APRIL 12, 2019, 19:00 UTC
OPTICKS is a Facebook Live Networked Performance between the Earth and the Moon, during which images are transmitted to the Moon and back as radio signals in real time. The project has been conceived by media artist Daniela de Paulis (IT/NL), also licensed radio operator and the inventor of the Visual Moonbounce technology. The project has been technically developed in collaboration with radio amateur Jan van Muijlwijk and the CAMRAS radio amateurs organisation based at the Dwingeloo radio telescope (NL). Each live performance is made possible thanks to the collaboration of international radio enthusiasts.
During each live performance of OPTICKS, the images are converted into radio waves and are transmitted to the Moon. The Moon's surface reflects the radio signals and scatters them all around Space. Only a small percentage of the original signal is reflected on Earth and received by the Dwingeloo radio telescope's antenna, where it is converted back into the original images.
The 'noise' showing in any moonbounced image is caused by the great distance travelled by the radio signals to the Moon and back (approximately 800,000 Kilometres) and by the poor reflective qualities of the Moon's surface.
The title OPTICKS is inspired by Newton's discoveries of the light spectrum, reflection and refraction. Similarly, the colours composing an image - converted into radio signals - are bounced off the Moon (reflected and refracted) by its surface during each live performance.
Send Your Photo To the Moon!
This year, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing! You can send us images that remind you of this momentous event. You have the opportunity to reflect your images off the Moon's surface as part of the 'OPTICKS/Echoes from the Moon' live performance. We would like to receive your photos taken during the actual event and photos that remind you of this great moment in history, if you were lucky enough to experience it in person. Even if you were not born yet, you might have studied the Moon landing at school or listened to your parents or grandparents talk about it, so images that remind you of those times will be perfect. Send your images to Daniela de Paulis at [email protected] to have the unique opportunity to see your image sent to the Moon!
Echoes from the Moon
Daniela de Paulis and Carole IONE will host a special homage to American
composer Pauline Oliveros and her seminal piece "Echoes From Moon."
Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of experimental and post-war electronic art music. - via Wikipedia. Photo of Pauline (left) with accordion courtesy of Paula Court.
History
Echoes from the Moon was presented four times between 1987-99. In Echoes from the Moon, Oliveros was able to send sound to the Moon and to listen and to play with the echo that returned 2 1/2 seconds later.
She was delighted to make it an experience for as many participants as possible to enjoy. She was grateful for the support of Scot Gresham-Lancaster throughout her planning. Scot located the first Ham radio operators and helped determine the technology necessary to perform Echoes from the Moon.
In 1987, she performed with Ham radio operator Dave Olean in New Lebanon, Maine. This was followed by a gallery exhibition documenting the event. In 1996 Oliveros created '*Echoes From the Moon'* for a large audience in Hayward, California with the engineering of Scot Gresham-Lancaster during the Lunar Eclipse of September.
In 1999, she created Echoes From the Moon at the "Brunnenhof" Hofe Fest in St. Polten Austria with Sound Artist, Andres Bossard. Sound/text artist, IONE performed with Oliveros and interacted with the audience, sending her text to the Moon. Image below: Kanazawa, Japan, IONE and Pauline Oliveros Heroko Ikeda.
About the artists
Daniela de Paulis is an interdisciplinary artist based in The Netherlands. She exhibits internationally, often collaborating with other artists, scientists and radio amateurs. She holds a BA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy, and a Master Degree in Media Arts from Plymouth University, UK. Since October 2009 she is the first artist in residence at the Dwingeloo radio telescope and ASTRON (www.astron.nl) where she developed, together with the CAMRAS and the ASTRON team, a technology called Visual Moonbounce. She is also the founder of the art programme at the Dwingeloo radio telescope, allowing international artists to work in collaboration with radio astronomers and radio operators. She is currently a guest researcher at ASCA (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis), University of Amsterdam, developing her research on Interstellar Transmissions. Since 2010 she has been collaborating with the international collective Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), as the founder and director of the AstroArts programme. In 2013 she founded Cabine Voltaire, a pioneering online, collaborative platform for live debates on science, technology and the humanities. She is currently working on a new project called 'COGITO' for which she is collaborating with the Overview Institute, as well as neuroscientists and philosophers.
She is a reviewer for the Leonardo MIT Journal and the EVA (Electronic Visualization in the Arts) London conference, as well as a regular contributor for Astronomers Without Borders and www.astroblogs.nl amongst others. She has published her work with the Leonardo MIT Journal, Inderscience, Acta Astronautica and Cambridge University Press. She is a member of the international SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) committee as the speaker for SETI and culture. More information on her work can be found on www.opticks.info and www.danieladepaulis.com.
IONE is an author/playwright/director and an improvising text-sound artist.
She is the author of the NY Times Notable Book, *Pride of Family; Four
Generations of American Women of Color*. A specialist in dreams and the
creative process, she teaches and performs throughout the world. She and
Pauline Oliveros have been partners in life and art for over three decades.
They performed together worldwide and collaborated on four major theater
works. IONE manages Oliveros' work through The Ministry of Maåt and The
Pauline Oliveros Trust. Their experimental opera, The Nubian Word for Flowers; A Phantom Opera premiered to acclaim at Roulette Intermedia in
Brooklyn, NY November 30, 2017. Image via www.ionedreams.us.
About the panelist
We are pleased to announce the event will be joined by Gillian McFarland, co-founder of 'Creativity and Curiosity'. "Creativity and Curiosity" is an art/science project led by contemporary UK artists Gillian McFarland and Ione Parkin, in connection with astrophysicists, cosmologists, and planetary geologists. Active engagement through discussions and creative dialogue has inspired a growing body of artwork that is being exhibited across the UK and internationally. This artist-led project, originated from a project at the Herschel Museum and through discussions with astronomers from the University of Leicester, the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, Imperial College London, Birmingham University and Cardiff University. The project was launched at the Cambridge Science Festival 2017, has exhibited at the National Space Centre and Newarke HousesMuseum, Leicester, as well as Zeiss-Gross Planetarium in Germany as part of the Berlin Science Week 2018. It has recently been selected for the Art of the Cosmos exhibition organised in connection with the Hubble Space Team (April 2020 - Pasadena, California). The project team has been awarded grants by the Royal Astronomical Society, the Hope Scott Trust, and the Arts Council England, and has been supported by DeMontfort University and Leicester University
The C&C team have undertaken Research Visits to the Royal Astronomical Society’s Library and the Science Museum’s Blythe House collection, with support from Arts Council England.
