| Derek Holzer on Mon, 3 Sep 2001 21:53:27 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> Acoustic.Space.Lab Announcement + Review |
Nettimers,
Acoustic.Space.Lab was an international symposium organized by the RIXC New
Media Center in Latvia last August around the topic of radio and satellite
communications, and the possible interventions that artists and activists
can make in these media. 35 participants from three continents gathered
together at the site of a 32 meter dish antenna to begin what I hope will be
a continuing exploration of the possibilities of communication and
expression using the 'new' media of radio emmissions. Information on the
symposium can be found at: http://acoustic.space.re-lab.net/lab
On the 28 of September, the V2 in Rotterdam will host a special edition of
its well-known Wiretap discussion series which will focus on the
Acoustic.Space.Lab and on various forms of radio art. A full program will be
available on-line, and the evening will be webcasted, along with a night of
sound performance on Sept 30. Please see: http://www.v2.nl/wiretap
for more information.
A shortened version of the article below appears, with illustrations by Manu
Luksch, in the September 2001 issue of The Wire magazine.
Derek Holzer
--------------
Ether Talk: At the Acoustic Space Lab symposium in Latvia, a crack squad of
international media artists and scientists took over a former Soviet spy
station to tune into the music of the spheres.
by Mukul (ambientTV.net)
"It's beyond anybody's imagination to be able to climb around on a
multimillion-dollar machine like this and play with it."--Robert Adrian X
Seven years after the withdrawal of the Soviet Army, a 32m diameter
radiotelescope in the Irbene forest near Ventspils, an oil transit port in
western Latvia, was occupied once more--this time, by a 35-strong army
wielding laptops, camcorders, scanners, kilometres of cable, crates full of
jacks and plugs, and enough theory to confound the observatory physicists.
Organised by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, cofounders of E-Lab/RIXC (Riga
Center of New Media Culture, http://rixc.lv), and Derek Holzer, the
acoustic.space.lab symposium took place on August 4th - 12th between the
Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center (VIRAC) and Riga. Media
artists and activists gathered to explore the interface of art and
communications technologies, and to launch an International Acoustic Space
Research Programme. Participants who travelled for the opportunity to slide
around the dish included L'audible, Radioqualia, Sara Kolster, Robert Adrian
X, Radio 90, Siksika Media, Digibodies, Makrolab, Clausthome, rigasound.org
and ambientTV.NET.
In 1993, the Soviet Army withdrew from the Baltic States, revealing the
existence of an espionage centre near Ventspils used to eavesdrop on Western
satellite communications. Of the three antennae at the site, the Soviets
took the smallest dish, but the 16m and 32m dishes were too big to move.
Under pressure from the international radioastronomy community, the army
held off from blowing up RT-16 and RT-32, instead gifting them to the
Latvian government. A handover team did, however, "prepare" the dishes,
throwing metal debris into the mechanics, driving nails through cables, and
pouring acid into the electronics. Thankfully, the antennae were built like
ships--having been drastically overengineered by the Soviet Navy. So,
despite
only nominal support from the Latvian government--VIRAC is classed a
"Scientific Company with Limited Responsibility"--enthusiasts from various
Latvian scientific institutes determined the properties of the antennae,
repaired the damage, and transformed them into operational radiotelescopes.
The larger antenna, RT-32 ("Little Star"), is remarkably precise--through
all the manoeuverings of the 600 ton structure, the dish distorts less than
0.5mm from its paraboloidal shape. With the installed feed horn tuned to 11
GHz (2.5 cm wavelength), RT-32 has been used to detect radiation from the
planets, the moon (some due to lunarquakes), the sun and other stars, and
extragalactic sources including possible black holes. It has also been used
for VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), in which widely separated
telescopes are coupled to produce a giant antenna of a size equivalent to
the distance between them. But lack of funds to repair leaks in the labs and
upgrade the toilet facilities from the Soviet-era wooden hut means that
RT-32 is not overrun by astronomers--leaving it open for takeover by a bunch
of media vagabonds. (In true festival spirit, we brought in a green
portaloo).
Acoustic.space.lab set up three working groups at RT-32 under the guidance
of Dmitrijs "Dima" Bezrukov. Dima deals with all aspects of the
telescope--electrotechnical, software, making of observations--and is also,
if needed, guard, cook, and driver. He was trusting enough to allow us
unlimited access, and assisted with all types of reception, but ruled out
transmission (since no one had produced the requisite licence). RT-32 is
mounted on a 25m concrete tower. Just under the dish is the "submarine"
room, complete with portholes and a 15m conning tower that gives access to
the dish surface, the feed horn at the secondary focus, and--after a shaky
climb up the supporting lattice--the small reflector at the primary focus.
Three groups established residency in various parts of the superstructure.
Makrolab mounted their own L-band (1.5 GHz) feed at the secondary focus.
True to dish's original purpose, they eavesdropped on communications
satellites. Analogue channels on an Inmarsat yielded familial chatterings in
Tamil and a minor drama about a stowaway, which rapidly took on bureaucratic
overtones. In the spirit of their earlier webstreaming/feedback experiments,
ambientTV.NET hoped to place a call and route it via one of these channels,
intercept it and then feed it back, but logistically this proved impossible.
Fuelled by borscht and Black Balsams (the other black gold of the Baltics),
the acoustic group scaled the dish and rigged up microphones at the primary
and secondary foci. Dima lowered the dish to zero elevation and scanned the
horizon. Above the wind noise, the mikes picked up rustlings from the Irbene
forest, occasional bird cries, conversations on the ground, and a screeching
handbrake turn. Movement of the dish also generated spectacular sinusoidal
groans and squeaks, consonant in thirds and accompanied by excited squeals
from the submariners.
The radioastronomy group attempted to observe Venus, Jupiter, and the Sun.
With only a few hour's observation, it proved difficult to isolate any
planetary signals amongst the noise, but data from the solar scans is being
incorporated into Java applets and translated into MIDI by Mr. Snow
(L'audible). Attempts to step down the GHz frequencies into the audible
range yielded, predictably, white noise. But this was food enough for
Clausthome, who spent hours manipulating the nondescript audio into warm,
full industrial soundscapes.
Back in Riga, the material gathered and processed during the four days at
the telescope was webcast in a 6-hr programme from the LMS Galerija with
remote participation from Kunstradio (archived at
http://acoustic.space.re-lab.net/lab).
So, "science and art": one massive dish in hand, and we didn't cook up
anything approaching what Alvin Lucier did with a couple of tape recorders.
There was no space for significant dialogue between scientists and artists.
But we hope to use acoustic.space.lab as a launchpad for deeper, more
theoretically and technically informed collaboration. The fact that much of
what is observed is not only very far away not only in space but in time,
the reflexive nature of VLBI measurements being used for geodesy--these are
departure points for more specific and substantial projects. At the close of
the symposium, VIRAC director Edgars Bervalds expressed his delight that the
antenna had been explored in so many ways, adding that, though the antenna
ought to be used primarily for science, "artists can use it to fill the vast
spaces in our Universe that science cannot reach."
Recordings and theories developed from acoustic.space.lab will feature in
the forthcoming acoustic.space reader (http://acoustic.space.re-lab.net)
Related programmes:
Sep 8, Riga: Projekt Atol present SIGNAL-SERVER!, an openair satellite
audio performance (http://rixc.lv/01/signal-sever/)
Sep 24-30, Rotterdam: V2 presents acoustic.space.lab workshop and wiretap
discussion (www.v2.nl/wiretap)
Nov 18, Riga/Venstpils: "Little Star Began to Sing", a symphonic work about
RT-32 by Michael Omer
_________________________________________________________________
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