INTERPOLAR / API 2006-2009

Monday 16 November 2009 at 8 pm, Kibela - the opening of the INTERPOLAR / API 2006-2009 installation.

INTERPOLAR / API 2006-2009
Installation

Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a non-profit, international group of individuals and organizations whose goal is to promote the creation of open authoring, communications and dissemination infrastructures for the circumpolar region. A major aim of the initiative is to ensure the conditions for North and Arctic people using open source technologies and applied education and training to participate equally and sustainably in acquiring and sharing information on the environment and changes within it, which have been caused by global warming.

The project originates in the Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation initiative. During its active operation in the Antarctic in 2006-2008, the initiative established sustainable conditions for the cooperation of artists, tactical media artists and scientists.
From 2008 onwards, API has been focusing its energy to the Arctic and the northern circumpolar region, which as opposed to the Antarctic are settled by resolute inhabitants and live cultures. The project, which is to last at least a decade, will enable sustainable joint activity and integration of traditional cultures, science, technology, education and art. One of the first activities within the project is to establish a communication network and tools for media creativity based on open source hardware and software. In 2009 an international architecture competition was organised within API to design a ”mobile media-based work and habitation unit”, resulting in submissions from 103 participants from around the world. The development of this mobile unit will continue in 2010, executed between Slovenia and Nunavut federal territory, Canada.

The API initiative is the result of wide cooperation, its beginnings originating in the ten-year Makrolab project operating between 1997 and 2997.
The installation features a presentation of Makrolab project models from the first to the last iteration, as well as LADOMIR system models and visualisations, which were conceived in 2006 for the occasion of the International Polar Year (IPY) by Marko Peljhan, Jan Trošt and Nejc Trošt. Furthermore, screenings are showing documents from Antarctic and Arctic expeditions, including the documentation on remote perception, which was realised in 2009 using unmanned aircraft systems.
The API project is coordinated conceptually by Marko Peljhan and Matthew Biederman. In 2010 it will be present in various forms in the Arctic, in Montreal, London, Slovenia, Dortmund and at ISEA 2010 Ruhr.

More at: www.arcticperspective.org

Production: ZAVOD PROJEKT ATOL
Coproduction: KID KIBLA

The project has been supported by Slovenian Ministry of Culture, European Commission – Culture Programme 2007-2013, The City of Dortmund.

The exhibition is on display until 23 November 2009.