Exploring the idea of geomorphology, mathematics and understanding the world, Morphogenesis requires audience to be sentient, not just receivers. It invites the viewer to a poetic and sensational world, where space becomes infinity, the primal sense of the immaterial world is experienced and the process of creation is reevaluated.

Morphogenesis is part of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival, that screens a selection of the most outstanding animated works honored by the Prix Ars Electronica jury in recognition of their substantive and stylistic quality. This lineup impressively gets across how the genre itself has flourished of late and the extent to which it now pervades our everyday life.

The work was specifically conceived for zero gravity and was not brought from Earth: it was made in space by Pesquet following the artist’s instructions. The artwork was made from materials already available in the space station. It consists of a form that has neither top nor bottom, neither front nor back. Viewed from a certain angle, it reveals the French word MOI (meaning “me”, or “myself”); from another point of view one sees a human figure with its umbilical cord cut.

This MOI stands for the collective self, evoking humanity, and the umbilical cord cut represents our liberation from gravitational limits. Inner Telescope is an instrument of observation and poetic reflection, which leads us to rethink our relationship with the world and our position in the Universe.

Credits

Inner Telescope is made possible by the Observatoire de l’Espace, the art-science lab of the French Space Agency, with the generous support of the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Daniel et Nina Carasso Foundation.

www.ekac.org

Each player is issued with a spaceship; then they see who can gather the most rubbish floating around in an asteroid belt. The project’s mission is to raise awareness of the growing problem of space debris, though not by inducing a state of collective melancholy; the approach here is gaming fun produced by a program developed especially for Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center. Maybe future players will find a solution to this very real problem. It remains to be seen whether the creators and the players aren’t indirectly contributing to the space-junk debacle!

Credits

Schüler der 6. Klassen, WPG Informatik: Jonas Dierneder, Johannes Dorfwirth, Paul Langeder, Maximilian Leitner, Lukas Oppenauer

Coach: DI Gerald Landl