The Weight of Information 2.0: Meet 2 Delete

Experience Wellington's new Artist-in-Residence Julian Priest launched (quite literally) his latest project, "The Weight of Information 2.0," on November 17th aboard Northrup Grumman's Antares NG10 resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The ISS will deploy his 2cm x 2cm pico-satellite (named TWOi 2.0) into orbit where it will transmit metadata back to a receiver that is part of Priest's installation in the Thomas King Observatory. According to Priest, "TWOi 2.0 imagines a universe where gravitation is caused by information, and it wants to climb to a higher orbit by deleting information, to ascend by forgetting." 

To help our tiny tragic hero avoid the fiery-fate of re-entry, members of the public are asked to delete data of their own in solidarity with TWOi 2.0 at scheduled "Meet 2 Delete" events at the Thomas King Observatory.  

To participate, the public can bring shred-able data (student loan invoices, divorce papers, etc.) or digital data on computers or phones (photos, failed screenplays, etc.), delete it in-person during scheduled hours, and log the metadata where it will become a part of the art installation, temporarily at least.

If you are a Instagram user, we encourage you to film the deletion and post it as your Instagram story with the hashtags #Meet2Delete and #Delete2Ascend, and in keeping with the spirit of the project delete the story from your account before 24 February when TWOi 2.0 will begin its decent. 

If you can't come in-person and still want to take part on Instagram, after filming and posting deletion, go to Julian's website (http://julianpriest.org/project/twoi/) and log in your metadata with the Name of the deletion (ex: "Picture of Heartbreaker") and Date in the required fields.

Meet 2 Delete events begin February 16th. All Meet 2 Deletes occur at the Thomas King Observatory, up the hill from Space Place and the Cable Car on the grounds of the Wellington Botanic Gardens).