Space Acts: a workshop of performative research and storying on meteorites and space mining
This exposition discusses artistic research about human relations with non-terrestrial matter. Since 2021, I have developed a series of works that employ meteorites to initiate discussions of the Earth-space complex, specifically human interaction with resources on and off Earth. Within an evolving workshop format that integrates a lecture, storytelling, and somatic exercises, participants interact with meteorites, engaging in multilayered storying about human/non-human relations and how seemingly distant activities in outer space are linked to rather earthly realities. Space Acts, and my research within the postdoc project “Plots of Un·Earthing”, are based on the notion of un·Earthing, a proposal for a transdisciplinary framework to analyze and reflect human transformations by and in outer space. Employed in the context of the extraction of non-terrestrial resources, i.e. space mining, un·Earthing reveals the oscillating and multi-dimensional relations between space and Earth that might define not only potential futures beyond our planet but also our present interaction with environments on Earth. Un·Earthing and the notion of plot, with its simultaneous territorial, economic, political and narrative meanings, offer a transdisciplinary and accessible concept to engage workshop participants in discussing and potentially re-evaluating their position, and to recontextualize the trope of space mining for a broader public. keywords: meteorites, space mining, un·Earthing, storying-as-research, performative research