This project has its roots in the early part of 2012, when I approached the European Space Agency with a very ambitious proposal: to produce the most comprehensive survey ever assembled about a leading scientific and space exploration organization. It is the first time in their history that they have granted an artist exclusive access to all of their facilities, staff, programs, technology, etc This projects looks to critically engage with ESA’s programs, such as the microgravity, the lunar and Mars exploration programs, among others, whilst also reflecting on the new politics of space exploration and the subsequent erosion of the utopian 1960s frameworks for space usage, as well as the impact of this kind of technological application on our social consciousness.
Whilst the visions that inspired the space age were drawn from artists and writers, in more recent times the role artists and writers could play has been largely forgotten and the gulf between the space community and arts world drifted wide.
So in 2012 I presented the European Space Agency a very ambitious proposal: to produce the most comprehensive survey ever assembled about a leading scientific and space exploration organization and its programs.
I believe that the future of space exploration requires an ongoing societal and cultural dialogue, in which the arts can play a vibrant and vital role.
Though notoriously secretive, I have contacted ESA at an interesting time in their history when they are looking to open up to the public. Unlike NASA or CERN, ESA do not have an artist residency program or regular contact with the public.
So I was delighted when they agreed to support my endeavor.
It is the first time in their history that they have granted an artist exclusive access to all of their facilities, staff, programs, technology, etc. The access I have been granted is unparalleled, even within the framework of the residency programs specified above.
This project had an 18-month gestation period and it covers more than 15 separate facilities, located across the world: from the UK, Holland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, to Russia, Kazakhstan, French Guiana, etc. These locations range from test centers, robotics departments, jet propulsion laboratories, space simulators, launch sites and platforms, astronaut training centers and training modules, satellites, technological component and launcher assembly rooms, etc.
I feel fortunate that ESA has recognised, through my proposal, that artists and cultural users should be entitled to access and engage with space.
I was also heartened that ESA welcomed the idea that I may bring with me a critical and artistic perspective.
This projects looks, therefore, to critically engage with ESA’s programs, such as the microgravity, the lunar and Mars exploration programs, among many others, whilst also reflecting on the new politics of space exploration and the subsequent erosion of the utopian 1960s frameworks for space usage, as well as the impact of this kind of technological application on our social consciousness.
As someone who has always worked in hard-to-access environments, I am interested in the techniques of artistic expression these engagements can activate, and in the dialogue that these environments can provoke.
There are multi-layered contexts and problems for artists working within any established structure - scientific or otherwise – cultural, political, ethical, legal. This can be further accentuated given the increasing privatisation and militarization of space and the constraints that commercial/military involvement can entail.
My main challenge was, therefore, to develop a thorough approach that was simultaneously descriptive and speculative, reconfiguring - documenting but also disassembling the spaces and subjects and, consequently, inviting a broader, more emotional and more intricate experience of its hidden meanings.
Like a topographer or visual archaeologist I set out to discover and reveal the factual, poetic and phenomenological derivations/potential of the objects and situations I came across, all the while engaging those I entered in contact with – from scientists to the public.
This project explores these ideas with a strong sense of perspective, an understanding of the other sector's operating culture and an unequivocal ability to articulate, critique and engage.