The exhibition 'Invisible Fields' at Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona shows 'Ground Station', a work produced by LABoral
The installation is part of the ‘Orbitando Satélites’ [Orbiting Satellites] exhibition which has been on view at the Centre of Art and Industrial Creation since 3rd October
The invitation of the Exhibition that takes place at the Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona
Ground Station, a work produced by Plataforma Cero, the Centre for Research, Production and Resources at LABoral, is being shown in the Campos invisibles [Invisible Fields] exhibition, which from last Friday 14th October until 4th March 2012 can be visited at the Arts Santa Mònica centre in Barcelona.
Curated by José Luis de Vicente and Honor Harger (Lighthouse, United Kingdom), Invisible Fields explores how the study of radio waves has changed our understanding of the world and the cosmos, aiming to shine a light on this enigmatic landscape by an interdisciplinary approach combining social-cultural analysis, scientific communication and artistic practice. To achieve this it includes works by Trevor Paglen, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Thomas Ashcraft, Timo Arnall, Anthony DeVincenzi, Joyce Hinterding, Semiconductor, Job Ramos, Clara Boj and Diego Díaz, Matthew Biederman, Rasa Smite & Raitis Smits (RIXC), Irdial Records, Guifi.net, Plataforma Cero LABoral and Luthiers Drapaires.
The Ground Station installation is an adaptation of the traditional Situation Room, full of screens where rocket launching or space station monitoring is directed. It acts as an observation centre composed of three elements and makes it possible to listen and track amateur radio and meteorological satellites, as well as navigate in the radio spectrum. All the listening and tracking tools have been built using free software, essentially GNU radio (programmed by Eric Blossom and his team) and Gpredict (programmed by Alexandru Csete a.k.a 0Z9AEC based on the work by John Magliacane). The monitoring stations are supported by a map in real time marking the position of all the satellites in orbit around earth, which has been developed by Makoto Kamada.
Also, Ground Station serves as a basic tool for a series of workshops that Arts Santa Mònica is organising to coincide with Invisible Fields, and which will be led by the team at Plataforma Cero. In this case, David Pello will give two of them, based on an introduction to the world of satellites and its technology. Under the title Historias de satellites [Satellite Stories], Pedro Soler, co-ordinator of Plataforma Cero, and Joanna Griffin, an artist working principally with satellites and space, will explore the imaginary of satellites, their names, their stories and the “transforming satellite”. Finally, Alejandro Duque, researcher and activist, will show in Rarae aves a vision of satellites which is at once critical and practical of satellites: how to search for them, hack them and decode their hidden intentions.