Art Projects
The Beginning of Message in a Bottle

©松井紫朗

Project Manager

Shiro Matsui

>Profile

Shiro Matsui

Born in Tenri, Nara, 1960.
Professor at Kyoto City University of Arts.

After his first solo exhibition in 1983, Matsui Shiro attracted attention as one of the young artists playing a key role in the Kansai New Wave with a unique formative art created with various materials, humor and intelligence. He began to create works with silicone rubber in 1991, and has output numerous site-specific works using nylon balloons since releasing The Way to Artwork is Through the Stomach, a masterpiece using materials for tents, in 1997.
His works applying principles of natural science shake human perception and space recognition. He has tried to do gardening in space and bring back bottled cosmic space in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and has organized the Message in a Bottle art project in various areas since 2014.

Mission in Space

©松井紫朗/JAXA

Astronauts made two separate missions before they could successfully return space to earth as a Message in a Bottle.

Mission One began with a statement recorded by the NASA astronaut Shannon Walker on board the International
Space Station (ISS):

“I Shannon Walker, on the fourteenth of September in the year 2010, hereby announce that on behalf of the people of
planet earth, we will perform an EVA (extra vehicular activity) to fill this bottle with a bit of outer space.
We will then take this bottle back home where it will serve as a memento of our endeavors,
and as a message of wonder for all people”.

On the 1^st of March 2011, whilst the Space Shuttle Discovery was docked to the ISS,
NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew received instructions to return to the airlock after an EVA.
The crew on board the Space Station played the song “Message in a Bottle” by eighties English rock band The Police,
to remind the astronauts to perform their final activity, to capture a memento from space.
Once the task was complete and the bottle sealed, a commemorative photograph was taken to mark the occasion.

Message in a Bottle was returned to earth on board Space Shuttle Discovery (Mission STS-133) on the 19^th of April 2011,
and transported to Tsukuba Space centre in Japan(TKSC).
However, when the glass bottle was removed from its protective aluminium canister,
it was discovered that the glass had been damaged and the contents lost.

You can read the official JAXA mission reports and collectSPACE reports below:

©松井紫朗/JAXA

Following an investigation in to possible causes of the damage to the glass,
the project was redesigned to eliminate all possible impacts to the bottle caused by a space walk.
It was decided to use a robotic arm to collect the sample,
and a second mission was made on the 21^st of September 2012 on board “Kounotori”,
the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s HTV-3 cargo ship.

On the 4^th of October, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide attached the bottle to an MPEP
(multi-purpose experiment platform) and maneuvered it in to position outside the Japanese “Kibo”module using
its robotic arm. A second sample of space was taken, and the glass bottle remained in storage within an airlock until
January the 25^th, 2013. NASA Astronaut Thomas Marshburn signed the canister,
and Message in a bottle was returned safely to earth on board a SpaceX dragon spacecraft on the 1^st of March, 2013.

Mission on the Ground

©手に取る宇宙

“Let’s send a Message in a Bottle~ to future humanity!”
Since the small glass bottle was brought back to earth, we are now inviting people to the Message in
a Bottle project and giving them the chance to hold a little bit of space in their hands.
After the experience, visitors are asked to express their thoughts about the experience,
which then becomes part of our growing archive, viewable online.

STEP.1

Hold the bottle of
outer space in
your hands.

STEP.2

Express your
thoughts on paper.

STEP.3

Scan the paper and
send a message to
future humankind!

STEP.4

Place the original
paper in a tube, seal it
shut and take it home.