[spectre] I-TASC in POITIERS (FR) / 30 march 2007

[Ewen Chardronnet]

I-TASC FOR THE INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR

Friday March 30, 2007 : I-TASC settles for two years at Espace 
Mendes-France, Poitiers, France

I-TASC (Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation) is an 
official project of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. I-TASC is a 
decentralized network of individuals and organisations working 
collaboratively in the fields of art, engineering, science and 
technology on interdisciplinary development and tactical deployment of 
renewable energy, waste recycling systems, sustainable architecture and 
open-format, open-source media. I-TASC is a lichen-like structure 
sharing and integrating local knowledge, resources and skills across six 
continents in order to symbiotically engage with common issues 
concerning the air, ocean, earth and space.

The science centre Espace Mendes-France and Ellipse join the I-TASC 
project to organize a series of events during the 2007-2008 
International Polar Year. An I-TASC terminal will be installed in the 
Espace Mendes-France for the duration of IPY. It will provide 
information in real time on the activities of the I-TASC project and 
display environmental data collected by the Automatic Weather station 
deployed, by I-TASC since winter 2007, near the South-African base of 
SANAE in the Dronning Maud Land region of the Antarctic.

FRIDAY MARCH 30, 2007 : OPENING DAY

17h: presentation of the I-TASC initiative
Marko Peljhan (Slovenia), artist and initiator of the project
Stephen Kovats (Canada), associate member and artistic director of 
Berlin Transmediale Festival
Ewen Chardronnet (France), associate and member of Ellipse

18h30: inauguration of terminal I-TASC
drinks and buffet

21h: “Signal Territory” performance by Mx&Nullo (rx:tx, Slovenia)
In the Planetarium of the EMF
http://www.rx-tx.org

Free entrance.

Access: Espace Mendes-France, 1 Place de la Cathédrale, 86000 Poitiers, 
France
Contact: ewen at e-ngo.org

I-TASC in the Espace Mendès-France of Poitiers is a co-production of 
Ellipse (Tours, Fr), Projekt Atol (Slovenia) and the EMF of Poitiers, 
France.
The project is supported by EU Culture 2000 program.

http://www.i-tasc.org
http://www.ipy.org
http://e-ngo.org
http://www.maison-des-sciences.org

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What is I-TASC’s first project?

Acknowledging that Antarctica and the Arctic are critical departure 
points in developing a complex understanding of common ground, I-TASC 
has proposed to establish in the Arctic and Antarctica the framework 
conditions for collaborative projects between artists, scientists, 
tactical media workers and engineers within three broad topical fields: 
migration, weather and communications. This is envisaged through the 
installation and maintenance of two mobile research stations in the 
Arctic and Antarctica between 2007-2009 and the construction and 
launching of a nano-satellite in a high sun-synchronous elliptical polar 
orbit to enable research and contact between the two stations and the 
sharing of sensor data with other IPY projects. The I-TASC stations in 
the Arctic and Antarctica will be solar/wind powered, zero-environmental 
impact communications, research and living units capable of sustaining 
up to 8 crew members for long periods of work in isolation/insulation 
conditions (60-180 days). Onboard renewable-energy systems, 
bioreactor/biological sewage processing, water recycling systems, 
satellite and HF communication systems and radar infrastructure will 
provide I-TASC crews with the tools/resources needed to conduct joint or 
independent work in remote polar field-research environments. The I-TASC 
base station for Antarctica has been given the name LADOMIR. It is named 
for the utopian poem of the same name written in 1920 by the Russian 
Futurist Velimir Khlebnikov, which describes the universal landscape of 
the future through the destruction of the old world and its synthesis in 
the new. The word is a combination of LAD, meaning both “harmony” and 
“living creature,” and MIR, both “peace” and “world, universe.” Adopting 
the related constructivist notion of FAKTURA, which can be understood as 
the conferring of tactile and sensorial qualities onto abstract 
elements, LADOMIR will be dedicated to producing readable/tangible 
surfaces which the public will be able to use to reflect on vague or 
otherwise invisible systems and environmental data from Antarctica and 
the Arctic. Communication, weather and migration are seen as three 
multiple-dynamic global energy systems which can be explored to 
understand how our planet functions on natural, social and technological 
levels, and the knowledge inherent in each can in turn be applied as 
primary sources for new cognitive and evolutionary strategies, with 
implications for global ecology and future human exploration of space.

The first I-TASC Reconnaissance and Communication Expedition (RECE) to 
Antarctica from Dec 2006-Feb 2007 was codenamed: GROUNDHOG. The 
objective of GROUNDHOG (translated from the Norwegian word Grunehogna) 
was to construct and deploy our first Automatic Weather Station, Remote 
Sensor and Packet Radio Unit in support of I-TASC’s future operations in 
Antarctica from 2007 onwards. The expedition crew installed the solar 
and wind powered unit at 71° 40.433' S 02° 48.700' W in order to 
autonomously transmit daily environmental data via HF packet radio to 
SANAE IV base and from there to the I-TASC partner websites and IPY 
public via the internet. The site has been identified as the location 
for the installation and testing of the prototype I-TASC LICHEN mobile 
base station module in the 2007/2008 Antarctic summer season. The LICHEN 
module will test systems and train crew ahead of the installation of the 
I-TASC LADOMIR mobile base station at Grunehogna between Dec 2008 - 
March 2009 which will host artists, scientists and engineers conducting 
research and collaborative work in the Dronning Maud Land sector of 
Antarctica during the International Polar Year.


The first I-TASC expedition crew to Antarctica consisted of Amanda 
Rodrigues Alves (Brazil); Adam Hyde (New Zealand); Thomas Mulcaire 
(South Africa – expedition leader); Ntsikelelo Ntshingila (South 
Africa/Swaziland). The crew departed Cape Town harbour for Antarctica on 
7 December on board the South African National Antarctic Program supply 
ship SA Agulhas and spent 42 days at SANAE base and on field 
reconnaissance expeditions in Dronnig Maud Land.

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I-TASC in the Espace Mendès-France of Poitiers is a co-production of 
Ellipse (Tours, Fr), Projekt Atol (Slovenia) and the EMF of Poitiers, 
France.
The project is supported by EU Culture 2000 program.

http://www.i-tasc.org
http://www.ipy.org
http://e-ngo.org
http://www.maison-des-sciences.org