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Where does the Martian president live?
Alternate reality installation

2010
by Petko Dourmana

“We'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow, and I expect to be around to see it.” (Barack Obama's space policy speech at the Kennedy Space Center, April 15, 2010)

Everybody who is interested why Obama cancelled the billions worth program for landing on the Moon of his predecessor and replaced it with his own ambitious program for landing on Mars is invited to the installation Where does the Martian President live? where Obama's speech from the Kennedy Space Center is visually transcoded for human perception. After the cancelation of  Space Shuttle and Constellation programs almost 10 000 rocket scientists and engineers are going to loose their jobs. This could destroy the know-how for building rockets of the US, which is the world leader in space research. With this decision Obama's administration in fact hinders human landing on Mars. What Obama did sounds illogical and obviously in contradiction with the Martian program he promoted. But if we assume that besides his obvious position as the president of the United States, he is the leader of the Martians who live around us on the planet Earth disguised as human beings, it becomes logical that his real mission is to prevent humans from landing on Mars. And therefore he uses the TV broadcasts to send messages to his fellow Martians by using frequencies that are beyond human perceptions.

Bio:
Petko Dourmana is a media artist based in Sofia, Bulgaria and London, UK. He works with a variety of contemporary art forms that involve technology and new media. His current artistic interest is focused on exploring human perceptions and abilities for communication trough the advantages (and disadvantages) of new technologies. Most of his works, research and experiments are based on the visual representation of history and visions for the future. His artistic projects have been shown in ZKM Karlsruhe, ICA London, Chelsea Art Museum, Location One in New York but also in public space in Sofia, Berlin, Manchester, and New York. He is co-founder and chairman of InterSpace Association.

http://i-space.org
http://theupgrade.i-space.org
http://www.dourmana.com