Global Periphery: Contemporary Imaginaries of Space, Multiple Voices – A Hybrid Conference

Global Periphery is a symposium exploring the contemporary imaginaries of space through examples of artistic creations and of activities from the space sector with voices from multiple continents and locations.

It is part of More-Than-Planet, a Creative Europe project of which Leonardo/Olats is a partner. Global Periphery is thus part of a conceptual understanding of the planet as a global dynamic system.

Symposium

Global Periphery: a symposium and performance exploring contemporary
imaginaries of outer space through examples of artistic creations and of space
activities with voices from multiple continents and locations.

As we witness more countries joining the space faring nations, the arrival of private companies in the so-called “New Space”, as major new astronomical instruments have been deployed in South America, Africa and in Space, as we are questioning anew what the Human presence in space should be and our inhabiting our own Planet, it is a perfect time to reconsider the space imaginaries.

The dominant space imaginaries are rooted in the culture of the nations that have lead the first era of the space exploration, largely coming from the United States of America and the Hollywood iconography. What have been —and are— doing all the others? Stating, analysing, re-interpreting, questionning, cross-breeding, inventing, creating space imaginaries in and from multiple dimensions is at the core of Global Periphery.

The time when we divided the World in “center” and “periphery” is gone. We are all in periphery, next to each other, sharing the same Planet, the same sky and the same cosmos.

Imaginary Futures Performance

Performance initiated and curated by Marcus Neustetter with one participant in Paris (Fatou Cissé, from Senegal) and six participants in South Africa (Thulisile Princess Binda I Xolisile Bongwana I Miné Kleynhans I Aja Marneweck I Sifiso Teddy Mhlambi I Ciara Struwig)

Introduction

In the process of exploring a collective understanding of our relationship to space, the Imaginary Futures project brings together an experimental dialogue of creative producers from different disciplines and contexts to look at what our shared peripheral perspective of a space-future might look like.

In the past 5 years the Imaginary Futures projects has responded to empowering new perspectives, responding to shifts caused by the pandemic, and testing new opportunities for co-production across the globe with productions that range form socially engaged planetarium performances and films to participatory virtual experiences.

Invited to present a performance at the Global Periphery 2-day symposium a selection of the Imaginary Futures team from different parts of South Africa engage virtually with each other, with the host artist Marcus Neustetter, and a live performer in Paris. The aim is to publish a performance lecture that provokes abstract dialogue and shares responses to key thematic questions around our relationship to space, triggered by the the Global Periphery engagement questions:

What attracts you to space? Space Escape or Destination? Space Research or Resource? Is Space a Public place? What is a Space Nation? What could a Space Culture be? Is Dreaming of Space a Luxury? What is you most iconic image of space?

These questions are the initial stimulator that will search earth-based perspectives of our current diverse lived experiences.

In the development of the performance a range of creative co-production sessions seek to build a collective narrative and raw material for the final improvised live exchange. These creative sessions are being developed on ZOOM and WhatsApp, in a studio workshop in South Africa in the month of August and finally in participatory workshops in Paris with select participants outside of the core group.

The intention is to allow different perspectives, discipline, languages, contexts and resources to become the opportunity for experimental expression and result in two public participatory virtual experiences in the Global Periphery programme.

What sets this performance apart from previous Imaginary futures actions, it that it will be streamed to a live audience in one venue. The audience will have a unique perspective into one part of the collective engagement. They will be witnessing the live contribution from the performer in Paris, who is not there to perform for the audience but rather interact with the dialogue partners on the screen.
Another experimental first for this iteration of Imaginary Futures, is the contribution of outcomes from the workshop with select participants in Paris. Here the intention is to develop sets and pre-recorded performance contributions to be included into the live performance dialogue.

Imaginary Futures Workshop

On September 22nd, during half a day, 8 to 10 people, participate in a workshop with Marcus Neustetter and Fatou Cissé around the general conference theme in order to propose, in a collective creation, one or several elements that are to be integrated into the Saturday performance of Imaginary Futures.
The workshop is hosted by EnsadLab.

Partners to the workshop
Chaire Art Science, Ecole Polytechnique, Jean-Marc Chomaz
Chaire Art Science, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Samuel Bianchini
Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, Marie-Pier Boucher

Participants to the workshop: Rouzbeh Akhbari I Valentine Auphan I Marie-Pier Boucher I Pierre Bourdon I Yanxu Chen I Arthur Enguehard I Guillemette Legrand I