Angelo Vermeulen, SEEKER [LJ4]

Seeker [LJ4 has been developed by an artist and biologist Angelo Vermeulen in collaboration with Slovenian and international artists, designers, futurists, hackers and ecologists.

Seeker is a worldwide series of co-created starship sculptures that evolve over time. At its core, Seeker is a community art project that invites people to fundamentally rethink the future of human habitation and survival.
Instead of keeping the various functions connected to life support, work and leisure separated, the Seeker community sets out to create integrated, closed systems that favour hybridization and encourage sustainability. This is achieved by radically interconnecting technology, ecology and people, while at the same time tapping into local traditions.

The project Seeker [LJ4] has been evolving in Ljubljana since November and opened to the public on Friday 13rd December 2013. It will be on view at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana until 23rd January 2014. .

This is a production of Projekt Atol Institute in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana.

Angelo Vermeulen is an artist, biologist, space systems researcher, and community organizer. In his work he ties together technological, ecological, and social systems through group engagement and collaboration. 'Biomodd' is one of his most well-known art projects and consists of a worldwide series of interactive art installations in which computers and ecology coexist. In 2009 he launched 'Space Ecologies Art and Design (SEAD)', a platform for artistic research on the architectures and ethics of space colonization. 'Seeker' is one of the resulting projects involving co-created starship sculptures that evolve over time. He is a member of the European Space Agency Topical Team Arts & Science (ETTAS), and was the crew commander of the NASA-funded 2013 HI-SEAS Mars simulation in Hawaii. His space-related work led him to start a new PhD at Delft University of Technology, developing paradigm-shifting concepts for evolvable starships.


The programme of Projekt Atol Institute is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana. We are also grateful to Snaga Ltd. and Jaša & his Lovest team for kindly donating the materials we have reused and integrated into the Seeker [LJ4].

Archive:

Seeker [LJ4] isolation mission

Six artists and their colleagues will live in isolation inside the Seeker [LJ4] starship sculpture at Moderna galerija Ljubljana from February 9 through the 12th. During this 'isolation mission' they will test the structure that was co-created in December by a Slovenian and international crew. They will explore the psychological consequences of living isolated in a small space with limited resources. Crew members will conduct personal research projects such as food experiments, hydroponics, 3D design, and will engage in critical discussions on interstellar voyaging.

The crew consists of three men and three women - from Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Belgium:
Kaja Avberšek (SI): designer, illustrator
Ondřej Bělica (CZ): architecture student
Igor Križanovskij (SI): designer
Maruša Kuk (SI): mathematician, educator
Monika Pocrnjić (SI): artist, educator
Angelo Vermeulen (BE): artist, space systems researcher