Astro-Artist of the Month - April 2013: Richard Clar

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Apr 08

2013

by Thilina Heenatigala

Published: Monday, April 08 2013 19:39

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Richard Clar, a Los Angeles/Paris new media interdisciplinary artist, founded Art Technologies in 1987 as a liaison between the worlds of art and technology. His philosophically-oriented artwork turned towards art-in-space in 1982 with a NASA-approved art payload for the U.S. Space Shuttle. Richard Clar's current work encompasses site-specific environmental issues ranging from orbital debris to water-management on Earth; war and peace; and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). His work has been exhibited in museums, universities, and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. In 2007 Richard Clar was elected as a Full Member into the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

For Global Astronomy Month four of Richard Clar’s projects will be presented:

• Spaceflight Dolphin
• COLLISION II
• ALMA da AGUA
• New Butoh Space Dance – IMC

Spaceflight Dolphin: Clar conceived Space Flight Dolphin (SFD) in 1982. Approved by NASA, SFD is an interdisciplinary art-in-space SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project designed to be deployed in low-Earth orbit from the cargo bay of the U.S. Space Shuttle. The dolphin sculpture/satellite would have transmitted a signal modulated by dolphin “voices” that could have been detected or sensed by an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). Spaceflight Dolphin is now a good candidate to fly on one of the new private launch company vehicles for example XCORS Lynx Mark III. See full article on SFD:
http://www.arttechnologies.com/site-2005/projects/space-dolphin2.html

COLLISION II:a dynamic site-specific orbital debris sculpture in Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 350 to 900 kilometers above Earth. Clar has been intrigued by the problem of orbital debris in space since the early ‘90s. Learning that the U.S. Space Command tracks over 14,000 of these orbital debris objects, and that the orbits of each of these objects is known and predictable, he envisioned an artwork from this orbital debris in space on a scale previously unheard of. COLLISION II was created in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and French composer Marc Battier in 2003.  See full description:
http://www.arttechnologies.com/site-2005/projects/collisonII.html

ALMA da AGUA: A collaboration between Richard Clar and Dinis Aphonso Ribeiro of Companhia Espacial Portuguesa Lda, “ALMA da AGUA begins with the gathering of natural source water samples from all of the eight Portuguese-speaking countries. The individual water samples are to be carried into space aboard a sounding rocket or other suitable launch vehicle where the samples will be exposed to low-gravity in order to mix the waters in a “new way” and in a “different environment”. During space flight, in a highly symbolic gesture, the waters will be combined by the action of several apparatuses. A video camera and downlink antenna integrated into the payload will provide live coverage of the waters floating in zero-g and mixing in space. After an ocean splashdown, the mixed-waters payload of ALMA da AGUA will be recovered by helicopter to be divided in eight equal samples and returned to each departure point at cultural ceremonies in each of the participating countries. These ceremonies will contribute to a greater awareness in all Portuguese-speaking countries of the role that space technology can have in water management, from flood control (using early warning systems) to environmental control of water resources (using a network of low cost sensors). The creation of a permanent group of water technicians using a dedicated computer network connecting the eight countries is a key outcome of this initiative.” See full article:
http://www.arttechnologies.com/site-2005/projects/alma-da-aqua2.html

New Butoh Space Dance – Interstellar Message Composition (NBSD-IMC):
This collaboration between artist, Richard Clar and New Butoh Sensei, Tetsuro Fukuhara has developed a new modality for constructing a message directed towards ETI. Through the use of art and two technologies–Motion Capture and Stereolithography–Clar and Fukuhara propose a novel approach to Interstellar Message Composition. NBSD-IMC is a conceptual artwork whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Music, dance, and artistic concepts are transformed by technology into a binary file--a bodiless string of code that has the capacity to reveal to an Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI), intriguing information about who we are. See full article: http://www.arttechnologies.com/site-2005/projects/new-butoh2.html

Richard Clar website: www.arttechnologies.com

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