ARTLAB10 "polar"

Artists: Carsten Nicolai and Marko Peljhan

Date: October 28(sat)-November 6(mon)
11:00-21:00(till 19:00 on the last day)*reservation needed.
call ARTLAB(03-5410-3611) (8 participants can interact in one hour)

Location: Hillside Plaza(29-10 Sarugaku-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)
????*basement of the parking lot of Hillside Terrace, Daikanyama

http://www.canon.co.jp/cast/
("polar"info. appears in early October)

*Artists' lecture:
November 2(thu) 19:00-21:00 at ARTLAB in Roppongi
(in English with Japanese translation). Reservation needed.

-For further information, please contact:
Canon ARTLAB, DK Bldg.5F, 7-18-23 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 Japan
e-mail: polar@cast.canon.co.jp
Tel: 81-3-5410-3611

+ + +

ARTLAB* presents "polar," a new work collaborated by Carsten Nicolai
(Germany) and Marko Peljhan(Slovenia), and ARTLAB for the 10th Original
Exhibition.

- A collaboration of Nicolai and Peljhan, both attracting attention
worldwide "Polar" is a new work done in collaboration by Carsten Nicolai
and Marko Peljhan with ARTLAB. Nicolai has been active working worldwide
on "sound" as wave-shaped data, sound installation through crystallized
structures produced by the natural ecosystems, objects, paintings, live
performances and CD. Peljhan is an artist pioneering the field of
research into telecommunication environments, such as
intercepting/dispatching electric or signal waves and their mapping,
reflection. In the case of "polar," it is the first time that
"Nicolai-Peljhan" collaborates on a full-scale media art project.

- What are unknown poles in information space? The word "polar" defines
primarily two opposite ends, +(plus) and -(minus). However, in the case
of this new work, the question about a research method and their
materialization in today's information environment are the primary field
of interest; how humans can approach unknown environment as in a polar
probe. The aim of "polar" is to have inquirers themselves trying to find
out how the following fields are interrelated: sensory visible
information(such as microorganism), formation and changing process of
invisible information(such as sound), and collecting keywords related to
the "polar" knowledge base from the Internet(we name it "dictionary," an
intelligent information search system*) which is totally different from
the former two types of information. In this work, each participant is
expected to individually investigate the unknown and seamless
environment by relating to each visible, tactile and audible element in
the space/time.

- One of the starting ideas of "polar" by Nicolai-Peljhan comes from
"Solaris" (196l) by the Polish SF writer Stanislaw Lem, and "Solaris"
(1972), a film adapted