The _Space group operates at the intersection of art and aerospace, working towards the democratization of space exploration by asserting the role of the arts beyond terrestrial sites and traditions.
At a glance
- Advocating for the role of the arts in aerospace.
- Bringing together researchers and practitioners at the RCA and beyond, with a common interest in space exploration, space observation, and spaceflight, speculative space fictions, critical space histories, space art, design and architecture.
- Imagining multi-disciplinary space futures.
Key details
Gallery
More information
The challenge
Roles for artists in space exploration have traditionally been limited to representation and outreach. As the aerospace sector calls for the democratisation of space, there is a need to imagine how arts practitioners and researchers can be more fully integrated into aerospace activities.
Our ambition is to lead the redefinition of the relationship between space and art. We believe that the contemporary moment in the evolution of the aerospace sector requires urgent consideration of the nature and concerns of this emerging field.
Our approach
Our ambition is for the RCA to become known as at the forefront of the intersection of space and art, and believe that now is the time in the evolution of the aerospace sector for us to contribute to determining the nature and concerns of this emerging field, through interdisciplinary knowledge-exchange, speculative practice, and critical re-imagining of terrestrial practices in the context of increasing engagement with the wider cosmos.
The group is a home for individual and collaborative projects that engage with space exploration and observation, the environment of space, speculative space fictions, critical space histories, space design and architecture.
Outputs
Fink, L. (present–2026) Light and Lenses. Funded by the Arts council DYCP, in partnership with Prof David Brookes, Emeritus Professor Dept of Physics & Astronomy UCL, and Fosters + Partners Architects.
Brownie, B. and Cockinos, C. (2025) Moon Bound, Netherlands: Moon Gallery Foundation
Shavrova , V. K. (2025) Textiles and Spaceflight, exhibition, Dana Research Centre & Library, Science Museum, London.
Brownie, B. (2025). Art in Orbit: Art objects and spaceflight. London: Bloomsbury.
Kaasa, A (2024), 'Andromeda', 30 minute video/choral performance, Bliss Carmxn performing with Trans Voices UK, commissioned performance as part of Always Coming Home Pt 2, Matt's Gallery, London, 28 June 2024
Kaasa, A (2024), ‘Andromeda's Howl: Relayed History and a Song Cycle as Method for Collective Imagination’. Paper presented at the Twelfth Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, 20-24 May 2024, Corfu, Greece.
Golding, J. (2024), The Colour of Time, at Colour Made Manifest. Video. 5’49. The Pump House, Exhibition , London. 8 July -11 July 2024
Kaasa, A (2023), 'How to Relay Relay; or, to Follow Andromeda is to Follow the World', AA Files, Number 79, 2023, pp. 103-115.
Kaasa, A (2023) Andromeda’s Howl, invited performance at Mad about justice, Copy Press, Swedenborg Hall, London, 23 September 2023.
Kaasa, A (2023) Trans-Andromeda, invited 2-day knowledge exchange workshop at PAF (Performing Arts Forum), St Erme, France, 18-21 August 2023.
Golding, J. (2022), ‘The Courage to Matter,’ in Golding, Reinhart and Paganelli, Data Loam: Sometimes Hard (usually soft): The Future of Knowledge Systems. De Gruyter, 449-86.
Brownie, B. (2021). ‘A Sense of Space: the separation of dress and body in microgravity’. The Senses and Society Vol. 16, Issue 3.
Brownie, B. (2020).‘Dressing the Weightless Body: Subjective verticality and the disoriented experience of dress in microgravity,’ Clothing Cultures, Vol. 6, No. 3.
Brownie, B. (2020). ‘Zero-gravity Wardrobes: The behaviour of costume in weightless environments’. Fashion Film and Consumption Vol. 5, No. 1.
Weizman, Ines (2019), Dust & Data. Traces of the Bauhaus across 100 Years, Spector Books, Leipzig
Brownie, B. (2019). Spacewear: Weightlessness and the Final Frontier of Fashion. London: Bloomsbury.
Fink, L (2018) Spheres, Permanent commission for the entrance hall of the School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University, London.
Kular, O., Toran, N. and Pestana, N. (2016), Night School on Anarres: Imaginings of an Anarchist Utopia, educational experiment examining the utopian proposals of twentieth-century anarchism, installation at Somerset House.
Goodbun, J et al (2014) Space-Time and Architecture. JBIS Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 67
Fink, L. (2013) LENS, Interdisciplinary project with the Institute of Astronomy (Cambridge University), Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma), Cancer Research UK, and philosopher Ezra Rubenstien, Funded by the Wellcome Trust. Resulting exhibition during Cambridge Science week at the Institute of Astronomy.
Weizman, Ines. (2009). ‘Architecture’s Political Spectacles: Revolutionary Reenactment and the Urban Arms Race in Cold War Berlin’, AA Files 59, London: Architectural Association. pp. 60-69.
Weizman, Ines. (2008). ‘Arms Race, Architectural’, Wörterbuch des Krieges. Dictionary of War, Merve Berlin, pp. 315-327
