Australia Council Fellow (2016 - 2018) Emerging & Experimental Arts

Performing Astronautics

Following the Body's Natural Edge into the Abyss of Space

Abstract

My artistic interest in 'Following the Body's Natural Edge into the Abyss of Space' is spiritual, visceral and poetic. By investigating my relationship to the act of 'Performing Astronautics', my practice becomes a lens on exploration activities in extreme environments. The artist asks new questions of the body in space. Countermeasures and hardware development should be informed from such a unique human factors perspective or user-design experience and this is essential to critique, and design for our future visions for space. It is no secret why. I have vested interest in visualising and realising pathways for a creative life in space. Here on the ground, and with the embodied knowledge of the underwater performance artist, the Artist Astronaut offers a unique perspective to art-making, and in applying human-centered architecture and movement expertise to the design, development, test, and trade analysis of spacesuits, spacecraft, habitats, tools and technlogies of all kinds and including the deeper-level psycho-social, poetic and political challenges for artists in space exploration missions. Through strategic risk-taking and experimentation, outcomes of this project will help visualize tasks that must be performed in constrained spaces, under high-risk operational conditions, often alone and yet highly monitored and scritinised, developing innovative approaches to creating spaces that enable artists to undertake these tasks, and provide trade spaces for design engineers to use to optimize habitable and creative performance environments for artists to amplify their own pratice and contributions too. Click here for the outcomes of the Performing Astronautics Fellowship project. They focus on experimental performance exploration to amplify the bodily phases of astronaut training and undersea missions as basis for extreme movement. The creative research occurs in simultaneous phases: 1) instrumental/speculative and 2) performative exploration and by participating in space analogue training and mission scenario simulations, designing prototype performance systems, producing speculative fiction short films, proposing, reporting and producing a new work on performing astronautics. Radical ideas, compelling performances, speculative fiction, and documentation of extreme art experiences and even technical, legal and ethical recommentations result through creative research, training, conversation and collaboration with choreographers, engineers, scientists, designers, explorers and misfits. Other subtle and personal discovery resulted. I am extremely grateful for the support of the Australia Council Fellowship in Emerging and Experimental Arts and the privledge of dedicated time to develop confidence and competence, by accepting invitations, taking advantage of openings and seizing opportunities for dreaming new dreams, waking up and making them happen.

The 'Performing Astronautics' project is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

#PerformingAstronautics #AusCouncilArtsFellow #ArtistAstronaut @sarahjanepell @aquabatics

Foundation Work