Machine assembly begins at Iter

July 28, 2020

“When I learned that China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States had joined together to create the pyramid of our times—a miniature, momentary star on Earth—I knew that Art must have a place within this monumental feat of human ingenuity and collective advancement,” stated visual artist Christine Corday.

A key aspect of ITER as a complex, collective, global undertaking is that each of its members fabricates specialized components of the machine, called a “Tokamak,” a doughnut-shaped magnetic confinement device. Some countries contribute thousands of components of varying size and functionality, others fewer; Art has contributed a single object within this shared blueprint. Corday’s two-pound sculptural object, Sans Titre, represents Art as the 36th contributor to mankind’s largest terrestrial realization of the celestial. The site-specific and functional work, which the artist forged from metals derived from ancient stars, was integrated into the ITER fusion device late last year, a physical manifestation of Art that stands alongside the material contributions of the 35 major international country collaborators, an infrastructural object within the fabricated star that will harness fusion energy for human use.

“We are the witnessing generation of a star being built on Earth—a human-made sun. As a sculptor my tools are the cosmological-scale hammer and chisel, temperature and pressure, and my materials come from suns. It was important for me that a single work of art be forged on Earth from the metals of stars and placed in support of science re-creating one,” notes Corday of the work Sans Titre.

French President Emmanuel Macron and leaders from the European Union, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States declare the start of a new energy era today with the official start of the assembly of the world’s largest fusion device at ITER in Southern France. The ITER machine, the world’s largest science project, is being assembled to replicate the fusion power of the Sun that provides light and warmth and enables life on Earth.

“The Tokamak will be made up of more than one-million components---and if you take individual component parts---more than ten-million parts. These components are designed and fabricated in factories, in laboratories, and universities all over the world. When they arrive here, they will all need to fit together, and be on time according to our rigorous schedule. This is what adds complexity to the ITER project, but of course, it also adds a great value---that collaboration of all these countries, each with unique expertise contributing to a single machine to a single goal.  Let me point out one more contributor, ITER's parts are created in general by scientists and engineers but one part---a bolt---just like the one I am holding here--was fabricated by an artist in New York, Christine Corday. Ms. Corday was inspired by the ITER project and proposed to contribute. She forged this 10cm bolt manufactured to the same precise material specification as the forty-thousand other bolts that were inserted into the steel roof anchors of the Tokamak building. This one was inserted by Director-General Bernard Bigot himself. Ms. Corday calls this work of art "Sans Titre"or "Untitled" as a way of expressing how art and science often anonymously drive each other to create the best of our human dreams and aspirations. This bolt will be constantly watching over the plasma from where we placed her---as a silent witness of the work of so many scientists, engineers and workers to make ITER a success.”

-Laban Coblentz, ITER World-Powers Tokamak Assembly Event