This is the preliminary webinar #16 of the IV SRI World Congress (SRIC4)
Abstract:
The expansion of the commercial spaceflight sector and democratization of space is creating new opportunities for artists to engage directly with the environment of space. For a new generation of space artists, space presents new physical and philosophic questions. This webinar explores how space artists are redefining their practice through direct engagement with space, using case-studies of work that has been deployed on board the ISS, sub-orbital flights, and zeroG flights. Through these, the webinar will explore how artists are revising traditional art methods and materials through interactions with microgravity; the relationships between artists, astronauts and audiences; and the disciplinary and hierarchy challenges faced by artists operating in the space sector.

An essential Bio:
Dr Barbara Brownie is an Associate Dean (Education) at the Royal College of Art. Barbara’s research explores space as a site for art and design, with a particular focus on effects of weightlessness. Her book, Spacewear: Weightlessness and the Final Frontier of Fashion (Bloomsbury, 2019), considers the challenges and opportunities that the commercial space age presents to fashion designers, and how weightlessness necessitates new approaches to clothing and the dressed body. Her most recent book, Art in Orbit (Bloomsbury 2025), explores the relationship between the arts and space sectors, and the spaceworks that demonstrate art’s value in space exploration. In 2026 and 2027 she will be sending writing and artworks to space on three separate flights: one sub-orbital, one orbital, and one lunar. She co-leads the _Space research group at the RCA, a group of artists and researchers operating at the intersection of art and aerospace.