Malina Inter Sculpt 09 Final

L‘appropriation culturel de l'Espace: ou une éthique de la curiosité Roger F Malina Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence (OAMP) Leonardo/OLATS:Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences

Deux confessions: • I am a positivist; Je suis un positiviste – Realist, constructivist – World exists, is knowable – Reliance on the senses and their extensions – Scientific method

• I am an atheist; Je suis athée – Emergence in complex systems

Modèle de Concordance de Cosmologie Big Bang..Re-ionisation..Grandes Structures. Étoiles , Galaxies, Planètes ..la vie

The Dark Universe L’Univers Sombre • Seulement 3% du contenu de l’univers et fait du même type de matière que nous. • Et nos théories de la gravite, d’Einstein, on peut-être besoin d’être revues • Et, Ou ?

Dark Matter: La Matiere Sombre • 30% de l’univers, une matière sombre de nature inconnu, qui est le liant des structures que nous voyons • Invisible a nos télescopes par ce qu’elle n’émet pas de “lumières”

2/3 du contenu de l’univers une ‘énergie sombre” qui domine l’évolution de l’expansion de l’univers

How is scientific curiosity satisfied ? • You can only ask questions about parts of the world that you can « see » – The senses – Their extensions through technology

• You stop asking the question as a scientist when you have a « satifactory » scientific hypothesis – Validation, testing, falsifiable => theories

• Three « kinds » of theories

Three linked approaches within the scientific method that stop curiosity • Explanation through New Physical « Laws »: o o

Compact Descriptions of the World Experiments on the world

• Simulations: o o

Virtual Worlds that mimic our World Retrodiction vs Prediction

• Pattern Recognition: o o o

« Petabyte » era, Massive Cataloguing, Virtual Observatories Doing experiments on data about the world Extrapolation vs Explanation…The End of Theory…

When does one stop looking ? • What is the limit of curiosity ? o

Scientist: When one has a tested explanation that makes sense ( as an extension of current scientific modeling of the world). Universally valid.

o

Artist: When one has generated an experience that creates meaning/changes perception/realised self expression.

o

The Arts have many different functions in society (applies arts, fine arts…) which have evolved over the millenia and in different societies. Locally valid.

Is there an « ethics » of curiosity ? o Science

and the Ethics of Curiosity, Sundar Sarukkai, 2009

o Most

Scientists would say: No

o Most

Artists would say:

Yes

Curiosity as a driver of technology:

“Most” of the content of the Universe is “unobservable” • Not observable with unaided human senses • Not observable with existing technologies: – Augmented senses – Extended Senses – New senses

• Not observable because of measurement method • Theoretically unobservable • Conceptually Unobservable

Sensory paradox: • Most of our information about the universe now comes in ways, contexts where we have no basis for intuition, language, metaphorical frameworks. • These devices « hallucinate » in ways with which we have no experience. How to do « ground truth » experiments ?

• How to decide what to be curious about ?

New Senses:

Gravitational Wave Observatories LIGO in USA VIRGO in Italy

New senses:

The Antares Neutrino Observatory under the Mediterranean

Scientific Curiosity • Scientific curiosity is ‘pure’, driven by a child like desire to understand ourselves and the world around us o

Pure Science vs Applied Science

• Curiosity does not accept authority, but relies on confrontation of hypotheses/meanings with experiments/experience. o o

No function of ‘science critic’ cf ‘art critic” Impact of a scientific theory vs impact of a masterpiece of art

Ethos of Scientific Curiosity cf Bunge 2006, Morton

• Intellectual Honesty • Integrity • Epistemic Communism • Organized skepticism • Dis-interestedness • Impersonality • Universality

Is Artistic Curiosity is different ? cf Sundar Sarukkai: Science and the Ethics of Curiosity 2009

• Curiosity is embodied • Curiosity is enacted • Curiosity is cultural • Curiosity is social • Curiosity is collective • “Beware of binary oppositions” !

• Is scientific curiosity really so different ?

Curiosity is embodied: Varela:

All knowledge is conditioned by the structure of the knower Stelarc

Char Davies

Kitsou Dubois: Vols Parabolique

Curiosity is enactive eg Marcel.li Antunez Roca Richard Feynman: What I cannot create, I cannot understand

Ansuman Biswas Russian Cosmonaut training center

Curiosity is Social Marco Peljham and Makrolab

Curiosity is Cultural

Saint Augustine:

It was curiosity led me along the false trails before submitting to christian baptisms Francis Bacon: It is Charity that must motivate the knower, not curiosity

Donna Cox

Weather Data Bases

Ruth West Protein Sequence Data

Arthur Woods: Cosmic Dancer In MIR space station

Exposition « data art » de 40 artistes lancer sur satellite Japonais SPRITE=SAT 2009

Curiosity is collective: Frank Malina/WAC corporal team: first man man object in space 1947

•

Alan Lightman:

• Individual scientists are not emotionally detached from their work, it is through their collective activity that objectivity emerges

Modern Science doesn’t make common sense • New scientific knowledge comes through the use of instruments that have contact with a world that is not our world Our languages, metaphors, descriptions are disconnected from these worlds o We are trained on the wrong data set for survival o

• Science has become a cargo cult

Embodiment • Einstein: • The universe of ideas is just as independent of the nature of our experience as clothes are of the form of the human body”

L’espace en tant que “terrain” pour les artistes

• Forming intuition on mediated sensory data • Designing/Interacting with simulated systems • Making sense/meaning of dense data, petabyte era

•Making Science Intimate, Peoples Science, Micro Science • New Ontologies, New Intuitions, New Sensuality, Myths and Metaphors…

Curiosity: D’ou venons nous ? Que Sommes Nous ? Ou Allons Nous ?

Ethics of Curiosity: “the nature of the task of the “ought’ is the other-directedness of the “is”

ITACCUS • Committee technique de La Federation International d’Astronautique • IAF Technical Activities Committee for the Cultural Utilisation of Space: ITACCUS • Promovoir l’utilisation de « l’espace » par les professionnels des arts et des humanities • Systèmes( satellites), Donnees,Technologies • Comment créer une « culture spatiale »

Nous savons ce que c’est un “paysagiste”, mais nous n’avons aucune idée de ce que sera un art spatiale 1904 Cezanne 2004 Kitsou Dubois

Merci ! • Email: [email protected] • Sites web: – www.oamp.fr Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence – – www.olats.fr Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Techosciences • « Space Arts Data Base »