Inertia: Speculative Fossils
Alice Jarry, Guillaume Pascale, Brice Ammar-Khodja, Ariane Plante, Asa Perlman, Philippe Vandal. 2022. Installation of engraved bioplastic surfaces and discs, video, and performance intersecting the disappearance of the Earth in the eye of the Voyager probes with the environmental situation in Montreal-East. Montreal Planetarium, Montreal, Qc, Canada. Curator: Olivier Hernandez.
Speculative Fossils juxtaposes the disappearance of Earth from the view of the Voyager probes with the atmospheric and ecological situation in the east end of Montreal. In 1977, the two Voyager probes were launched into space to study the planets in our Solar System. Symbolically, each one carries a gold-plated copper disk bearing a message intended to represent humanity. It contains images, music, and drawings meant for a hypothetical, intelligent, extraterrestrial life form. Inertia revisits this approach on Earth, using artifacts made from biomaterials — renewable organic matter of plant or animal origin — to reflect today's environmental challenges. The work centres on a bioplastic disk displaying a binary representation of daytime air quality near the petrochemical plants east of Montreal. This becomes the score for the first in a sequence of four musical pieces, composed using this data alongside the calculated distance of the Voyager probes from Earth. A series of laser-engraved biomaterial membranes, along with a film, document this process — suggesting that just as Earth is disappearing from the Voyager probes' view, the living conditions of the planet's inhabitants are becoming increasingly precarious.
Associated event: The Waste Cycle of Planetary Vision Infrastructure
Support: Montreal Planetarium, Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture
Speculative Fossils juxtaposes the disappearance of Earth from the view of the Voyager probes with the atmospheric and ecological situation in the east end of Montreal. In 1977, the two Voyager probes were launched into space to study the planets in our Solar System. Symbolically, each one carries a gold-plated copper disk bearing a message intended to represent humanity. It contains images, music, and drawings meant for a hypothetical, intelligent, extraterrestrial life form. Inertia revisits this approach on Earth, using artifacts made from biomaterials — renewable organic matter of plant or animal origin — to reflect today's environmental challenges. The work centres on a bioplastic disk displaying a binary representation of daytime air quality near the petrochemical plants east of Montreal. This becomes the score for the first in a sequence of four musical pieces, composed using this data alongside the calculated distance of the Voyager probes from Earth. A series of laser-engraved biomaterial membranes, along with a film, document this process — suggesting that just as Earth is disappearing from the Voyager probes' view, the living conditions of the planet's inhabitants are becoming increasingly precarious.
Associated event: The Waste Cycle of Planetary Vision Infrastructure
Support: Montreal Planetarium, Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture
Above: Speculative Fossils video. Below: Speculative Fossils bio-engraved objects.
Performance by Guillaume Pascale, 2022.
Below: Video Stills, 2022.
