nonfunctional satellite

source: paglen

Trevor Paglen’s work deliberately blurs lines between science, contemporary art, journalism, and other disciplines to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to see and interpret the world around us.
Paglen’s visual work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Tate Modern, London; The Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the 2008 Taipei Biennial; the 2009 Istanbul Biennial; the 2012 Liverpool Biennial, and numerous other solo and group exhibitions.
He is the author of five books and numerous articles on subjects including experimental geography, state secrecy, military symbology, photography, and visuality. His most recent book, The Last Pictures is a meditation on the intersections of deep-time, politics, and art.
Paglen has received grants and awards from the Smithsonian, Art Matters, Artadia, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the LUMA foundation, the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, and the Aperture Foundation.
Paglen holds a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley, an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Geography from U.C. Berkeley.
Trevor Paglen lives and works in New York.
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source: artandsciencejournal

Turkey, Protocinema features an installation by artist/astronomer/author Trevor Paglen (previously featured on A&SJ HERE). Perhaps best known for his photographic investigation of the covert operations conducted by government agencies such as the CIA and their covert satellites and offensive military drone program; this new work sees Paglen taking aerospace technologies typically associated with militarism and challenges their ability to exist in a manner at odds with their conventional function, with an emphasis on aesthetics and design.

Prototype for a Nonfunctional Satellite (Design 4; Build 3) 2013, is a sculpture designed to be placed into low-earth orbit and reflect sunlight down to the earth’s surface. Once launched, it would appear as a bright point of light slowly moving across the sky over the course of several months, before burning up in the atmosphere. This spacecraft-cum-art object combines maximum reflectivity with minimum weight, taking the shape of a giant mirror-like sphere.

Paglen ponders what the aerospace engineering industry would look like if its methods were decoupled from the corporate and military interests that currently fund all space endeavors. His nonfunctional satellite recasts the age old question of “art for art’s sake” within a different field and with a different spin, asking whether we can imagine a place for “aerospace engineering for aerospace engineering’s sake.” In doing so, the spacecraft functions as both a critique of the militarization and commercialization of the night sky, and a way to imagine how things could be different.

Founded in 2011, Protocinema is a nonprofit art organization that makes transnational, nomadic exhibitions in Istanbul and New York. Protocinema creates opportunities for emerging and established artists from all regions to realize new work and exhibit existing work in a variety of contexts that are open to the public, and accessible to a wide range of individuals.
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source: timeoutistanbul

‘İşlemeyen bir Uydu için Prototip; tasarım 4, yapım 3’ isimli büyük boyutlu yeni heykel çalışması ile Trevor Paglen’i ağırlıyor bu ay Protocinema. Heykel, aynı zamanda hiçbir ticari ya da askeri ‘işlevi’ olmayan bir uzay aracı, tamamen estetik bir nesne-heykel olarak adlandırılıyor ve formu ve malzemesi ile akla şüphesiz Anish Kapoor’u getiriyor. Eser, ‘Sanat için sanat’ düşüncesine yakın, ama ‘sanat için sanat’ yerine ‘uzay mühendisliği için uzay mühendisliği’ düşüncesini tercih etmiş gibi. Bilginin nasıl ve hangi yollardan yayıldığı ya da yayılmadığını ele alıyor. Öte yandan ise sanatın işlevi ve izleyicisi ile nasıl iletişim kurduğu üzerine bir yoklama çekiyor.