Today’s most important global telecommunication infrastructures are located in the geostationary orbit (GEO). One satellite in the GEO can “see” 42% of the Earth, while three satellites can cover the whole globe. A central issue with outer space telecommunication infrastructures is that, while they facilitate most of our daily activities, they are not only out of sight but also out of reach. The physical, technical, and economic limitations imposed on and by their accessibility act as hindrances to the possibility of creative adaptation and informed civic engagement.
In response to this problem of structural inequality, the project examines the material forms of this relation and the role of hybrid and participatory design in the construction of sustainable interplanetary infrastructures of telecommunication. At the intersection of Communication and Media Studies, Design and Urbanism, and Space Science and Technology, the project identifies strategies of cohabitation that give rise to unforeseen forms of informed engagement as well as to sustainable connections between space telecommunication infrastructures, the built environment, and urban communities.
Combining training in research methods and techniques, literary and visual research, theoretical and practical workshops, and research-creation, the project produces new reflexive tools and speculative material objects.
This project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The research team consists of Marie-Pier Boucher (PI), Alice Jarry, Bernard Foing, Emiliano Gandolfi, Pierre-Louis Patoine, Rouzbeh Akhbari, Majjd Al-Shihabi, Reka Gal, Guillaume Pascale, Gabrielle Simard, Lee Wilkins, and Yolanda Zang. Images by Guillaume Pascale.