SATURDAY NIGHT CAN BE THE LONELIEST PLACE ON EARTH | 2005

“Kitakyushu is trying hard to attract tourists, with the development of the much-touted Space World (built in collaboration with NASA, but at times sadly resembling an early Star Trek set)…”
Lonely Planet Japan, 7th Edition

Space World (スペースワールド) is a theme park in Yahata Higashi ward, Kitakyushu, Japan. It was created in 1990 by Nippon Steel when the company was downsizing its steel plant in the ward. Space World offers themed rides and attractions that attempt to portray the fascination of the “final frontier,” but dwindling audience figures give the park a more desolate atmosphere.

This artwork involved an 8-second hack into the Space World parking lot’s public address system, interrupting their Muzak with ionospheric transmissions (impulsive signals emitted by lightning strokes relayed live using a VLF receiver) so that Space World could, on a lonely Saturday night, receive an actual message from outer space.

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Medium: VLF receiver, audio (with video documentation available for exhibition / collection purposes)
Date: 2005

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More on Ionospheric Transmissions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_atmospheric

More on Space World: http://www.spaceworld.co.jp/english/

More on Kitakyushu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitakyushu

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