(Xchange) Call: Acoustic Space Lab Open-Source-Sampling Project

[anna balint]

:::Call for Submissions:::
Acoustic Space Lab Open-Source-Sampling Project ::: begins Jan 1 2002
Contact: Derek Holzer: derek at x-i.net 
>From August 4-12, 2001, twenty five media artists and activists from three
different continents gathered together in the forests of western Latvia at
the site of a Soviet-era 32meter dish antenna. Formerly used to spy on
satellite transmissions between Europe and North America by the KGB, the
antenna was abandoned and nearly destroyed when the Russians departed in
1994. The dish is currently under repair for civilan use as one of the top 5
most precise radiotelescopes in the world. Over the days of the symposium,
Acoustic Space Lab participants used the dish in three main ways: 
1) The dish was explored in an acoustic fashion. It's groans, buzzes and
sirens were recorded, and the dish itself was used as a massive parabolic
microphone to scan the surrounding environment. 
2) The dish was used in its 'original' fashion. Satellites from the INMARSAT
network were located and snooped on. Analog mobile phones, ship to shore
communications, air traffic control signals and data packet transmisisons
were monitored and recorded. 
3) The dish was used in its 'retrofitted' fashion. Jupiter, Venus, and (most
sucessfully) the Sun were located and scanned using precise radioastronomy
equipment operating in the 11 GHz range. 
The intent of this workshop was two-fold. The first was to explore the
possibilities of creative realizations of a formerly military, and now a
civilian scientific, device to which artists seldom have access. 
The second is to create a communications network of our own out of the
raw material gathered at the dish. For this purpose, WE ARE SEEKING SOUND &
VIDEO ARTISTS to reinterpret the material, and to add their
own thematically related material to the mix. This "open-source sampling"
process has its origins in the scientific and computer programming
communities, where research is shared within a network for the common
advancement of the field. 
An ongoing online presentation of Acoustic Space Lab works is being planned
for the beginning of January 2002. 
Please contact Derek Holzer if you are interested in contributing and participating:
derek at x-i.net 
The Acoustic Space Lab Symposium was reported on in the August and September
2001 issues of The Wire magazine, the special Extended Radio program of
KunstRadio (http://kunstradio.at/SPECIAL/XR/index.html), as well as on the
XChange, Syndicate and Nettime discussion lists. 
The symposium and subsequent workshops were organized by the RIXC media lab
(Riga, Latvia), with support from the Daniel Langlois Foundation, the
Latvian Cultural Capital Funds, the Ventspils International Radio Astronomy
Center, A Tehnolgijas (LV), the V2 Center for Unstable Media,
Kunstradio/Radio ORF (AT) and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade. 
Special recognition goes to Marko Peljhan + Project Atol and Dmitry Bezrukov
for technical support, and to Rasa and Raitis Smits for their organizational
efforts. More information about the Acoustic Space Lab symposium and workshops
is available at: http://acoustic.space.re-lab.net/lab/
http://www.v2.nl/wiretap/more.php?wiretapID=119&lang=en
http://kunstradio.at/SPECIAL/XR/index.html 

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