A commemoration of the 40th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon with Eduardo Kac’ and Jacob Ter Veldhuis’ poet intermix of art and science in historic and contemporary narratives of the imagined and man made.
GENERAL
Video still from Jacob TV’s video oratorio, “Paradiso”, video by Jaap Drupsteen
June 10 – September 14, 2009: Eduardo Kac, bio-artist and Ars Electronica Golden Nica 2009 winner, and renowned avant pop composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis open at the Streaming Museum on June 10, 2011, in an exhibition, “On the Moon and Beyond”. Streaming Museum (streamingmuseum.org) is a new hybrid museum that presents exhibitions in cyberspace and public space on seven continents.
Within the context of the 40th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, Eduardo Kac and Jacob Ter Veldhuis poetically intermix art and science in historic and contemporary narratives of the imagined and man made.
Eduardo Kac is a Brazilian-born artist living in the US who is known for his 1999 groundbreaking transgenic artwork Genesis, and attracted global attention in 2000 with “GPF” Bunny” known as Alba, the fluorescent green rabbit. Kac is exhibiting in Streaming Museum a new transgenic work, “Natural History of the Enigma” – a plantimal called “Edunia”, that is a genetically-engineered flower hybrid of the artist and Petunia. The work is a poetic reflection on the contiguity of life between different species. In the context of the celebration of man’s first walk on the moon 40 years ago, the philosophy of “Natural History of the Enigma” further stimulates the imagination to ponder what other life forms might exist or be created beyond earth. The work has received the Golden Nica 2009 – the highest award given at the Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s premier cyberarts competition. Held annually by Ars Electronica, the international center for digital art and media culture in Linz, Austria, it is a barometer of the trends in media art.
Jacob Ter Veldhuis (“JacobTV”), Dutch avant pop composer is one of the most performed European composers with hundreds of performances and broadcasts worldwide each year. He created the video oratorio “Paradiso” with video artist Jaap Drupsteen which premiered under extraordinary circumstances in the Helpman Centrale power plant on September 12, 2001. The third book of the “Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, “Paradise”, was the source of inspiration for this large-scale work for orchestra, soprano, tenor, choir and sampler. Three movements are featured in Streaming Museum which weave Dante’s medieval world-view of the heavens with multi-media samplings of Apollo astronauts on the moon. The oratorio is performed by the North Netherlands Orchestra and Concert Choir conducted by Alexander Liebreich, with Claron McFadden, soprano and Tom Allen, Tenor. Jacob TV is preoccupied with American media and world events and draws raw material from those sources. His work is a colorful mix of high and low culture, that combines an explosive strength and raw energy with intricate architectural design, and incorporates sound bytes from contemporary culture such as political speeches, commercials, interviews, talk shows, Tvangelists.
On July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body. Six hours after landing at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining), Neil A. Armstrong took the “Small Step” into our greater future when he stepped off the Lunar Module, named “Eagle,” onto the surface of the Moon, from which he could look up and see Earth in the heavens as no one had done before him. He was shortly joined by “Buzz” Aldrin, and the two astronauts spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned 46 pounds of lunar rocks. After their historic walks on the Moon, they successfully docked with the Command Module “Columbia,” in which Michael Collins was patiently orbiting the cold but no longer lifeless Moon. (http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/introduction.htm)