Space Assembly: The Cultural Negotiation of Space Science

Programme

Tuesday 28th November - Provocations and Perspectives

Day 1 will bring together provocations from national and international speakers across the fields of arts, humanities and sciences to explore the critical, creative, ethical and technical parameters of Space Science, creating an opportunity for public discourse, networking and exchange. Contributors will include: Dr Nicola Triscott, Director and CEO of Fact Liverpool and former Director and CEO of Arts Catalyst who has curated projects and written extensively on art and intervention in the stewardship of the planetary commons; Professor Marcos Díaz, Leader of the Space and Planetary Exploration Laboratory at Universidad de Chile; Nahum, Director of the Kosmica Institute who has developed cultural and artistic projects with ESA, NASA, Roscosmos and SpaceX; and Mary Jane Rubenstein, Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, USA and author of the 2022 book, Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. Alongside these provocations will be several short presentations offering perspectives from academics and practitioners working across the arts & humanities and science & engineering.

Wednesday 29th November- Ways of Working

Day 2 will comprise workshops held within laboratories and studios that explore methods of interdisciplinary working and exchange. Run by artists and scientists the workshops will create the opportunity to actively explore dialogues from Day 1 via practice. Through a range of approaches, questions such as environmental and social justice in relation to Space will be explored through the lens of high and low tech. Included will be workshops on Trans Planetary Architectures, ‘Performing’ Space and an Alternative Data Analysis workshop where participants are able to re-think approaches to the data sets that they work within their own disciplinary fields.

Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided on both days. Detailed programming and speaker information below.

WORKSHOP #1: Alternative Data Analysis (ADA)

Dr Laura Harrington (Cultural Negotiation of Science research group, Northumbria University) and Dr Nicolette Barsdorf Liebchen (Bournemouth University).
Wednesday 29th November 9.30-11.00 Experimental Studio, Lipman Hub, Lipman Building.

We live in an era of ‘Big Data’ where processes of digitisation and datafication are embedded in all realms of existence and activity. As such, multiple ethico-political issues surround the creation and production of data that we use in our lives and in our research.

This round table discussion is an opportunity for people across disciplines to come together to think playfully, expansively, and critically about the data, datasets, media and fieldwork methods that they use. The workshop aims to produce new perspectives to help us think about ideas of global urgency such as ecological precarity or social crisis. As a starting point, artist, Luis Guzmán and scientist, Clare Watt, will each, in turn, analyse their data by focusing on an artefact that resonates with their research, sharing anecdotes and stories from fieldwork, processes, and collaborations. Collectively, we will then ask questions and seek new convergences and threads of thinking through data.

WORKSHOP #2: Transplanetary Architectures

Luis Guzmán & Blanca Pujals (Cultural Negotiation of Science research group, Northumbria University) Monika Brandic Lipinska & Anne-Sophie Belling (Bio-Futures for Transplanetary Habitats research group, Newcastle University)
Wednesday 29th November 11.30 am -1.00 pm. 501 Squires Building.

This workshop is a collaborative imagining of the future of transplanetary habitation. Using a broad concept of “architecture” this will include all the processes, systems, institutions, resources, technologies, as well as living and non-living entities, in a general dynamic structure. The aims of the workshop are to: 1) Collaboratively imagine and identify possible future transplanetary architectures; 2) Conceive the possible ethical, ecological and social implications of these future “architectures”; 3) Identify the agents that underlie such structures; 4) Engage in a creative process to visualize those elements using AI as a tool for creativity; 5) Collectively reflect on the different outcomes and perspectives that these visions elicit.

WORKSHOP #3: Performing Space - SPELLS

Nahum, KOSMICA Institute.
Wednesday 29th November 2.00-3.30 pm. 027 Squires Building.

Performing Space is a workshop run by Nahum, founder and director of KOSMICA Institute. The workshop will be based around the experience of, and collective discourse on, the performance SPELLS - a show that transports the audience beyond the confines of the performance venue. Through a mix of ambient music, spoken word and trance states, Nahum takes the audience on a journey where the senses awaken, and experience expands, connecting us with the universe via a sonic journey combining astral travelling, ambient music, trance states and words. Here, the audience is invited to explore the possibilities of perception, to connect with all the other existences around us and to think about our place in the cosmos.

KOSMICA is a global institute founded in 2011 with the mission to create a space organisation for critical, cultural and poetic discourses on our relationship with the universe, space activities and their impact here on Earth.It is premised on the belief that all of us have a stake in humanity’s actions beyond our planetary home and promotes the unique perspectives that artists, poets, anthropologists, musicians, philosophers and other cultural practitioners can bring to the debates and issues surrounding space activities.