[spectre] Arctic Perspective Initiative announces the winners of its open architecture competition

[Inke Arns]

Arctic Perspective Initiative announces the winners
of its open architecture competition

Three architects – Richard Carbonnier (Nunavut, Canada), Giuseppe  
Mecca (Italy), and Catherine Rannou (France) – have been selected as  
the joint winners of the Arctic Perspective Initiative open  
architecture competition. The challenge of this international  
competition was to design a zero-footprint mobile research unit for  
use by local populations in the Arctic. The unit is intended to  
facilitate a diverse range of technological research opportunities,  
such as remote sensing, environmental monitoring, video editing and  
streaming, and communications systems.

The three winning entries, each awarded €1500, were selected by an  
expert jury from 103 submissions from architects and engineers in  
more than 30 countries. The competition was the first phase of a  
design process, the next phase of which will involve working with the  
winning submissions through a collaborative design effort with local  
community members from Nunavut, Canada. A prototype unit will be  
tested in the field next year in Igloolik, Nunavut, by local media  
workers, hunters, youth and elders of the community.

API is committed to the empowerment and sustainable development of  
Northern communities through the collaboration and combination of  
science, arts, engineering and culture. The unit aims to serve as a  
model for mobile research in the north, incorporating proven local  
expertise, sustainable resources, and high tech solutions, while  
promoting open source data sharing strategies and management. All  
required power will come from green sources.

The Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a transnational art,  
science, and culture work group composed of HMKV (Germany), The Arts  
Catalyst (UK), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), Lorna (Iceland) and C-TASC  
(Canada). API is the brainchild of Marko Peljhan and Matthew  
Biederman, who met and worked together for the first time as  
crewmembers of the Makrolab mkII in Blair Atholl, Scotland in 2002.  
API intends to direct attention to the global cultural and ecological  
significance of the Polar Regions. In light of the effects of climate  
change, the Arctic is simultaneously a zone of crucial contemporary  
geopolitical controversy and a space with an opportunity for  
transnational, circumpolar, and intercultural cooperation and  
collaboration. API aims to do this through the empowerment of the  
local citizens of the North via new communications, sensing,  
aggregation, transmission and information sharing through  
participatory and open technology methodologies.

The design competition is but the first step towards what will  
develop, in 2010, into a large-scale (artistic) research project, the  
results of which will be documented in the exhibition ARCTIC  
PERSPECTIVE – THIRD CULTURE 2010. The exhibition will be on view from  
11 June - October 2010 at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, Germany, during the  
European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 as well as the international  
media-art conference ISEA2010 RUHR.

ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE – THIRD CULTURE 2010 is funded by the European  
Commission, the City of Dortmund and by the Ministry of Culture of  
the Republic of Slovenia.

For more information:
http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_program_exhibitions/detail.php? 
nr=3594&rubric=exhibitions&
http://arcticperspective.org/



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Dr. Inke Arns
Kuenstlerische Leiterin / Artistic Director
Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV)
Guentherstr. 65 (Buero / office)
44143 Dortmund, Germany
T ++49 - 231 - 823 106
M ++49 - 176 - 430 627 93
inke.arns at hmkv.de
www.hmkv.de