PRESS RELEASE 7 February 2000


Reaching For The Stars
An Art Project By The Artist Robert Ruthven
Year of The Artist 2000-2001 Award Winner Sponsored by
Southern Arts Board and The Arts Council of England.

`Reaching For The Stars' is an interaction between art and scientific space research. It is a
new project building on the successful work in this area carried out by Robed Ruthven for his
last two projects `Events' and `Mars' which have been exhibited at the Science Museum
London, The Jodrell Bank Science Centre Manchester, University of Portsmouth, The Stanley
Picker Galleiy Kingston-upon-Thames. The Lux Centre London and the internet.

`Reaching For The Stars' will take the form of an artistic interpretation of scientific extra-
terrestrial data from space missions, meteorites and telescope observatories. The artwork will
be digital image/sound based work, culminating in an interactive installation initially centred in
Portsmouth England. The internet will play a major role in this project giving the project an
international global dimension by connecting and interacting with people, artists and space
researchers around the world. The project will also be extra-terrestrial, taking us beyond earth,
to the furthest reaches of the universe by interacting with data through the internet from
satellites and telescope observatories.

The project is innovative in concept and approach and intended to capture the imagination of
its public and ask them to engage with notions of spaceltime/distance and our comprehension
and notions of our relationship to the extra-terrestrial universe. Itis ambitious in that it will
extend the boundaries of what might be positioned as our "eve'yday expectations" including
our thoughts on reality.

There is also a community aspect to the Reaching For The Stars' project in that it will be the
first project in the development of the Rivers Street Centre in Somerstown, as a centre for art
in the community. The project will involve local residents, artists, scientists, students,
community workers and youth workers.

This project is about community and interaction between people locally and on a global scale
and our comprehension and notions of oar relationship with our universe. It is about equal
opportunity; about being part of the big and ambitious questions, and about local residents
participating by bringing their valuable skills or interest to the project. It is about
demonstrating that art, science and education can offer a doorway to a larger world full of
possibility and opportunity. It is about forging new links where barriers and indifference have
existed.


Robert Ruthven

E-mail:       r.ruthven@virgin.net
Website:     http://freespace.virgin.net/r.ruthven