Radio Astronomy in Amsterdam, 2009

 

Introduction

An installation by r a d i o q u a l i a as part of the In Search of the Unknown exhibition at Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montevideo/Time Based Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Date: 4 February 2009 - 25 April 2009
Address: Netherlands Media Art Institute, Keizersgracht 264, 1016 EV Amsterdam

As part of the exhibition, In Search of the Unknown, r a d i o q u a l i a are exhibiting the installation, Radio Astronomy.

In Search of the Unknown

In Search of the Unknown is situated in a strange place, at an unfamiliar time, in the midst of visions of the future that pursue the present and the nightmare of there being no future at all. In the first exhibition of 2009, at a moment when the financial prospects for the world are most uncertain, the search for the unknown and unimaginable and the friction between past, present and future is central. The science fiction author J.G. Ballard even writes that 'the present has annexed the future'. According to him 'we learn to live thinking that everything happens at the same time.'

This friction between the past, the present and the undreamed-of is the starting point for In Search of the Unknown. In the works shown documentary, science, fantasy and (science)fiction rub elbows or even flow into one another. Works by Neil Beloufa, Mark Aerial Waller, Johannes HeldŽn, Ann Lislegaard, Heman Chong and Graham Ellarde & Stephen Johnstone uncover the tension between the future and the past in the present. Sebastian Diaz Morales shows images which, as a continuum of the present, could stand as signs of the future Đ in reaction to Ballard's words above. Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukacs and Semiconductor take 'scientific' research into the still unknowable or inconceivable as their point of departure, and with 'Radio Astronomy' r a d i o q u a l i a lets us hear unfamiliar sounds from the cosmos.

Science fiction functions as one of the artistic instruments for the artists in the exhibition In Search of the Unknown. Science fiction in fact uses the means of the present to sketch a possible future Đ precisely a process which paradoxically makes that future into the present. At the same time, as a matter of course science fiction stories about the future are overtaken by time and end up in the past (as has happened with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey).

For more information, visit the In Search of the Unknownwebsite.

Radio Astronomy

Radio Astronomy broadcasts radio waves from space on the internet and inside the gallery. The project is a collaboration between the artists, r a d i o q u a l i a and radio telescopes located throughout the world.

Whilst optical astronomers use telescopes to look at the visible light emitted by stars, radio astronomers use radio telescopes, or antennae, to detect radio waves. Whilst stars and planets are not directly audible, as sound waves can not propagate in the vacuum of space, it is possible for radio waves emitted from celestial bodies such as Jupiter and the Sun, to be heard by using radio technology. These waves can be converted into sound using the same kinds of receivers which we use to listen to broadcast radio. By combining radio astronomy with radio engineering, we can hear as well as see the stars, thus greatly expanding our sensory perception of the cosmos.

Visitors to the installation may hear the planet Jupiter and its interaction with its moons Io, Europa and Ganymede, radiation from the Sun, radio and plasma waves from Saturn, activity from far-off pulsars, and other astronomical phenomena.

The Radio Astronomy sound installation has been exhibited at ISEA in Helsinki; Ars Electronica in Linz; the ICC in Tokyo; the Santa Monica Art Institute in Barcelona as part of Sonar; at Oboro in Montreal, and in many other contexts. It is a collaboration between r a d i o q u a l i a, New Zealand; the Windward Community College Radio Observatory (WCCRO) in Hawaii, USA; NASA's Radio Jove network, USA; the Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC), Latvia and RIXC, Latvia, with additional audio contributed by the University of Iowa's Plasma Wave Group, USA and Jodrell Bank's Pulsar Group, UK.

About the artists

r a d i o q u a l i a is an artist collective formed by New Zealanders Adam Hyde and Honor Harger, which creates radio and sound art. Their work has been exhibited at the ICC in Tokyo, New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; Gallery 9, Walker Art Center in USA; Sonar in Barcelona; Ars Electronica in Austria; Artspace in New Zealand, among other places. Past r a d i o q u a l i a projects include The Frequency Clock (1998 - 2003), Free Radio Linux (2002 - 2004), and Polar Radio (2007).

The Venue

Netherlands Media Art Institute / Montevideo
Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
Tel. +31 20 6237101
Email: info@nimk.nl
http://www.montevideo.nl/


 

r a d i o q u a l i a

 

((o))

 

f r e q u e n c y s h i f t i n g p a r a d i g m s

i n s t r e a m i n g a u d i o

 

Email: honor at va.com.au or adam at xs4all.nl

http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au

 

supported by virtual artists (VA)