Artist-Astronaut —Debra Solomon

Curated by Field Office

Artist-Astronaut is an installation in which the audience-participants are guided on a time-travel trip into the year 2050 where they recall their careers as artist-astronauts. This project defies the notion that space exploration is a purely scientific endeavour and integrates the notion of culture as a necessary function of humanity, whether on Earth or in an expanded space community. The artist-astronaut takes on the role of cultural mediator, cataloguing and communicating artists' perspectives on potential artist involvement in space exploration.

The Artist-Astronaut installation is designed as a matrix - an enclosed, rectangular space where the walls are painted with black-light-sensitive markings, creating an immersive holodeck environment. Participants will be asked to sign up for a Future Mission session with the artist. During this time they will become artist-astronauts on a mission in space taking place a few decades into the future. Because each mission will differ depending on the dynamics of the audience-participants, this highly participatory experience also documents the various ways in which artists can (and will) create a new culture of space activity.

Debra Solomon is based in Amsterdam and is a lecturer for the MFA program at the Dutch Art Institute in Enchede, Netherlands.

Artist-Astronaut is part of SOURCE, an exhibition of media art installations as part of the 2003 Images Festival.