SPACE OUT! Interstellar Media

When the current and former owners of social media sites and e-commerce platforms increasingly turn their lustful gaze to outer space, we should take note. Yes, outer space is obviously the site of future wealth and resources, but it is also a field of activity shaped by the tools, artifacts, devices, and frameworks of media studies, revealing that humanity’s relationship with the cosmos is a mediated one. We rely on satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) for communication as well as for health and environmental monitoring and planning; on Geo Positioning Satellite (GPS) for navigation; on space travel apparatuses for the development of methods of storage and transportation of information, bodies, and goods; on tele-communication devices for interplanetary transmission; on the tools of media archeology for data sampling; on the tools of media geology for mining and extraction; and on the tools of information sciences for data processing and visualization. By focusing on outer space, the ICCIT symposium invites us to rethink our relationship to space, media, technology, land, population, property, resource extraction, and environmental management without falling into the traps of military, colonial, capitalist, sexist, classist, racist, and ableist logics. Space Out! draws attention to the quickly unveiling post-planetary moment and, for one day, encourages us to ask: what kinds of theories, stories, analyses, methods, techniques, and ethics are needed to live in the cosmos?

Agenda

9:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

Coffee and Goodies

9:45 a.m.

Opening words

10:00 a.m.

Session 1
Lauren Knight: Waves; Suarjan Prasai: Sonification; Mathew Iantorno: Astral; Valerie Olson, UC Irvine; "Think Like A Space Bro or Die"; Yuxing Yolanda Zhang: Archaeology; Priyanka Verma: Data Practic...

12:00 p.m.

Lunch

1:00 p.m.

Session 2
Kaushar Mahetaji: Partnerships; Bryan Mark: Urban terraforming; Marie-Pier Boucher + Tero Karppi, University of Toronto: “Interstellar Media”; Arun Jacob: Logistics; Upasana Bhattacharjee: Labour; F...

2:30 p.m.

Break

2:40 p.m.

Session 3
Jeremy Packer, University of Toronto + Chris Russill, Carleton University: "Signal, Danger, Environment: Medial a priori in cosmic sociology"; Lucas Wong: STEM-Education; Hiu Fung Chung: Head-Space;...

4:10 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks