Players of Operation Cntrcpy[tm] have to navigate a space ship to Mars as fast as possible and to land there, by using a web interface and a mobile phone. Throughout the whole mission the pilot is responsible for the space ship and crew.

The journey is impeded by aliens, black holes and fields of asteroids. When the spaceship heads towards one, the cosmonaut is immediately informed by SMS – at unpredictable times, day or night. The pilot has to log into the “Virtual Mission Control Center” via the internet as fast as he can, and avert the danger. The quickness of reaction and the quality of solving a problem decide the course of the journey.

Another project is also to transfer Operation Cntrcpy[tm] into “real space”. In the past a propaganda video and space food were produced, space trainings were realized and a operation headquater was installed in several galleries.

Furthermore, a goal is to criticize efforts pursued by states for spaceflight activities without having any real social benefit. For them, the conquest of space is only part of the game of power between states. This is also stressed in an ironic form by the fact that the traveler enters the cosmos and represents a country which in reality no longer exists, the former Soviet Union.

More images.

A work by Rainer Prohaska together with Martin Sägmüller, Konstantin Demblin and Eva Grumeth.