The Institute of Unnecessary Research presents e-MobLArt — Exhibition of the European Mobile Lab for Interactive Media Artists following a one year collaboration :: May 20 – June 10, 2009 :: Opening: May 20; 8:00 pm :: Center for Contemporary Art – Warehouse B1, Thessaloníki, Greece.

The exhibition includes two projects involving Anna Dumitriu: KryoLab is an installation that brings together bioart, ice sculpture and sound, in an investigation of delicate relationships in the Arctic ecosystem. This work is about our journey, the experience of participating in the E-MobiLArt project, working with artists from other backgrounds and travelling to new locations. Initial discussions about the nature of arctic, the sound of cracking ice, the disintegration of ice with sound, and the bacterial flora of the Arctic, discussed under the hot Athens sun at the first workshop gained momentum during long nights of conversation illuminated by the cool midnight sun at the edge of the Arctic Circle. The group shared ideas and skills, from a knowledge of ice carving and wildlife filmmaking to sound, composition, performance, installation and microbiology. The work is strongly related to the science and physicality of the arctic

Links were made with scientists working in Rovaniemi and which drove the investigations. John Moore (Professor of Climate Change, University of Lapland) explained how the Kryosphere (world of ice) is changing and how complex climate data (collected from ice cores which are thousands of years old) is studied. Dr Minna Männistö (Arctic Microbiology Research Group, Finnish Forestry Institute METLA) showed us the new strains of Arctic soil bacteria that she has discovered and explained more about the behaviour of these slow growing psychrophiles, and why they are being studied.

Dr Männistö supplied the team with 17 samples of Arctic soil bacteria and a recipe for culture medium that is far more effective for growing new strains from. Back in Brighton, UK, Anna Dumitriu worked with her long-term collaborator Dr John Paul to further investigate the behaviour of these, often brightly coloured, organisms and photograph them. These investigations form the inspiration for sculptures (containing the genuine individual bacterial strains) carved in Arctic Ice by Antti Tenetz. These beautiful and mysterious Psycrophiles will not survive at body temperature and are therefore completely harmless to humans. But they are important regulators and indicators of climate.

Professor Moore explained his research into ice and climate and spoke about the use of wavelet graphs to visually analyse and study various ecological data collected in the Arctic. Large-scale climate change is made visible to us through the melting glaciers that transform the polar ice plateaux because of the easy reactivity of the ice. Change is more obvious on poles predicting changes to come in more populated regions.

The magic and uniqueness of this disappearing arctic landscape called sound artist Dave Lawrence back in the winter months, to get first hand experience of real Arctic Circle conditions and learn from Antti Tenetz’s expertise. During this period Lawrence and Tenetz ran a series of small experiments with the sound of snow and ice (including transformations), even forming a performance instrument from the frozen carcass of a reindeer. The culmination of this research visit was marked by the revelation of a mysterious phenomenon little known outside the arctic region, that ice consumes objects, swallowing anything casually standing there for too long.

Vienna Underground/Third Woman: The Project is launched from Vienna’s Karlsplatz U-Bahn site, to display and publicise the interactive film-game that we have scripted and produced in Vienna. The scenarios communicate universal issues, adding to a global conversation on migration, the black economy and the underground world of cities.

Using cutting-edge mobile technologies to read QR and Datamatrix codes, we are inviting participants to engage in a game on their personal mobiles with a biologic concept where the user might gather immunity, through participating in scenarios created to reflect on the mythic contagion of MIASMA. This is experienced through an interactive film, based on reworking the theme of the THIRD MAN for the 21st century. Audiovisual materials will then be sent to participants’ mobile phones through a number of associated barcode reading technologies, depending on their locations in the subway.

A Mixed Performance Delivery of a combined Mobile Game, Multiscreen Narrative and Costume Performance, for spaces at the Karlsplatz U-Bahn Passage in Vienna using mobile technologies. The specially filmed videos of the project will be exhibited in Thessaloniki and Katowice.