Visiting Artist Lecture: Victoria Vesna, Alien Star Dust: Signal to Noise

The final VALS lecture for 2020 heads to the stars with Victoria Vesna, a renowned Artist and Professor at the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts and Director of the Art|Sci Center at the School of the Arts and California NanoSystems Institute. The lecture is highly relevant to anyone with an interest in science, technology and Art as Victoria combines disciplines to investigate how communication technologies affect collective behaviour and perceptions of identity, in relation to scientific innovation.

Between coronavirus, wildfires, floods and polarised politics, 2020 has been an incredibly overwhelming year. But it has also brought global transformation, and breathtaking celestial activity, including a once-in-a-lifetime comet, a close approach with Mars and countless meteor showers.

At the beginning of the year and again this month, the Chinese landed on the other side of the moon. Recently NASA announced that astronomers detected phosphine gas 30 miles up in Venus’ clouds, leading researchers to suggest it is a sign of alien life. The discovery is not a direct observation of life on another planet, but the sheer quantity of the rare molecules cannot be explained through any known process. Most exciting was a discovery here on earth – the oldest star dust found – 7 billion years!

Victoria will introduce the audience to her installation Alien Star Dust: Signal to Noise which premiered March in Vienna at the Meteorite Gallery of the Natural History Museum. This work evolved into a collective networked meditation in times of crisis and quarantine. It’s goal was bring audiences together for a shared experience — out of this world — through animations and a binaural sonic tapestry.

Currently she is developing an event that will be at the Integratron in the Mojave desert in California. During the talk she will give background on leading the collaborative process and show behind the scenes how art science projects evolve.

The audience is encouraged to participate in a Q&A after the presentation and Branislava Kuburović from the School of Art & Design will act as Moderator. Questions can also be submitted in the chat during the lecture.

If you are interested in attending you can either join the Prague College Facebook page to watch the livestream. Or you can watch the lecture on Zoom, to receive an invitation link send an email to: rsvp@praguecollege.cz