Abstract

Sputnik 2008 ArtifactSputnik is a cardboard sculptural model of the famed Sputnik satellite alongside an animation of a psycogeographic map of Long Kesh constructed by political prisoners there, with audio of the satellite as recorded in Washington DC, investigates the relationship between events and their respective ‘spaces’ in history. This work explores the notion of an event or events as landmark and is an extension of a previous body of work examining the politics of place which was derived from PhD research (Local Knowledge As A Strategy For Navigating The Problematics Of Urban And Cyber Space 2005).'Sputnik 1' was the first manmade satellite in space, launched in 1957 by the USSR. It was a highly polished sphere with 4 antennas, a diameter of 58 cm, weighing 84 kg. 'Sputnik' translates as 'traveling companion' or 'satellite'. 'Sputnik' orbited the earth twice on an elliptical orbit, each orbit taking between 96 and 98 minutes. It was invisible to the naked eye 

The USA was caught off guard. They had been developing satellites but had not yet launched. The shock prompted the USA to found NASA, effectively sparking the space race. 
 'Sputnik 2' was the second generation, which brought the first dog (Laika) into space, never to return. Subsequent 'Sputnik' satellites carried dogs, mice and a variety of plants into space, all of which returned safely to earth.The work was made on the invitation of McGonagle and was subsequently been shown in Manchester and Portadown.