched at the last Space Art Workshop.

The MIR consortium comprises The Arts Catalyst (UK), Leonardo/Olats (US/France), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), TV Gallery (Russia), V2 (Netherlands). The MIR initiative would like to open up space facilities by matching artistic processes and scientific research to give a new impulse to space art and space research. MIR's aims are:

· Promotion of arts and cultural activity as part of the international space programme

· Access to space facilities for artistic practice

· Interdisciplinary research: artists and scientists working with and alongside each other

· Sharing of knowledge, gained experience and expertise with other artists, scientists and the public

Douglas A. Vakoch

Preview of the Paris Workshop on the Art and Science of Interstellar Message Composition.

Abstract: On 18 March 2002, a one-day workshop will be held in Paris on the interaction between art, science, and the humanities in composing interstellar messages. The emphasis of the workshop is on composing messages that could be transmitted via electromagnetic radiation at radio or optical frequencies, reflecting the emphasis of current observational programs in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Paper presenters come from a range of disciplines in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Contributing artists provide expertise in drawing, musical composition, new media, painting, sculpture, and space arts. Speakers from the humanities include scholars in history, law, literature, and philosophy. Scientific disciplines represented include astronomy, biology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, and psychology. In many of the presentations, authors expand beyond their primary disciplinary backgrounds to engage alternative approaches to message composition. The workshop is sponsored by the SETI Institute; Leonardo/l'Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et des Techno-Sciences (OLATS); Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST); the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Permanent SETI Study Group; and the IAA SETI & Society Study Group.

Dan Werthimer

Searching for ET with Help from Three Million Volunteers: SETI@home, SERENDIP, Radio and Optical SETI

Abstract: Dan Werthimer, University of California, Berkeley

Werthimer will discuss the rationale behind the search for radio and laser signals from other civilizations and review current SETI programs around the world.

Werthimer will focus on the SETI@home search at the world's largest radio telescope. The SETI@home project uses desktop computers from more than three million volunteers in 226 countries. SETI@home participants have contributed 800,000 years of computer time and have formed our planet's most powerful supercomputer. Werthimer will briefly discuss what motivates the SETI@home volunteers and present some of the art, music and poetry they have contributed to the project.

More info at http://seti.berkeley.edu

Alexander Zaitsev

Design and Implementation of the 1^st Theremin Concert for Aliens

Abstract: The idea and project of the 1^st Theremin Concert for Aliens were stated on Arecibo Proposal "One-Dimensional Radio Message for Blind Aliens" (AP number Zaitsev000704074140) on July 4, 2000. Unfortunately, this Proposal was not accepted by Arecibo reviewers for realization because of their misgiving that such interstellar radio transmission may be a dangerous affair. Next, the ground and description of this Project were presented at the SPE-2000 Conference in Evpatoria on September 11, 2000, in order to try to transmit this Concert from the Evpatoria Planetary Radar (EPR) as a part of the SPE events. But only the third attempt to implement the Theremin Concert was successful - music for potential Extraterrestrials was first broadcast from the EPR to 6 nearby Sun-like stars on August-September, 2001, during transmission of the TAM (Teen-Age Message at http://ebe.allwebco.com/Science/index.shtml).

A review will be given of the theory of interstellar musical radio transmission, the collaborative processes between scientists, engineering, musicians, and amateurs of astronomy, as well as, the plans for future development.

Text: There are two interconnected, inverse and direct, problems in concept of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) - Search for ETI by terrestrial intelligence (SETI) and Messages to ETI from terrestrial intelligence (METI). The key element of SETI is the Object of search, namely Universe, where we hope to detect the ETI and then to decode their Messages, and so the essence of SETI is Space Science. In turn, the key element of METI is the intellectual Subject, who creates new messages for potential ETI and hope that They will detect and perceive these Messages, and so the essence of METI is Space Art. Of course, both SETI and METI have both scientific and art components, but it is important to underline that dominant of SETI is Science, and dominant of METI is Art. Also, the Messages for ETI might content both terrestrial knowledge and art, however scientific objective laws, known to terrestrials probably similar to ETI one, in turn the terrestrial subjective Art is unique and definitely unknown to ETI.

The classification of human interstellar messages might be done in concordance with proposed difficulty of their perceptions by unbeknown mentality. The most ready for perception will be an unmodulated carrier or regular radio signals, which might be used by Them for detection of our transmission and for radio science investigation of propagation effects at the receiving point. So, such radio transmission may be named as Interstellar Sounding (ISS). The next one is the message with one-dimensional information, oriented to perception by one-channel, ear-like sense organs - it might be a music, voice, or similar process as a one-variable function. And such radio transmission may be named as Interstellar Broadcast (ISB). The third type of human radio transmission is two-dimensional information, oriented to perception by multi-channel, eye-like sense organs - it might be a flat pictures, images, or similar processes in the form of two-variable functions. By analogy, this radio transmission may be named as Interstellar Television (ISTV). Both Arecibo Message 1974 and Evpatoria Message 1999 ("Cosmic Call") were the ISTV messages. It is quite possible that in future more complexes 3D Messages for ETI will be created, too, for example, in order to show Them the terrestrial Architecture.

An initial pulse, which launched project "Music for Aliens" was the thesis on "universal, perceived by any carrier of intellect, nature of music", which I detected at the site "Russian SETI" (http://lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/SETI). As a design result of this project the following conclusions were formulated:

• the main essence of music is melody and namely melody should be transmitted inside of first musical Interstellar Message,
• transmitting music should be a monophony, single "part" music, in order to lighten its perception by unbeknown mentality,
• transmitting energy should be concentrated inside of single spectral line, that is necessary to use musical instrument with minimal level of overtones,

Future Interstellar Messages would be composed with using any other sources of self-oscillation musical signals, similar to theremin - violin, organ, voice, trombone. It seems to me the most interesting variant - using in the next Concert for Aliens the female voice "mezzo-soprano" for singing a series of Songs without Words or the songster-songstress dialogue in composition "Melody of Love".