Press release 18 march 2005 Karlsruhe, MAKING THINGS PUBLIC

MILK project

MILK is a locative art - mapping project, that explores visual and documenting possibilities of GPS technology. Since summer 2003 it has been developed as international collaboration project between Esther Polak, Ieva Auzina and RIXC – Riga Center for New Media Culture.

MILKproject introduces to one of the countless movements of the international food trade, in this case milk, produced by Latvian farmers, made into cheese by a local factory with the help of an Italian expert, transported to the Netherlands, stored in a Dutch cheese warehouse to ripen and sold at the Utrecht market.
The map follows the milk from the udder of the cow to the plate of the consumer, by means of the people involved. They all were given a GPS device for a day: one of the days that they were somehow occupied with the movements of this dairy. The installation shows the actual GPS-tracks, the reactions of the participants on the tracks, and their personal relationship with the landscape involved.

MilkMachine2004
Special GPS-visualization software (Global Positioning System) developed for Milk project by Marcus The, in collaboration with Esther Polak and Ieva Auzina. The aim of the visualization is to share GPS-information by showing as clearly as possible how, when and at what speed the movements through the landscape had taken place. In the privacy of the participants own homes, we showed the paths to each of them, and are happy to be able to share them with you.

The MILKproject was earlier presented in a ‘light version’

21st to 22nd of December 2004
Justus Lipsius Building, Brussels
10.00 - 22.00
In the framework of EU Agricultural and Fisheries Council.

December 14-17 2004
at AgroVak Brabanthallen 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
In the framework of Dutch farmers fair; farmers and related professionals

November 5 - December 6 2004
at Kasteel Groeneveld Baarn, Netherlands

October 2 - 10
at the museum “Rumbini” in Latvian country side: in the middle of the starting point of the milk-route
and in the framework of “Art + Communication: TRANS-EUROPEAN CULTURAL MAPING”- VII International Festival for New Media Culture“, organized by RIXC – Riga Center for New Media Culture.

For more information please contact milkproject@milkproject.net
Esther Polak 031(0)616266385

Supported by: Mondrian Foundation, ECF, Digitale Pioniers, RIXC, Royal Netherlands Embassy, ZKM, KKF, LNV, Nederlands Ministerie van landbouw, natuur en voedselkwaliteit, Kasteel Groeneveld, AgroVak, EU Programm “Culture 2000”,Stichting Beelddiktee, K.F.Heijn Foundation.