Terra Fiction – art and sci-fi in the new age of space colonisation
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On Thursday 27 September digital culture platform FIBER and de Brakke Grond present Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction; an evening programme about digital culture and imagining future worlds and sustainable living on earth and beyond. Speakers working on the cross-section of art, literature, science and design reflect on the new relationship between man, technology, earth and life in space.
At the end of 2016 Rex Tillerson, the former wingman of Donald Trump, expressed a worrying vision of the future: “Climate change is an engineering problem”. The belief in the total makeability of a planet is anchored in a marriage between governments and big-tech companies. Terraforming - the process of changing a planet’s climate and atmosphere for human life - was once the domain of visionary sci-fi writers, artists and space research. Today we’re entering a new space race where private companies such as Google and Space X aim to colonise and terraform Mars.
The belief in the makeability of a planet as a technological utopia seems to be at odds with the current problems around climate change and the large-scale damage to the earth. In what way do Silicon Valley’s ideas influence the future of man? What will happen if these visions are exported to space? Terra Fiction questions these developments and presents alternative scenarios to shape life on earth and beyond.
Pippa Goldschmidt is a writer with a background in astronomy in her short stories she reflects on current practices of space colonisation and its impact on earth. E. J. Swift’s stories explore the geopolitical impacts of climate change. She will discuss the role of speculative fiction in imagining alternative worlds, and how it might offer us a vision for a better future. Solarpunk researcher and technology theorist Jay Springett lays out the strategic narrative of land-as-platform which grafts the organisational logic of the digital ecologies back onto living soil. Miha Turšič presents a new Waag project and asks the question: what can we learn about life by studying outer space? Art-scientist Ivan Henriques will represent Symbiotic Machine for Space Exploration a project that aims to create an autonomous system for enhancing terrestrial ecosystems and facilitating atmospheric formation on other planets.
Next to these presentations the evening program consists out of short movies, material explorer Margaux Hendriksen will screen her Scramble for the Moon project, a speculative design project with which she graduated at The Material Futures Master at Central Saint Martins in London; Matthew C Wilson will screen his film The Age of Autonomous Exploration which is currently on display as part of the Dissident Gardens exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut. The evening will be concluded with a panel discussion.
Coded Matter(s): Terra Fictionis the 2nd edition of the Worldbuilding trilogy. The digital culture platform FIBER investigates the role of art and culture in proposing sustainable, future living environments. Following the lecture program, FIBER presents in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut Terra Fiction Lab. on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 September participants will be working on narrative prototypes for new artistic works.
This event is made possible by the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Coded Matter(s) is presented in collaboration with Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond.
// SUMMARY
Short (24 words, 162 characters)
FIBER presents Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction; an evening programme about art, sci-fi and imagining future worlds and sustainable living on earth and beyond.
Medium (46 words, 307 characters)
Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction an evening programme about digital culture and imagining future worlds and sustainable living on earth and beyond. Speakers working on the cross-section of art, literature, science and design reflect on the new relationship between man, technology, earth and life in space.
Large (56 words, 363 characters)
On Thursday 27 September FIBER and De Brakke Grond present Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction an evening programme about digital culture and imagining future worlds and sustainable living on earth and beyond. Speakers working on the cross-section of art, literature, science and design reflect on the new relationship between man, technology, earth and life in space.
// EVENT INFORMATION
Title: Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction
Date: 27 September 2018
Location: Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond (Amsterdam)
Address: Nes 45, 1012 KD Amsterdam (NL)
Time: 20:00-23:00 | Doors: 19:45
Tickets: € 16 | Students: € 12 (no student card, no entry)
Images from left to right: Terra Fiction Main Image by Margaux Hendriksen / Image from Multiphysics Imaging Technology Inc / Still from Margaux Hendriksen's project 'Scramble for the Moon' 2017 / E.J. Swift / Jay Springett / Pippa Goldschmidt / MihaTuršič, Ivan Henriques
According to writer Mark Fisher, in our current capitalist system it is almost impossible to think of other world systems, but with the current climate problem it is clear that change is necessary. Within Worldbuilding, FIBER explores how artists, designers, coders and thinkers propose alternative worlds through experiments in a critically productive way. In the first edition Big Bias, we looked at prejudices in smart technology, in the second edition of Terra Fiction, into interdisciplinary collaborations between art, science, design and literature to present new relationships between ecology, technology and people.
Since 2013, Coded Matter(s) has been a platform for artists, designers, startups and cultural practitioners to explore cutting-edge artistic production and new ways of understanding digital technologies and and their impact on our world. In 2018, Big Bias (May 17), Terra Fiction (September 27) and Engine Spaces (Nov/Dec), will explore the overarching theme of Worldbuilding though lectures and screenings. Worldbuilding is a narrative technique that originates from science fiction and transmedia storytelling and is used as an artistic method to reflect on complex subject such as climate change, terraformation, circularity and human-machine relationships.https://www.codedmatters.nl
ABOUT FIBER
FIBER is an Amsterdam based platform that supports and presents talented makers and thinkers who are operating at the intersection of audiovisual art, digital technology, music and societal issues. The platform functions as a platform for emerging young artists and connects them to urgent international developments, new public knowledge and work opportunities.
