Summer Space Programme 2021

KOSMICA's Director Nahum, Kerrie Dougherty and Niamh Shaw have designed the Humanities Department for this year's Space Studies Programme at the International Space University.

 

During one month various members of the KOSMICA team and wider community will gather across Granada, Strasbourg and online to deliver a contemporary professional programme for future space professionals and astronauts

 

Departamental Description

 

The dream of spaceflight is as old as the human imagination. But what is it about space exploration that motivates us to find out more? Do our dreams inspire space travel or does space travel shape our dreams? And what is our role, as a human species, as we continue in our quest to move past low Earth orbit to discover new worlds? And, what would be our responsibility with our planet home?

 

The Space Humanities Department will offer participants a truly unique opportunity to break free and think differently. We will explore the meaning and significance of humankind’s expansion into space in a supportive and creative environment. Our hands-on, interactive activities are specifically designed to take participants on a journey of inspiration, creation and reflection about our relationship with space, space exploration activities and their impact on Earth.

 

 

Main Learning Outcomes

 

Expand on space humanities themes and topics explored in the core lectures in the SSP.

 

Demonstrate that the creative and critical thinking skills that the humanities embrace can contribute to greater innovation and a more ethical and responsible approach to space activities.

 

Learn about alternative approaches to explore space.

 

Discover how artists are inspiring the visions for space travel and the future of humanity.

 

 

Programme

 

12 JULY: VISUALISING THE UNIVERSE THROUGH MEDITATION (ONLINE)

By Manuel Diaz, KOSMICA & Beantpal Singh Khalsa

 

This workshop offers the possibility to visualise - to feel a space travel through an alternative way: meditation. This visualisation technique will stimulate the imagination of the participants and will broaden their perception of space travel. Once the meditation has been completed, participants will share their experience through words and drawings.

 

16 JULY: SPACE FEMINISMS

By Marie-Pier Boucher

 

This workshop will introduce students to the historical and contemporary role of women in space activities. It will present them with key theories and concepts from feminist studies to guide them in engaging with questions such as: How is gender materialized, inscribed into -and constructed by- technology? How can we subvert gendered technology? What would a feminist space program be like? What can we learn from the historical marginalization of women in space activities? How can space feminism activate changes in the present? Students will be introduced to a series of case studies and art and design projects that give insights into the material forms that space feminism can take. The goal of this workshop is not to celebrate feminism, but to question how it can put our capacities for political organization and spatial attachment to the test.

 

19 JULY: PLANETARY PERSONHOOD - A UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF MARTIAN RIGHTS

By Nonhuman Nonsense

 

The participants will be introduced to Nonhuman Nonsense’s art/design project Planetary Personhood - A Universal Declaration Of Martian Rights, an interplanetary campaign pursuing radical space decolonization. The project proposes independent legal personhood for the entire planet Mars, and considers the possibility of solidarity with the entities already there - the stones!

 

20 JULY: SPACE AND RELIGION – RITUALS, DOGMA, REIFICATION AND TRANSFORMATION

By Michael Waltemathe

 

Wherever humans go, their traditions, convictions, faith and belief at least partially follow. Sometimes these convictions and traditions change during human exploration scenarios. This is certainly true for human space exploration and religious conviction. Religion and space exploration share a common history that transformed individual faith as well as institutionalized religions’ perspectives. In the workshop we will learn about the historical examples and transformations of religious rituals and dogma during space exploration. We will take a closer look at what aspects of philosophical and religious thought are embedded (reified) in space exploration scenarios and what new religious perspectives evolved during space exploration. From artistic visions of future habitats to crew composition, from socio-political rationale for exploration to ethical aspects of planetary protection, religious perspectives have played and probably will play a part in all of these.

 

22 JULY: DESIGNING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES IN OUTER SPACE

By Anne Johnson

 

If we want to create better futures for all of humanity, we must imagine them first. This workshop provides a space and a methodology for the imagining of alternative futures in outer space, with the objective of designing desired scenarios of human activity in outer space based on critical and creative reflections about environmental sustainability and social justice. The workshop will revolve around the examination of various artworks created by Native artists within the framework of what has been called “indigenous futurism,” understood as an emerging paradigm whose proponents call for a radical reconsideration of human social and environmental relationships as part of future imaginaries, on Earth and on other worlds. Through a series of design-inspired group activities, including games, brainstorming and the discussion of audiovisual productions, participants in the workshop will create a poetic manifest for outer space futures that goes beyond Western settler discourses of conquest, exploitation and extractivism.

 

23 JULY: VOYAGE, A SESSION TO REMEMBER

By Nahum

 

In your mind there is a trip in oblivion. Once we walked together on a remote surface and it’s time to remember. Please seat comfortably, close your eyes and let yourself go... our journey has begun.

Voyage: A Session To Remember is a performance by Nahum that explores the possibilities of creating an artwork inside people ́s minds, internal and immaterial. This performance invites the participants to reflect on the meaning of home while questioning access to space travel for all.

 

26 JULY: FIRST SKIES

By Mariana Paredes, KOSMICA

 

One-third of the world's population cannot see the Milky Way lighting up the night sky, as it did 100 years ago. Distracted by the lights and their reflections, the metropolitan eye can barely see a dozen stars. We live in a paradoxical age where space exploration activities are constantly giving us new insights into how the universe works, and at the same time our access to experiencing this wonder is disappearing. In this activity, we’ll create a personal constellation, starting with the perspectives of the knowledge of the indigenous people of Wixarika. We will employ storytelling techniques to create intimate ties with the sacred places in both Earth and the cosmos.

 

27 JULY: WHO RULES OUTER SPACE

By Diego Greenhalgh

 

This workshop aims to introduce philosophy, governance and political theory in the process of decision-making of laws, policies and international cooperation through the use of ethics and international relations in regulating space activities. The goal is to achieve, through the process of critical thinking, common goals between the participants using dialog, cultural sensibility and diplomacy.

 

29 JULY: THE OVERVIEW EFFECT

By Dr Annahita Nezami, Dr David Jeeva, Christian Duka & Frank White

 

Students will learn about VR Overview Effect’s (VROE), a project founded by Dr Annahita Nezami that looks to translate the overview effect via positive technologies with the aim of improving wellbeing. Students will be led through a multisensory virtual reality experience analogous to the overview effect, and participate in a focus group afterwards, which will contribute to the development of VROE’s programs.

 

2 AUGUST: IMPACT WORKSHOP

By Aoife van Linden Tol, KOSMICA

 

The IMPACT workshop will discuss the concepts of 'making an impact' in the context of both the historical impact of scientific work throughout the ages and of how physical cosmic impacts shaped the Universe. IMPACT explores how powerful singular events contribute to the collective whole. We observe how the effects of human intention can ripple through time to reveal new truths, new paths and new inspiration. The group will choose and prepare documents, papers and print material, which they will use to design an artwork which will then be subject to physical impacts and burning. The material can potentially include data from the Sierra Nevada Observatory visit. Students will gain an alternative perspective about the relationship between science and art and learn how creativity and art can benefit science and space exploration.

 

4 AUGUST: OUT OF THIS WORLD COMMUNICATION: SENDING A MESSAGE TO ET

By Kerrie Dougherty

 

This workshop will address the question of whether or not it is possible to devise a message to extraterrestrials that can be easily understood by a civilisation with no knowledge of human culture or society, and whether we could, in fact, translate and understand a detected extraterrestrial signal. It will look at past suggestions and attempts to send a message to the inhabitants of other worlds and include an activity in decoding a “message from an extraterrestrial civilisation”.

 

5 AUGUST: DESIGNING SPACE MISSION PATCHES

By Tim Gagnion

 

In this workshop, space patch artist Tim Gagnon will discuss the art and craft of designing space mission patches, based on his own experience. He will look at the role of the artist in turning astronauts’ ideas into powerful visual graphics. Participants will have the opportunity to harness their own creative talents to develop mission patches for real or imaginary future space missions, or perhaps for their Team Project.

 

5 AUGUST: SPACE WRITING AND COMMUNICATION

By Evan Cook

 

Written communication is an essential part of any industry and is a side of the space industry that receives underwhelming consideration. With the rise of commercial space and increasing space-related events, written space communication plays a critical role in making space topics and information accessible to varying audiences and interests. Since different forms of writing can elicit different responses from different audiences, this lecture explores key styles of industry writing – creative writing, media writing, journalism, and copywriting – giving insight into industry standards and uses with the opportunity to develop skills through in-class writing exercises.

 

6 AUGUST: FESTOON THE MOON

By Helen Schell

 

There are confirmed plans for the first woman and next man to set foot on the Moon within 5 years (NASA’s Artemis Missions) with these being precursor missions to build a Moon Village and for human spaceflight to Mars, what items would you consider of importance? Space agencies and industries have a new policy of ‘make don’t take’, as it is cheaper to create objects in space. This workshop invites you to be a cultural ambassador for Earth visiting the Moon, so what creative objects would you make and why? Materials are limited, so can you find a way to construct them from recycled, repurposed and reinvented items? 3D printing techniques are also considered to be vital. Be as imaginative and creative as you wish. You will require a mission name and can you devise and invent a coded message from the Moon to Earth (similar to the Mars parachute ‘Dare Might Things). It has often been said, that when in space we discover Earth.