22.06.18 – 30.09.18
LIFE AT THE EDGES
Harsh environments are laboratories and workshops for the researchers, artists and designers in LIFE AT THE EDGES. From arctic expeditions to deep sea discoveries, this exhibition is about exploring frontiers and limits, and boldly pushing the boundaries of space, humanity, technology, biology, and determination.
As our own planet grapples with increasingly precarious environmental conditions, how could the constraints of extreme environments lead to creative new methods, microorganisms, and technologies? And who will lead our society in our efforts to discover, study, and colonise these frontiers?
This exhibition opens at a time that is oddly reminiscent of that bygone era when society lionised explorers like Amelia Earhart and Ernest Shackleton. That epoch of exploration for exploration’s sake, unencumbered by utility or (sometimes) common sense, was legendary. But it had downsides, too: problematic notions of bravery, colonialist perspectives on ‘civilisation’ and a requisite wealthy leisure-class of explorers and patrons. Still, where we once had prop planes and bathyspheres, we now have reusable rockets and remote-operated submarines. Instead of a nationalistic race to the Moon, we have asteroid mining startups and privatised Mars missions; and larger-than-life explorer-entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, blurring the line between adventurer and venture capitalist.
![Screenshot 2020-02-18 at 14.23.42.png](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e284f5563e96b59f5f0e5d7/1582035864623-ERBZLO66G81UFLTTX3SS/Screenshot+2020-02-18+at+14.23.42.png)
Highlights
Curators
Dr. Mary Bourke, Geomorphologist, Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin.
Prof. Peter Gallagher, Professor in Astrophysics / Associate Dean of Research, Trinity College Dublin.
Miha Tursic, Waag Society & co-founder of Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies.
Prof. Andy Wheeler, Chair of Geology, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork.
Melodie Yashar, designer, co-founder and member of SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture).
Exhibits
3.C. City is designed for our current global context, with climate change, rising sea levels and sinking cities challenging architecture to engage in urgent diplomacy among the species…
Thriving in the Extreme is an academic conference bringing together a group of extremophiles to discuss the extreme physiological characteristics and environments they inhabit.
In the late 1950s, the so-called ‘space race’ between the Soviet Union and USA began, and the number of space missions skyrocketed.
In 1977, the two Voyager space probes were launched, each carrying a golden record with music, sounds, and voices from Earth — just in case.
The Iron Ring explores how contaminated mining grounds may benefit from the mining of metals.
Imagine that you live in a near future. You’re watching a planet from a space station, or looking through a microscope…
Fifty years ago, a few minutes of blurry TV footage captivated the world as astronauts turned their cameras back on the Earth for the first time;
Danny is probably the first person to use molten lava flowing from a volcanic vent to create sculpture, which he feels is a deeply symbolic artistic gesture.
Roscosmoe aims to develop and design a series of experiences and bioregenerative life-support systems to assess the behavior of the photosymbiotic marine worm Symsagittifera roscoffensis in a variety of gravitational environments.
Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) is a difficult-to-recycle component of the global waste stream, and a major element of both marine and terrestrial pollution
Explore the life of a Martian with a virtual visit to the Mars Desert Research Station
Through the ongoing research project Genesis, Xandra van der Eijk studies the color properties of extremophiles: microbes that can survive or even thrive under extreme conditions.
Smell for yourself, and share your thoughts on what you think the future will smell like...
The pictures of Earth taken by the Apollo crews between 1968 and 1972 are still widely regarded as “the most influential environmental photograph[s] ever taken”
Drosophila titanus is an ongoing project which, through a process of experimentation and artificial selection, aims to develop a new species
Deep Data Prototypes is an arc of developmental work, prototypes and research connecting deep space exploration with terrestrial extremophiles and the science of astrobiology.
Curiosity is a zine about the fourth unmanned rover that NASA sent to explore the Gale Crater on Mars as part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission.
In 2017, after what seemed like a lifetime of careful planning, the members of Crew 181 finally embarked on their mission to discover new worlds.
Chimponauts & Astrocats is an illustrated zine about the history of the many animals who travelled to space. It tells the mostly sad but sometimes funny and absurd stories of some of them.
Inspired by the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Black Panorama is a hybrid science film project based on the environment around a deep-sea volcanic hydrothermal vent.
BIMGEC is a compact, lightweight workout machine, designed to offset the issues related to osteoporosis, muscular atrophy and negative psychological impact associated with long-term space travel.
This exhibit explores a future scenario in which space hotels are visited by those few who can afford to do so.
Most people think of Antarctica as white, gray, and blue, but beneath the sea surface, colour is anything but subtle.
We all know, from personal experience, what we think we need for a summer vacation far from home.