European Cultural Outer-Space Activities (ECOSA)

Lab team: Miha Turšič, Zoénie Liwen Deng, Lucas Evers

The ECOSA Framework Report is the result of a two-year cultural inquiry into the role of art and society in shaping our engagement with outer space. Led by Waag’s Space Lab as part of the More-than-Planet project, the European Cultural Outer-Space Activities (ECOSA) lab brought together over 150 stakeholders—including artists, scientists, policymakers, and technologists—through interviews, workshops, and symposiums. The report outlines how artistic and cultural practices critically contribute to how space is imagined, governed, and inhabited, and calls for systemic inclusion of these perspectives in space institutions, research agendas, and policy frameworks. Rather than using art as a symbolic add-on, ECOSA recognises it as a valid form of knowledge-making, capable of challenging dominant narratives and cultivating more plural, ethical, and inclusive planetary imaginaries.

Alongside its policy recommendations, ECOSA presents structural, methodological, and epistemological shifts needed for cross-sector collaboration. It highlights the importance of supporting fragile artistic infrastructures, embracing alternative cosmologies, and fostering mutual respect across disciplines. The report is a foundational step in developing a long-term European cultural framework for space and planetary futures—positioning culture as a central actor in democratising space and shaping more just and imaginative forms of planetary governance. The ECOSA findings will guide future collaborations across the cultural and space sectors, and serve as a strategic reference for EU programmes including the Green Deal, New European Bauhaus, and S+T+ARTS.

The report The Cultural Gravity of Space: Policy, Practice, and Imagination can be found here.