Multinational Space Agency (MSA) is the pioneer of long-term, long-distance space exploration. MSA's Mars Division is currently working toward the future habitation of the red planet. Our team of Galactinauts has been trained to adapt to the rigors of deep space exploration and understand that they have competition coming from within and outside the agency. Mars Division is devoted to successfully setting up colonies on the Martian surface. Through manned and robotic exploration, MSA has found that the future Martian colonization will be hinged on the advancement of Aeroponic systems. Our senior mission commander has this to say, "...arriving to such a stark and beautiful landscape is awe-inspiring, then you realize, no one has been here. It’s what Buzz, John, and Neil must have felt when deploying from the module. We are the first earthlings to touch the surface of Mars.”
History
Fall of 2011 Attenborough Naftel had heard rumors through social media sites that Tom Sachs had purchased a similar Winnebago to their 1975 Indian. At first, the two were filled with questions about what he was going to do with his- after some research, the two discovered his “Space Program: Mars”.
Since Attenborough Naftel's earliest work together they have always respected Sachs’ work- and our work has often been compared to Tom Sachs. We love Tom’s work and his use of bricolage. It is true that Sachs work enters the creative dialogue between Attenborough Naftel- along with a long list of other artists and outside influences. The difference for us lies in the content of our projects. We are not so interested in the functions of capitalism but more the construction of spaces and situations- we are like kids creating dream scenarios. We wanted this project to show the similarities but also highlight the differences between our work and Tom's.
As Attenborough Naftel started to discuss the idea of Space with one another and discussion of healthy competition began. We started to feel like Attenborough Naftel was the U.S.S.R during the space race and Sachs was the U.S. -ahead of us at every turn. Sachs had become the superpower in the race to the red planet. This quickly began to relate itself to our initial discovery of the Sach’s Winnebago- we had learned about through filters of social media, similar to the media surrounding the original space race.
Much of the space race was created through the representation of the actual events unfolding, through media. This is why for the Mars project there is always a "filter" present between the actual objects/situations and the viewer. We are using Facebook, photography, rumors, websites, and relics to present the work, and become the work. This builds on past interventions where we activate the viewer/public to become part of the artwork. Thus by using these ‘filters’ we build upon the idea of audience participation and rely on the beauty of the domino effect to spread the project through Facebook ‘likes’, ‘shares’, and so on....
The final projected show of the MSA work will involve yet another filter as a presentation of relics from this project emerge.