March 18th 2001. The fragments of the MIR station splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean. March 19th 2001. A small group of international specialists in art, science and media decided in a meeting in Paris to found the MIR network, an intercultural initiative to explore space in the 21st century. The MIR initiative would like to open up space facilities by matching artistic processes and scientific research to give a new impulse to space art and space research.

The MIR founder members are: The Arts Catalyst (UK), Leonardo/Olats (France/USA), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), and V2 (Netherlands), .

Funded by the European Commission Culture 2000 Awards, the MIR partnership invited proposals from European and Europe-based artists and scientists to undertake projects/research in variable gravity conditions on a parabolic flights or using other facilities, such as the centrifuge and the hydrolaboratory facility used for spacewalk training, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City, Russia. From the call, they received nearly 100 proposals from artists and scientists all over Europe. From these proposals, the projects that they plan to undertake in Star City in April 2003 are from Marcelli Antunez Roca, Vadim Fishkin, Kodwo Eshun, Richard Cousins & Anjali Sargar, Ewen Chardronnet, Yuri Leiderman, Rebecca Forth and Stefan Gec. >from *Arts Catalyst site*

related context
> deaf03: data knitting (from wunderkammer to metadata. february 25, 2003
> fluid trajectory: a dance-science collaboration . april 18, 2002
> lawsuit against "leonardo": where art, science and technology converge. november 20, 2000

imago
> artists as cosmonauts: how to use star city facilities