44
D. de Paulis
cultural events, from the Big Bang to the present, working along a very broad time
scale from an interdisciplinary perspective, merging human sciences with physics,
astronomy and geology. Spier spoke about his experience of the Moon landing as a
child and the cultural meaning of the Earth Rise photo, which for many years had
a strong impact only on the American narrative, leaving Europe and the rest of the
world almost indifferent. Astronaut Nicole Stott spoke about her personal experience
of the Overview Effect from the International Space Station and her life on board,
together with her crew mates.
The symposium was followed by a conversation between myself, the neuroscientists and Josephine Bosma, who asked about my background as a contemporary
dancer and how that affected the making of COGITO in Space. In my answer it
emerged that the physical division between oneself and outer space is a perceptive illusion, as matter at the atomic level is a continuity, the difference between
one’s body and outer space being an instance of intensity and density of matter: the
blood running through my veins as I write is in fact as close to my skin—the body’s
membrane between interior and exterior space—as the air and materials touching it.
My internal organs are thus a continuity with outer space. In COGITO in Space the
body streams beyond its protective skin into the infinite space beyond it, poetically
drifting towards the unknown.
The talks session was followed by a meditative lecture-walk in the area
surrounding the scientific facilities, the Dwingeldverveld National Park, mostly a flat
landscape dotted with heath lands. The walk, guided by planetary scientist Maarten
Roos, took the visitors along a straight line going from the radio telescope into the
wide open landscape and back, allowing for the visitors to gaze as far as the horizon,
as if viewing the curvature of the Earth. The walk, lasting approximately one hour,
was interspersed by cogitations on the origin of the cosmos, of life on Earth, the
existence of possible extraterrestrial life, and was informed by Fred Spier’s book
“Big History and the Future of Humanity”.
The walk aimed at inspiring a sense of belonging to Earth before virtually leaving
the planet, as well as creating room for individual existential questioning. The
walk was followed by an introduction into the history of radio astronomy and the
Dwingeloo radio telescope by astronomer Roy Smits. The short presentation led the
visitors inside the cabin through a seamless transition between the different events
taking place and the different people performing them. While the visitors started
entering the cabin and taking their seats, I turned the engine of the radio telescope
on, while the participant lying on a gravity chair was being prepared by the neuroscientists with the EEG device and the VR headset. As the people sat still, the radio
telescope started tracking the star Betelgeuse, the departing point for the brain activity
transmission, and this triggered the rotation of the cabin. Once reached the complete
stop of the rotation, the curtains lowered, shortly after the video in virtual reality
started playing while the brain activity was recorded and simultaneously transmitted
into space, with the antenna of the radio telescope pointing still towards the sky (see
Fig. 6.6).
D. de Paulis
cultural events, from the Big Bang to the present, working along a very broad time
scale from an interdisciplinary perspective, merging human sciences with physics,
astronomy and geology. Spier spoke about his experience of the Moon landing as a
child and the cultural meaning of the Earth Rise photo, which for many years had
a strong impact only on the American narrative, leaving Europe and the rest of the
world almost indifferent. Astronaut Nicole Stott spoke about her personal experience
of the Overview Effect from the International Space Station and her life on board,
together with her crew mates.
The symposium was followed by a conversation between myself, the neuroscientists and Josephine Bosma, who asked about my background as a contemporary
dancer and how that affected the making of COGITO in Space. In my answer it
emerged that the physical division between oneself and outer space is a perceptive illusion, as matter at the atomic level is a continuity, the difference between
one’s body and outer space being an instance of intensity and density of matter: the
blood running through my veins as I write is in fact as close to my skin—the body’s
membrane between interior and exterior space—as the air and materials touching it.
My internal organs are thus a continuity with outer space. In COGITO in Space the
body streams beyond its protective skin into the infinite space beyond it, poetically
drifting towards the unknown.
The talks session was followed by a meditative lecture-walk in the area
surrounding the scientific facilities, the Dwingeldverveld National Park, mostly a flat
landscape dotted with heath lands. The walk, guided by planetary scientist Maarten
Roos, took the visitors along a straight line going from the radio telescope into the
wide open landscape and back, allowing for the visitors to gaze as far as the horizon,
as if viewing the curvature of the Earth. The walk, lasting approximately one hour,
was interspersed by cogitations on the origin of the cosmos, of life on Earth, the
existence of possible extraterrestrial life, and was informed by Fred Spier’s book
“Big History and the Future of Humanity”.
The walk aimed at inspiring a sense of belonging to Earth before virtually leaving
the planet, as well as creating room for individual existential questioning. The
walk was followed by an introduction into the history of radio astronomy and the
Dwingeloo radio telescope by astronomer Roy Smits. The short presentation led the
visitors inside the cabin through a seamless transition between the different events
taking place and the different people performing them. While the visitors started
entering the cabin and taking their seats, I turned the engine of the radio telescope
on, while the participant lying on a gravity chair was being prepared by the neuroscientists with the EEG device and the VR headset. As the people sat still, the radio
telescope started tracking the star Betelgeuse, the departing point for the brain activity
transmission, and this triggered the rotation of the cabin. Once reached the complete
stop of the rotation, the curtains lowered, shortly after the video in virtual reality
started playing while the brain activity was recorded and simultaneously transmitted
into space, with the antenna of the radio telescope pointing still towards the sky (see
Fig. 6.6).