Whit its second chapter, the multimedia project Hemelliggaam by Tommaso Fiscaletti and Nic Grobler carries on with its ambitious attempt of giving substance (if images have such a property) to hardly expressible concepts, as the relationship between man and universe, the worldly and the celestial perspectives on life, and ultimately our need to understand and our desire, somehow inconsistent, to transcend reality. But how to convey something that is essentially invisible? Each photograph or video then become the peak of a story, which originates in the artists’ mind and later on, just as in an experiment, looks for confirmation and actualization in the real world. The result is a series of dense and layered images that demand for a deep and slow reading and lead to a paradoxical — and yet done on purpose — short circuit with the second part of the title: Or The Attempt To Be Here Now. For the two artists, "to be here now" has in fact an ambiguous significance: on the one hand it refers to the imperative meaning of hic et nunc, which in Heiddegger is then applied to man’s observation of himself while facing his own existence; on the other hand it has a more spiritualistic — although yet philosophical — interpretation, where man is an impermanent part of a whole which he constantly craves to reconnect with. In this experiment, philosophy is involved just indirectly, though, since the main tools of the study are science and science–fiction. The former provides for solid methodological foundation, hence the collaboration with the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of the Western Cape. After all South Africa, where all the work is set, is one of the world’s most suitable places to observe the sky thanks to its virtually absent light pollution: this is where one of the two parts of SKA, the world’s biggest radiotelescope, would be born, and where astronomy is almost a national hobby.
Hemelliggaam: when man scans the universe (and viceversa) through pictures
Science and science–fiction join forces in an ambitious four–handed art project.
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- Raffaele Vertaldi
- 20 June 2020
But it’s the latter that one should turn to in order to convey with more communicative effectiveness — and so to make more understandable — a research that literally deals with celestial objects. "Heavenly body" is in fact the translation of the Afrikaans term Hemelliggaam, and it’s exactly from the language and the words of two South African science–fiction writers that Fiscaletti and Grobler, both based in Cape Town, start with their exploration. And this is where the things become even more interesting, as science–fiction has always been one of the most active literary voices in depicting social and political conditions that is often dangerous or impossible to write about and, though the lens of paradoxical projections, the well–known dystopia, or more or less complex logical substitutions that the recourse to fantasy makes credible, has several times actively promoted questions, denunciations and, in best cases, change. The science–fiction novels by an anti–nationalist like Jan Rabie and a nonconformist like C.J. Langenhoven then provide for another solid foundation to the project, and allow it to acquire a component of sociopolitical reflection, which is now quite essential: if man places himself as one of the two poles where the other one is the Universe, it’s exactly within the man himself that a more disruptive dichotomy takes place, where the “other than himself” — the other which is seen with suspect, which frightens and ends up even to be charged and taken to trial — is not the alien from an unarmed however disturbing literature but the man himself, the brother with a different skin color, the compatriot which has been first conquered, then ghettoized and finally feared anyway. The exhibition of Hemelliggaam set for 2020 has been made impossible due to the anti–Covid measures, but for the time being it is “open” as an intriguing virtual online installation that, while somehow enhancing its retro vibe, also well renders the complexity of a large–scale and far–reaching archive, which will be concluded in 2021 with its third and last chapter (curated, as the previous, by Filippo Maggia).
This giraffe taxidermy was at the entrance, in the first room of the (Chapter One) exhibition. Most visitors, especially children were spellbound and immediately attracted by its sheer size and magnificence. We started referring to it as ‘God’ after a while - soon realising that there is no competition or comparison to the presence of this tall, impressive yet comical creature.
Quagga were all wiped out by pioneer hunters in Southern Africa during the 19th century. They were a subspecies of Zebra basically similar in appearance, with wider stripes that disappear towards the back of their bodies. In 1987 a programme started to try and resurrect the Quagga using selective breeding. Those found on the grounds of the iThemba Lab (the largest facility of Africa for particle and nuclear research) is part of this ongoing programme.
The study on the response of cells to neutron irradiation is a crucial aspect for the feasibility of future human mission in space.
'So once the particle reach their maximum energy, then, they get extracted again, and get sent down to wherever we want them to go, for experiments or isotope production.' Dr Ricky Smit is showing a schematic representation of the principle of acceleration of the charged particle through the Separated Section Cyclotron (SSC) at iThemba LABS.
‘My three books are all about time, in them time becomes plastic, malleable, time becomes a thing which people can use as a weapon, time becomes a thing like where you can play a leapfrog war, you leap ahead in time, you get there earlier than the guy you are trying to destroy, you wait and when he pops out of sub metric space into metric space you zap him! That is where time becomes a theatre of war.’
'I have to agree that it is not only our world - it is such a vast area, it is a never ending story… where do you stop, where do you begin? Once again it makes you feel very humble.’ Jurg Wagener, Star Gazer
Salpeterkop (Saltpetre Hill) was an active volcano around 66 million years ago – estimated as the last one in Southern Africa. It is interesting to note that about 2 km of its original height has been eroded down, so we are seeing at a level 'deep in the throat of the volcano'. The remains of this volcano is visible from the SALT (South African Large Telescope) site near sutherland.
The name Tswaing means "place of salt" in Tswana and the crater was also formerly known in English as Pretoria Saltpan crater and in Afrikaans as Soutpankrater. The meteorite was probably about the size of a an average house and it would have taken no more than 10 seconds to slam into the ground after entering the Earth's atmosphere, releasing the energy of about 100 Hiroshima atom bombs. Life within a 35 kilometre radius would have been wiped out.
‘Well there is a big mark in time, Soutpan, Tswaing. I don’t know how many million people would die if it would happen today but it was 200 000 years ago. I forget the size of the meteorite - a few thousand tons, and it threw up this central point and a ring of hills. There are legends - nobody will go there at night. It’s called the hills of the spirits.’ Tom Learmont, Sci-fi Writer, Johannesburg
'…we know we have lost contact with the Earth, and that the Sun became invisible behind us. But just in this moment Lieutenant Viljee’s observations proved that we are not at the height of Uranus - but that of Jupiter! Still at 140,000km but it is so big that we can observe the horizon, even the famous red circle on its surface. This means we are busy flying inwards into the solar system - in other words, back to Earth.' Series inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. Sci-fi Novel about a future human race that has to live in a solar system where the Sun has gone dark. Translated from Afrikaans to English.
Some of the evidence remaining of the old main route to Sutherland - these lines of rocks can be seen from the R354 currently in use. The inside of the old road seems to have fully restored over time, looking exactly the same as the fynbos surrounding it. We were wondering if the same fate awaits the R354.
“Sarie, loving, loving child. Listen. I am what you can become, and you are what I want to become.” Eva Stellaris to Sarie Photograph inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. (Translated from the original Afrikaans)
‘When I was a young girl, we didn’t have telescopes. We had small binoculars mostly because it was after the world war. Today there are so many telescopes - and they are amazing. From this little size from where you could see the moon and the planets to that big one over there where you can see literally everything.’ Jess van Elferen, Shopkeeper, Telescope Shop, Brakpan, Gauteng.