Fwd: (Xchange) acoustic.space.lab in The Wire

[Frederic Madre]

>Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 10:15:24 -0000
>To: <xchange at re-lab.net>
>Subject: (Xchange) acoustic.space.lab in The Wire
>From: "Derek Holzer" <derek at v2.nl>
>X-Mailer: TWIG 2.6.2
>Sender: owner-xchange at re-lab.net
>
>(A shortened version of this article appears, with illustrations by Manu 
>Luksch, in the September 2001 issue of The Wire magazine --- derek)
>
>acoustic.spy.lab 
>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
>
>When the invasion of a precision scientific laboratory by assorted media
>artists quadruples the available computing power, one can forgive a rush of
>optimism about a possible dialogue between science and art. 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 4th­12th 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, Irational, 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 
>Sep 24­-30, Rotterdam: V2 presents acoustic.space.lab 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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