Lunar Drawing Contests
Crater Bay Area 2008
Crater Bay Area was an interactive participatory art installation that took place at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) as part of the Zer01 Art and Technology Biennial in 2008.
Over 100 people competed using traditional drawing tools or computer aided design to draw landscapes based on a 10-foot diameter lunar maquette placed in the middle of the ICA’s gallery. After 2 months of continuous drawing activity by the public, a jury of artists and technologists chose the best drawing entries.
Winners were awarded a deed to property on the Moon. Throughout the duration of the installation, surveillance video captured the contestants drawing, streaming it to the walls of the gallery and over the internet in a virtual gallery in Second Life.
LigoranoReese curated a selection of small sculptures by Bay Area artists of lunar structures that were installed on the maquette.
Fly me to the moon
Let me sing among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
on Jupiter and Mars
Crater New York 2007
The first lunar drawing contest took place in New York at Location One opening the gallery’s Fall 2007 season. While Crater New York played with the concepts of virtual space and virtual reality along with what it means to be an artist, the contest posed questions about the future of artists in society and in New York.
Awarding contestants deeds to property on the moon asked the obvious question of whether artists in both New York and the Bay Area will have to move to the moon in order to afford working and living space.
Jurors included journalist Jimmy Breslin, poet Bob Holman, curator Nina Felshin and NYSCA Media Arts Director Karen Helmerson.
