Agnes Meyer-Brandis: Media art grant of the State of NRW 2009

Agnes Meyer-Brandis, artist, director of Research Raft FFUR u.V. speaks about her bio-poetic “Moon Goose Experiment”, Thomas W. Grau, European Research Center for Fireballs and Meteorites (ERFM), German Fireball Network, talks about fireball events. A telescope session will follow - please bring your own telescopes if available!

DIE NEUEN FERNEN
http://www.ffur.de/DieNeuenFernen

an event by the Research Raft for Subterranean Reefology u.V. FFUR and HMKV Dortmund
17th October 2009, 18:00, HMKV Dortmund

When Fireballs are falling from the sky (Wenn Feuerkugeln vom Himmel fallen)
Thomas W. Grau, European Research Center for Fireballs and Meteorites (ERFM), German Fireball Network, www.erfm.eu

It always begins with an eye witness: "You won`t believe what I saw today. An enormous fireball, so brightly burning over the sky … ". Thomas Grau, a specialist for fireball events and meteorite search in Europe, gets activated by these sporadically emerging descriptions, in order to collect and document scientifically usable data about those events.

The Moon Goose Experiment - a bio-poetic investigation
Agnes Meyer-Brandis, artist and head of the Research Raft for Subterranean Reefology u.V. (FFUR), www.ffur.de

For many years Agnes Meyer Brandis, founder of the FFUR, has been exploring phenomena in extreme depths and altitudes. She will report about the experiments and research projects of her institute and present the "Moon Goose Experiment" which took place during the Total Solar Eclipse on Agust 1st 2008 in Novosibirsk, Siberia, in order to examine the migration behavior of moon geese.

After the presentations there will be time for questions and open discussion of themes arising from the symposium.

Telescope Session
The evening will end with a view into the "new depths". With a telescope of the observatory Bochum we have the possibility to observe craters on the moon and other points in space. Everyone is cordially invited, if available, to bring along their own telescope or similar equipment.

Generously supported by the Sternwarte Bochum

Agnes Meyer-Brandis

born 1973 in Aachen, Germany, studied mineralogy for a year, then transfered to the Art Academy in Maastricht, the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the Cologne Media Art Academy. She comes from a background of both sculpture and new media art. Her work, exhibited worldwide, is at the experimental edge of art and science, exploring the zone between fact and fiction, fantasy and technology. She is working with participatory urban interventions. Her current research focus is on public places and situations as well as imaginary ones. Agnes Meyer-Brandis is the founder of the “Forschungsfloss FFUR / Research Raft for Subterranean Reefology“, a small institute whose chief aim is to explore and confirm subterranean phenomena and unknown lifeforms. In 2007 she realized an artistic experiment in weightlessness in cooperation with the German Space Agency DLR. Her research focus extended into the opposite direction - she is now probing layers of reality very deep down and since then also very high up and realizing comparative studies.

Further information at: http://www.ffur.de

Agnes Meyer-Brandis is the recipent of the media art grant of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalia 2009. Comprehensive information about the grant of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalia for media artists from NRW can be found at http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/d_institution_stipendium/ (German) http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_institution_grant/ (English)

Fig. from top to bottom: Agnes Meyer-Brandis working in microgravity, CCS Experiment 2007 // Fireball with trail (Belgien 2004), ERFM Picture // Thomas Grau while finding the small but important meteorite on the island Lolland, March 2009 // Investigation of the meteorite impact crater, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Jekaterinburg, Russia, 2009