Exhibition launch 'Archive Ad Astra: Objects of Space Enthusiasm'

Our personal belongings are integral to how we cultivate and make sense of our myriad individual and social identities. Complex, occasionally contradictory, and intimate, our relationship to our things can be unconscious and under-examined, yet help form the foundations of our beliefs, behaviours, and practices in the world.

This co-curated ethnographic exhibition gathers together a selection of objects and their biographies from the personal collections of space enthusiasts. Through the journeys, histories, and social lives of the objects themselves, in addition to the process of collaboratively designing and producing the exhibition, enthusiasm is explored as a tangible social energy which can be circulated, shared, and repurposed, much like an object itself. At its heart, this exhibition asks how one incorporates outer space into their everyday lives by centring mundane yet precious objects which embody, represent, and facilitate dreams, beliefs, and experiences which bring space and possible futures closer to home.

In addition, the exhibition explores how anthropologists can incorporate collaborative methods and co-curation of knowledge into fieldwork, and was community-collected and implemented by members of Adryon Kozel’s research participants and members of the space community. The project forms an integral part of her doctoral research into the practices and narratives of space enthusiasts in the Second Space Age, or the ‘Orbital Age’, in which space is increasingly accessible to greater numbers and diversity of people and structures.

The exhibition will be displayed in the UCL Anthropology foyer from June 7 to December 15, 2023, and is complemented by a series of associated events and an interactive website.

Please join Adryon and her co-curators on June 7th from 6pm for a free, public exhibition launch drinks reception and presentation. Free sign-up via Eventbrite, in-person attendance only.