Off-Earth Atlas Project
University College London
Collège de France, Université PSL
Team « Anthropologie de la vie », Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale
Maison Française d’Oxford (UMIFRE 11 CNRS/MEAE)
Workshop 1
Seedling Biospheres in Outer Space
The Remarkable Proliferation of Life in Bottles, Fridges, Greenhouses And Spacecrafts
Perig Pitrou & Istvan Praet
December, 5th 2022
Salle 4, Collège de France
11 place Marcelin Berthelot, Paris 5e
In person event. Registration (https://forms.gle/LonBigx1mSVXMMxF9)
Along with astrobiological research into the possibility of life elsewhere, space exploration has led contemporary researchers to extend the limits of life beyond Earth. At various scales, technical devices have enabled them to make key processes such as nutrition and respiration work in very different conditions. At the same time, they have acquired considerable expertise in sustaining non-human life (micro-organisms, plants, animals …) in artificial environments. The objective of this workshop is to reflect on how such techno-scientific projects — which have in common that they engender veritable ‘micro-worlds’ or seedling biospheres — contribute to the reconfiguration of life-as-we-know-it and perhaps even humanity itself.
The Off-Earth Atlas is a joint project of the University College London (UCL) and the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), in partnership with the Collège de France and the Maison Française d’Oxford. It aims to foster a sustained dialogue between anthropology, and the social sciences/ humanities more generally, and all those who are engaged in the ongoing endeavour to explore and exploit outer space. A series of workshops will cast new light on four key aspects of that emerging dialogue: ‘Forms of Life’ (Paris), ‘Territories’ (London), ‘Architectures and Infrastructures’ (London), ‘Images and Imaginations’ (Oxford). Ultimately, these will result in an Off-Earth Atlas, containing some fifty images and graphs accompanied by short texts.
9h45 Introduction
10:00 a.m. Presentation of the project “Off Earth Atlas”
David Jeevendrampillai, Centre for Outer Space Studies, University College London
& Perig Pitrou, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Maison Française d’Oxford, Collège de France, Université PSL
10h15 The Atlas: A Website and Curatorial Project
Elsa De Smet, Centre Pompidou-Metz
Delphine Mercier, University College London
Gerald Sim, University College London
10h30 Life Support Systems
Kärin Nickelsen, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
11h00 Short break
11:15 a.m. Closed Systems
Elie Danziger, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,
École Normale supérieure, Collège de France
11h45 Future Space Aquaculture
Cyrille Przybyla, Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (French Institute for Ocean Science)
12h30 Lunch (Registration mandatory : https://forms.gle/LonBigx1mSVXMMxF9)
14h00 Evolutions
Kathleen Bryson, Oxford University
2:30 p.m. Circadian Rhythms
Aaron Parkhurst, University College London
3:00 p.m. Ascensions
Luis Campos, Rice University
15h30 Break
4:00 p.m. A Cultivating Liberation
Debbora Battaglia, Mount Holyoke College [zoom]
4:30 p.m. Mars Bubble
Jordan Bimm, University of Chicago [zoom]
17h00 Seedling Biospheres
Istvan Praet, Durham University
5:30 p.m. Final Comments
Victor Buchli, University College London [zoom]
5:45 p.m. General Discussion
18h30 End of the workshop
Organization & Information : Linda Brendlin [linda.brendlin@college-de-france.fr]
Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale
