Queering Space Exploration

While humanity is on the threshold of venturing deep into space, are we bound to repeat the same mistakes we made on earth, colonizing space and capitalizing on resources and living beings? Let’s instead imagine a future for space, that is queer, trans, decolonized, beyond binary thinking and themes of purity. 

Join us at Planetarium Copenhagen, for a talk between Adriana Knouf, artist, PhD, writer and xenologist, and Fahad Saeed – Public Speaker and Co-founder of  Sabaah, in which they will dive deep into the themes and questions that Adriana examines in her work and discover how the arts can contribute to the highly technical realms of aerospace, astronautics and space exploration.

As an artist and scientist, Adriana raises the question of how one can approach outer space from a queer, trans, and post-colonial perspective. In this talk, we will examine in what ways the history of LGBTQ+ speculative fiction – written and visual, offers alternatives to the ways in which we currently relate to outer space? How might our imaginaries of the future shape the ways we live in the present?

What is the usefulness of considering space travel given the challenges we face here on earth? These challenges include the under-representation of women, racialized groups, the differently abled, and LGBTQ+ people in discourses and activities around space travel, reflections on the ideology of purity, as well as an exploration of the notion of xenology– the analysis and development of the strange and the alien. 

Queering Space Exploration is a collaboration between  Planetarium of Copenhagen and Art Hub Copenhagen, where Adriana Knouf  is currently an artist in residence. The event is part of the official event program for Pride Week 2022.

ABOUT VIDEO ARTWORK
DEAR INTERLOCUTOR: TX-1 will be screened for the first time in Scandinavia, in the tilted dome of the Planetarium. This three-channel video piece presents a non-linear narrative that explores how imaginaries of the future and residues from the past impact our present life, and how we can live differently now. 

The discussion will be centered on the project she is conceiving in the framework of the S+T+ARTS residency, and its articulations with her practice.

Adriana and Fahad will dive deep into the themes and questions that Adriana examines in her work, which include the under-representation of women, racialized groups, the differently abled, and LGBTQ+ people in discourses and activities around space travel, reflections on the ideology of purity, as well as an exploration of the notion of xenology– the analysis and development of the strange and the alien. 

The screening and the following conversation and Q and A will be in English.

ABOUT ADRIANA KNOUF

Adriana Knouf, PhD (NL/US) works as an artist, writer, and xenologist. She engages with topics such as wet media, space art, satellites, radio transmission, non-human encounters, drone flight, queer and trans futurities, machine learning, the voice, and papermaking. She is the Founding Facilitator of tranxxeno lab, a nomadic artistic research laboratory that promotes entanglements among entities trans and xeno. Adriana regularly presents her artistic research around the world and beyond, including a work that has flown aboard the International Space Station. Her work has been recognized by a number of awards, including an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (2021), an Honorary Mention from the Science Fiction Research Association’s Innovative Research Award, and as a prize winner in The Lake’s Works for Radio #4 (2020).

ABOUT FAHAD SAEED

Fahad Saeed is a Public Speaker, Diversity Strategist as well as an activist with 16 years of experience in LGBT-activism. Fahad is a known name in civil society,  where he has worked tirelessly to build bridges across communities and diverse topics. As a host of Fahads Forsamlingshus – Fahads Town Hall, he dives into essential yet controversial topics where religion, culture, norms self-identity cross paths. 

ABOUT ART HUB COPENHAGEN

Art Hub Copenhagen is an international art institution and meeting place in Copenhagen aimed at supporting and promoting young, professional visual artists, broadening and qualifying public debates on artistic practice, and strengthening the voice of artists in society.

Art Hub aims to boost existing dialogues on contemporary art nationally and internationally, something we do by bringing artists, curators, writers, researchers, companies, cultural institutions and the general public together in a new community.

ABOUT S+T+ARTS

Launched by the European Commission, the S+T+ARTS Residency initiative aims to foster imaginative thinking by creating spaces of dialogue between Science, Technology, and the Arts.

This project has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement LC01641664.