I am attending the conference, “Envisioning Limits: Outer Space and the End of Utopia,” sponsored by the Emmy Noether Research Group, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, at the Freie Universität Berlin. It is a very engaging program and between April 19 and 21, 2012, we will consider a wide range of ideas about this subject of astroculture. The program is below.
THURSDAY, 19 April 2012
09.00 Introduction
Alexander C.T. Geppert, William R. Macauley and Daniel Brandau: The 1970s, Western Europe and the Delineation of Space
09.30 Feature Presentation I
Martin Collins: Ambiguities of the 1970s. Spaceflight and the Problem of Historically Interpreting the In-Between Decade
11.00 Panel I: Transitions
Chair: Paul Nolte
Andrew Jenks: Transnational History and Human Space Flight
Doug Millard: Were the 1970s a Period of Transition for the History of Britain’s Exploration of Space?
14.00 Panel II: Pictures
Chair: Thomas P. Weber
Robert Poole: ’2001: A Space Odyssey.’ Space Travel and the Ends of Progress
Ralf Bülow: The X Files. Reading a West German Sci-Tech Magazine from 1969 to 1973
16.00 Panel III: Laws
Chair: Peter Becker
Luca Follis: Beyond Law’s Frontier. The Normative Imaginary of Outer Space
Virgiliu Pop: The Moon Agreement and the Beginning of Utopia
19.00 Feature Presentation II
Agnes Meyer-Brandis: Space Traveling. A Performance-Lecture Examining Real Utopian Aspects of Interplanetary Exchange of Idea and Matter
FRIDAY, 20 April 2012
09.00 Feature Presentation III
Chair: William R. Macauley
John Krige: Blowback, Lift Off. The Rise of Ariane and the Decline of US Monopoly of Access to Space in the 1970s
10.15 Panel IV: Politics
Chair: Etienne Benson
Matthew H. Hersch: ‘On the Edge of Forever.’ 1972 and the New American Space Consensus
Neil M. Maher: Ground Control. Space Technology, Environmentalism, and Détente
Across the Developing World
13.00 Panel V: Texts
Chair: Matthias Schwartz
Florian Kläger: Reading into the Stars. Cosmology and Self-Reflexivity in the British Novel of the 1970s
Aleksandra Idzior: Images of Extraterrestrial Life and Designs for ‘Out-of-Space’ in Poland during the 1960s and 1970s
15.00 Panel VI: Aesthetics
Chair: Claudia Schmölders
Christina Vatsella: Artworks in Orbit. The Satellite Art Projects
Thore Bjørnvig: Unlimited Play in a World of Limits. The Lego Classic Space Theme, 1978-80
17.00 Panel VII: Prospects
Chair: Debbora Battaglia
Philippe Ailleris: Red Soil, Phonograph Records and United Nations Resolution 33/426. Our 1970s Extraterrestrial Heritage
Janet Vertesi and Lisa Messeri: The Greatest Mission Never Flown. Mars Sample Return, Terrestrial Planet Finder, and the Limits of Utopia
SATURDAY, 21 April 2012
09.00 Panel VIII: Habitats
Chair: Thomas Brandstetter
W. Patrick McCray: Gerard O’Neill’s Visioneering of the ‘High Frontier’
Gonzalo Munévar: Space Colonies and their Critics
11.00 Panel IX: Transcendence
Chair: Helmuth Trischler
Peter J. Westwick: From the Club of Rome to Star Wars. The Era of Limits, Space Colonization, and the Origins of the Strategic Defense Initiative
Roger D. Launius: Human Spaceflight as Religion in the Aftermath of the Space Race
14.00 Conclusion
Chair: Alexander C.T. Geppert
David A. Kirby: General Comment
16.00 End
Loved reading the names of all the talks. So interesting. Looking for little clues as to what’s real and what’s metaphorical/imaginary.
Here’s something I ran across while browsing the internet today that seems to be pushing new boundaries. Don’t know if this falls withing your general areas of interest, but it sounds big. Wonder how far they’ll go.
http://www.prlog.org/11855820-new-star-gossip-website-launch-features-the-mentalists-simon-baker-filming-in-uk-next-week.html
Sally