Event 2: Cosmological Elements: Floating Civilizations

[Eyes in the Sky]

For Event 2 I virtually attended the Cosmological Elements 3 event that took place on May 5th, 2023. This exhibition examines cosmology through an interdisciplinary lens, and is divided into three main themes: Hidden Dimension, Cosmic Ecology, and Floating Civilizations. This particular event was presented on the Floating Civilizations aspect of the exhibition. The focus of this section was largely on human visions, aspirations, and accomplishments in space, including future space inhabitation and further space journeys. I found this topic very interesting as I feel like so much of the media covers space exploration arcs, and there has always been an obsession with life existing outside of Earth, or inhabiting Mars, for example. Eyes in the Sky by Anna Hoetjes was a piece from Chapter 3 that especially stood out to me as I viewed it, because it really emphasized the need for the insertion of the female narrative in space and cosmologic discourse. This is especially true when we consider that women did contribute so much to the topic of space exploration but were not given the credit they deserved (we can see this in the media too with the movie Hidden Figures).

Overall this event helped me understand the topics, concepts, and ideas that I have already been studying in this course because it opened my eyes to a larger scale of the human pursuit of knowledge that we have been seeing in issues such as biotechnology and neuroscience. Additionally, I had not yet considered the intersectionality of gender, specifically womanhood, with these topics. I will definitely keep that in mind moving forward to the remaining weeks, as well as when thinking back to past topics we have covered. Overall, it was a very intriguing event to attend!

Image Citations

Hoetjes, Anna. “Eyes in the Sky.” Cosmological Elements, https://cosmoselements.art/Artists. Accessed 19 May 2023.

Liu, Ani. “Olfactory Time Capsule for Earthly Memories.” Cosmological Elements, https://cosmoselements.art/Artists. Accessed 19 May 2023.

McRae, Lucy. “The Institute of Isolation.” Cosmological Elements, https://cosmoselements.art/Artists. Accessed 19 May 2023.