[spectre] Digital Beacons 32Ko

[Annick Bureaud]

Digital Beacons 32Ko

A project by Catherine Rannou


in collaboration with the Festival @rt Outsiders/European 
House of Photograpy, Paris and the Contemporary Art Center 
La Passerelle, Brest.

http://www.art-outsiders.com

Exchanges of "digital beacons" between Catherine Rannou and 
five addresses in France during her journey in Antarctica 
from October 2008 to March 2009.
Those "digital beacons" are based, according to a protocole, 
on the model of scientific samples. Their contents are free 
but related to the perspective of the artist. It has to deal 
with territory planing, spatial appropriation, waste 
management, import-export, temporalities distortions and 
spatial reference points, logistic.
Those "digital beacons" are constrained by the maximum upper 
limit authorized in emails, that is 32Ko.

* * * * *

Catherine Rannou, video artist and architect, is conducting 
a research in collaboration with the French Polar Institute 
(IPEV), a glaciology scientific laboratory (LGGE), the 
Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and a technical research 
office (T.E.S.S) in the Antarctic continent, that she 
started in 2006, during her artistic residency « art at the 
poles », at the French Polar Base Dumont d'Urville.

During her « Summer Campaign » (thanks to a grant from 
Cultures France hors les murs) on the French and 
Franco-Italian bases of Dumont d'Urville (DDU) and Concordia 
during the austral Summer 2008/2009 (October 2008 – March 
2009), Catherine Rannou proposes to five persons, close to 
her working field, to be associated to her research through 
a communication protocol and exchanges about the research 
conducted in situ and during her travels.

Antarctica scientific bases, if they are first and foremost 
working places, are also, du to their isolation and the 
forced confinement, living and intimate spaces.
Data communication, constrained by the extreme isolation of 
the Antarctic continent from the rest of the world, is 
difficult and not in real time and exchanges through the 
usual means of dialogue (telephone, mail, email) is 
restricted to the utilitarian necessities, mostly technical.
This specific difficulty for dialogue from the Antarctic 
continent with the rest of the world, which favors mediated 
exchanges of digital datas against the expression of the 
body (voice, gestures, ...) is taken into account in the 
protocol that has been defined.

«Digital samples » are simultaneously sent by Catherine 
Rannou to the five chosen addressees during her whole 
journey: from her departure from Paris to her arrival at the 
Franco-Italian base of Concordia, to her return from 
Concordia to Paris.
Those « digital samples», no matter their content 
(digitalized drawings, digital photographs, videos, texts, 
....) are restricted to the authorized maximum size for 
emails from Antarctica, that is 32Ko.

Those exchanges are like beacons or signals which, in return 
can be interpretated, annotated, expanded and thrown back by 
the addressees to the sender as well as to the other 
addressees participating in the project. The distance, 
growing with the journey, disconnections and other 
transmission difficulties are distording the exchange.
A parallel space should appear, as an inprint, like a radar 
that registers the echo of the waves that are bouncing on 
obstacles.


Contents
The contents of the samples are free but related to the 
perspective of the artist doing them and to the datas 
sending format. It has to deal with territory planing, 
spatial appropriation, waste management, import-export, 
temporalities distortions and spatial reference points, 
logistic. Those datas measure, by their addition and 
chronology the space that has been travelled. Their 
measurement scale, as well as their topics, are variable, 
they constitute a transversal gaze, a kind of vision in a 3D 
cut of the « Antarctic system ».

Periodicity
The time lag does not allow for specific days and time to 
issue the posts. One post per week minimum will be done by 
the artist depending on the conditions of communication and 
on means of transport, hence a minimum of 15 digital beacons 
will be sent. The frequencies of the posts by the addresses 
is free. The beacons will be sent to addresses located in 
France, working in a precise professional environment, but 
no immediate answers or questions are awaited.

Organisation of the digital beacons
The chronoligical order, in Universal Time (TU) has been 
chosen to order those exchanges. When the artist is back in 
France, other methodologies may be used, depending on the 
means of diffusion.


Diffusion (during the time of the journey)

Festival @rt Outsiders / European House of Photography, 
Paris :  all the exchanges are available on the web site of 
the @rt Outsiders Festival : http://www.art-outsiders.com

Contemporary Art Center La Passerelle, Brest : an 
installation presents the digital beacons sent by the artist 
as they arrive, in real time.


Addressees

Annick Bureaud (AB)
Art critic, theoretician and independent curator, director 
of Leonardo/Olats

Ulrike Kremeier (UK)
Director Contemporary Art Center La Passerelle

Rafael Magrou (RM)
Critic and curator (architecture design and arts)

Roger Perrin-Jaquet (RPJ)
Professor in sociology of habitat (ENSAB)

Jean-Luc Soret (JLS)
Artistic Director of the Festival @rt Outsiders / European 
House of Photography