With the addition of Maja Kuzmanovich & Nik Gaffey of Brussels based lab for speculative culture FoAM and the screening of Matthew C. Wilson’s film the line-up for the second episode of the Coded Matter(s) Worldbuilding trilogy is complete!

On Thursday 27 September FIBER and de Brakke Grond present Coded Matter(s) – Terra Fiction; an evening programme about digital culture and imagining future worlds and sustainable living on earth and beyond. Speakers working on the cross-section of art, literature, science and design reflect on the new relationship between man, technology, earth and life in space.

Today we’re entering a new space race where private companies such as Google and Space X aim to colonise and terraform Mars.The belief in the makeability of a planet as a technological utopia seems to be at odds with the current problems around climate change and the large-scale damage to the earth. In what way do Silicon Valley’s ideas influence the future of man? What will happen if these visions are exported to space? Terra Fiction questions these developments and presents alternative scenarios to shape life on earth and beyond.

Pippa Goldschmidt is a writer with a background in astronomy in her short stories she reflects on current practices of space colonisation and its impact on earth.E. J. Swift’s stories explore the geopolitical impacts of climate change. She will discuss the role of speculative fiction in imagining alternative worlds, and how it might offer us a vision for a better future. Solarpunk researcher and technology theorist Jay Springett lays out the strategic narrative of land-as-platform which grafts the organisational logic of the digital ecologies back onto living soil. Miha Turšič presents a new Waag project and asks the question: what can we learn about life by studying outer space? Art-scientist Ivan Henriques will represent Symbiotic Machine for Space Exploration a project that aims to create an autonomous system for enhancing terrestrial ecosystems and facilitating atmospheric formation on other planets. With their motto “grow your own worlds” Maja Kuzmanovich & Nik Gaffey from FoAM, the Brussels based lab for speculative culture, give insights in the importance of transdiscplinairy collaboration for re-imagining possible futures.

Next to these presentations the evening program consists out of short movies: Material explorer Margaux Hendriksen will screen her Scramble for the Moon project, a speculative design project with which she graduated at The Material Futures Master at Central Saint Martins in London; Matthew C Wilson will screen his film The Age of Autonomous Exploration which is currently on display as part of the Dissident Gardens exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut. The evening will be concluded with a panel discussion.

Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction is the 2nd edition of the Worldbuilding trilogy. The digital culture platform FIBER investigates the role of art and culture in proposing sustainable, future living environments. Following the lecture program, FIBER presents in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut Terra Fiction Lab. on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 September participants will be working on narrative prototypes for new artistic works.

Image credit: Margaux Hendriksen

This event is made possible by the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Coded Matter(s) is presented in collaboration with Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond.