Earth/Mars at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Earth/Mars, was exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt for #Commonings, the final edition of The New Alphabet. In this art installation, cyanotypes of the deserts of Central Australia are juxtaposed with those of open-source Mars images by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. These images, normally a deep Prussian blue, are toned with various experimental botanical inks. Side by side, these dry landscapes, both contested lands, may function as a good starting point to think through existing settler-colonial violence and regimes on Earth such as with Palestine, the Philippines and many others. The challenges of getting to space in human history went from an international space race to a more individualized one by billionaires, increasing discourse on inequality and catastrophe on Earth. Thinking of Planet B may help to clarify the intentions and goals with Planet A. Can the collective challenges faced on Mars lead people to find or seek out common ground that has been missing on Earth?

Many thanks to the curators, Olga Schubert, Gigi Argyropoulou, Alessandra Pomarico, Mahmoud Al-Shaer and Rahul Gudipudi as well as the HKW staff Savannah Turner, Elisabeth Krämer, Amaya Gallegos, Franziska Morlok, Christine Andersen, and Lucas Gentzsch.

Thank you as well for technical assistance back in Sydney, the UNSW Making Centre and UNSW Design Futures Lab!

More about the program here: https://hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2019/new_alphabet_school/programm_146547/commonings.php