Invisible Dust
Pollution level: Moderate
Turner nomination for Elizabeth Price in space residency
© Elizabeth Price, WEST HINDER, Production still, courtesy of the artist and MOTInternational 2012
Elizabeth Price who is currently in residence at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory with Space Scientist Dr Hugh Mortimer is one of four artists who have just been nominated for the most prestigious art prize in the UK, the Turner Prize 12.
The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist, under the age of 50, considered to have put on the best exhibition of the last 12 months and is presented at the Tate Britain in December. Price has been nominated for her exhibition HERE at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead curated by Alessandro Vincentelli showing three films USER GROUP DISCO, 2009, CHOIR, 2012 and WEST HINDER, 2012 which runs until 27th May 2012.
Elizabeth Price has started in the first ever artist in residence with the RAL Space laboratory. This residency has been planned by Invisible Dust curator Alice Sharp with scientist Dr Hugh Mortimer is supported by the Leverhulme Trust.
Elizabeth Price whose artwork often recreates environments or draws from historical archives will spend 8 months in his laboratory and in the RAL archive exploring how the Space Science is presented and Dr Mortimer’s research into Space dust (aerosols) and satellite instrumentation. Dr Mortimer’s work encompasses developing cutting edge Earth observation satellite systems to measure sea surface temperature crucial to our understanding of climate change, one of the most interesting and controversial areas of science
Price will use the residency to explore the metaphorical, formal and technical parallels between her artistic work and Dr Mortimer’s space research.
Writers, artists and filmmakers from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke to Stanley Kubrick have been inspired by space and our place in the Universe. Many other Space research organisations have created artists’ residencies such as NASA’s space programme; which has included artists Laurie Anderson and Tomas Saraceno.
Invisible Heat
We are planning a schools programme to accompany Elizabeth Price’s residency at RAL. Invisible Heat will provide young people with an imaginative and stimulating way of engaging with Space science and Climate Change.
The young people will learn about Dr Mortimer’s research which has been instrumental in the deployment of the SISTeR (Scanning Infrared Sea Surface Temperature Radiometer) instrument, on the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship installed in 2010. The SISTeR measurement is being used to validate measurements of sea surface temperature from satellites such as the RAL designed infrared radiometer flown on the Envisat spacecraft.
(See: http://www.stfc.ac.uk/RALSpace/Areas+of+expertise/Earth+Observation/19759.aspx )
