By Tuğçe Karataş
Founded by Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet, AATB studio conceives, develops and produces workshops, objects and installations. Investigating the potential of robotics to exist outside the realm of factory floors, the studio operates at the intersection of art, design and technology.
As part of 4th Istanbul Design Biennial – A School of Schools, the installation by AATB titled EYESS ISStanbul is placed atop the Scales Schools Satellite Venue, The Marmara Pera*. The installation tracks down the movements of the International Space Station (ISS) while producing a locally induced global online map. The duo invites audiences to join a website where everyone can follow the ISS and see who is currently looking at it. As it allows us to take the time to look up, the project also creates a perfect opportunity to talk about time and scale, learning, collaborations, and a constant change of perspectives. During their time in Istanbul, we had a conversation with AATB about the project as well as their interest in space, time, Overview effect and Pale Blue Dot.
Tuğçe Karataş: Can you briefly tell us about your educational background and how it affected your current practice?
ATTB: Thibault started studying physics and engineering, but switched to graphic design and followed up with visual arts. Andrea studied graphic design and art direction. What we are doing today is not really related with what we studied, but we always had a habit of picking up new tools and techniques. Countless nights spent watching YouTube tutorials and PDFs found on the internet, that’s mostly how we learnt everything we do now: welding, machining, electronics design or industrial robotics, it’s all out there.
TK: How does your project as a part of 4th Istanbul Design Biennial relate to this year’s theme, A School of Schools?
ATTB: Since a couple of years we have been running informal astronomical observation events, but instead of bringing people to specific locations dedicated to astronomy, we brought a telescope where people were; right in the city. It created this interesting moment of surprise, peeking into the eyepiece and suddenly facing the Moon or Jupiter, while holding a beer. It made us realize how much unfamiliar people were with the night sky. That led to the project here in Istanbul. We named it EYESS, after the ISS, International Space Station. It’s a huge tin-can floating in space with people aboard, and they circle the Earth in 92 minutes, 16 times per day, passing above everyone just a few hundred kilometres away. It’s a perfect subject to talk about time and scale, learning, collaborations and a constant change of perspectives.
TK: The 4th Istanbul Design Biennial has a process-oriented approach. How has your project emerged from this perspective? How does it evolve?
ATTB: The project emerged very organically, from various inputs as well as from circumstances in Istanbul. With feedback from the curatorial team, we developed a project that takes place on a huge LED billboard atop a hotel in the Pera district. It invites people to join a website where everyone can follow the ISS, and see who is currently looking at it. As this part of the project is only active during the night time, we decided to develop a physical penchant for visitors in the Pera Museum during the day. Right next to the hotel, visitors by day can also take part in the project. Everything slowly developed in parallel as we moved along the project, but it was during our field trip to Istanbul that things really took shape.
TK: Which challenges or issues have you been tackling with your project?
ATTB: Very simply, the project is about taking some time to look up. We’ve seen many people during our events explaining that it was the first time that they took a moment to really look at the Moon. Things are around us all the time, but that we don’t even acknowledge. But you can look at it differently: Who is looking at whom? As we watch the ISS passing above, maybe an astronaut is looking down at us. Similarly, as the eyes atop the hotel are looking up, they might also look down, and we cannot really be sure what they are looking at. We are also very interested in the Overview effect – a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. There, the notion of borders is not obvious, conflicts that divide us become less important as we realize that we all live on the same Pale Blue Dot. Even though we can’t experience the effect, by learning about it, we hope that it brings people closer to understanding it.
TK: How will your project continue after the biennial ends? What will be the legacy of it?
ATTB: We will leave the Eyess.space website running, as it is relevant as long as the ISS is orbiting. The clock prototype that we will show at Pera Museum takes its roots in a former project of ours from 2011 titled Entangled, which showed the distance between itself and the ISS on a flip-dot display. It is an important project for us and we are keen on further developing it.
TK: Can you briefly explain your thoughts on design education in its current state?
ATTB: Having seen various design schools, we observed that there is a tendency to compartmentalise design practices. Students in a specific department are not encouraged to be interested in other practises than their own. We believe that it is crucial today to have a cross-disciplinary approach of design to have a relevant practice.
*The YAMA screen currently placed atop of The Marmara Pera is the first long-running public space project of Istanbul. Having started its first screenings with the initiative of Kağan Gürsel and Sylvia Kouvali, it hosted many international and local artists, along with curators with the subtitle “from dusk, until dawn”. The projects screened through the YAMA screen between 2015 and 2016 has been produced by Banu Cennetoğlu, Pilvi Takala and Işıl Eğrikavuk.
