The recent discovery of water on the moon has refocused society’s imagination on our nearest celestial neighbour. The title of the panel refers to the seminal 1958 novel Destination Moon by Robert Heinlein, which helped develop the popular mythology of the Moon.

The Moon Goose Experiment

The drawnings and texts written by artist have been compilated into a binded book,  available here. The book and the drawnings were exhibited for the first time in Kiasma Mediatheque during the spring 2009.

Mireia C. Saladrigues in Kiasma Mediatheque, Helsinki.

Zoolar Eclipse will be exhibited in EspaiDos, Sala Municunill in Terrassa, Spain, from 12th novembre until 13th december, 2009. It forms part of a series of exhibitions under the theme Kairós, Moments of clarity.

Capsula´s second expedition is being prepared during the summer months and will be announced as an open call in the next days. This time the expeditioners will be chosen through an open call for artists in Finland and Estonia, and will be part of Finnish Turku, the European Capital of Culture 2011 -activities. More about the open call and the subject of the next expedition within the next days in www.capsula.org.es

Parallely the second expedition preparations, the Eclipse show is looking for a new venues to be exhibited, if you / your institution are interested, please contact with Capsula! Also talks by curator and the artists about the experience and results can be organized within festivals, seminars and other events. Small portfolio about the exhibition.

Just because the fixed gear rider gets to work first – does it count as the best commuting method if he or she is so sweaty and out of breath he needs a shower? If the slow cyclist comes in minutes later but doesn’t need to clean up, is that really the faster method? And what about if the fixie rider saves their morning shower until they get into work (keeping in mind they’ve got to get home too…)?

I for one have never really bought into the need for fancy bikes in an urban setting – after all, theft is usually rampant, and I’d rather keep my head up than sacrifice vision for streamlining. Better 5 minutes late, sweat-free and alive than on time, sweaty and, errm, dead. I’d love to hear from our bike commuters out there – what do you ride and why? And is slow cycling the new fast? ( by Sami Grover, USA)

Tommi Taipale, Siiri Anttila, Selja Eskonen and Heikki Tuorila cycling in Russia. Photo: Tommi Taipale

We don´t have any records of the Moon Geese after their Helsinki Observatory visit last June. The small video about the Eclipse Happening is being edited at the moment and will be published online later this summer/autumn.

Junta de Extremadura and Shelios expedition will offer a direct broadcast of the eclipse in:

http://www.eclipsesolar.es/live.html

Agnes and the Moon Geese on their stop in Helsinki, URSA observatory

The first exhibition of the new artworks born in the Expedition to the Total Eclipse will finalize next week, 7th June. To celebrate that and also the end of Pixelache Season09 before the summer, Eclipse Happening will be performed on 4th June, 2009. To start with, Agnes Meyer-Brandis and professor of Observatory of Helsinki, Tapio Markkanen will give their presentations in Kiasma Theatre at 15 pm. The focus is in space traveling and in eclipses from art and science perspectives. After, the MoonWalk Workshop for Humans and Moon Geese will take place in the same stage of Kiasma Theatre. Dance teacher Milla Koistinen leads this playful session accompanied by remix collection of Michael Jackson´s Billie Jean, featured by French artist Jean-Baptiste Bayle.

From Kiasma we invite people to join us for an urban expedition to Kaivopuisto. The expedition will be done by feet and partially by tram. We will pass by the library of Rikhardinkatu, the Faculty of Astronomy of University of Helsinki and some other relevant places. Once in the URSA observatory in Kaivopuisto, we can enjoy of russian music played by guitar and sung by Punch, russian snacks and view how the famous Moon Geese by Agnes Meyer-Brandis fly to the Moon  in URSA portable planetarium. The relaxed astronomical evening continues around the observartory and hopefully the sky is clear so all can observe the Sun by the telescope.

The event is organised by Pixelache and Capsula.

Thank you for Finnish Ministry of Education, Goethe Institute, HIAP, URSA, Kiasma Theatre for their support.

- Spaceship Earth -Art, Science & Ecology -seminar- in Finland / Helsinki / Lasipalatsi

Programme:

12:00-13:00 Ulla Taipale (FI/ES): Capsula / Expedition to the Total Eclipse

13:00-14:00 Terike Haapoja (FI): On art, environmental ethics and technology

14:00-15:00 Anu Osva (FI): Ars Bioarctica / 80+1 Kilpisjärvi Climate Change

15:00-16:00 Climate Hack / Pachube / Helsingin Energia: work in progress

16:00-17:00 Tapio Mäkelä (FI): Ecolocatedness: Art and Science Practice as Situated Information Design

The discussions are moderated by artist Terike Haapoja (FI) and Pixelache programme director Juha Huuskonen (FI).

Festival visitors are welcome to visit URSA astronomical observatory in Kaivopuisto Park to observe the starry sky or/and solar phenomena.

Timetable:

2-5 April, 21-23 pm Star viewing (depending on the weather conditions)

Sat 4 April 21-23 pm Star viewing (garantised, in any weather conditions)

Sun 5 April 13-15 pm Sun viewing (if the sky is clear)

If you want to confirm the session in advance, call to 09 653 505.

The objective is to bring together artists and scientists to work at the intersection of different disciplines, but the results are art works and don’t have to contribute to scientific studies about natural phenomena. What we would like them to contribute is to the recognition of small and big miracles of nature and consciousness about its extraordinariness.

The Moon Goose Experiment -project by Agnes Meyer-Brandis launch a spaceship leadered by 13 moon geese towards to the Moon. The catalonian astronomer group, Agrupació Astrònomica de Sabadell, found this special moon expedition group in their video recordings navigating towards to the Moon at the moment of the total solar eclipse, at 10.46 (UT). During the eclipse these astronomers were in Novosibirsk region, to do a research for the European Section of IOTA, International Occultation Timing Association.  Using the measurements taken during the eclipse they are aiming at calculating the diameter of the sun.

We are very grateful for Carles Schnabel, Angel Massallé and Antoni Selva from Agrupació Astrònomica de Sabadell for the rights to  use their scientific video footage as a part of the work of Agnes, shown in Kiasma Mediatheque.