Experiences

The Experiences project at the SETI Institute extends outreach and education activities in terms of scope, scale, public and methods of engagement towards architecture, installations, immersive environments, social systems, performances, experiences, and narratives as events. Since 2013, SETI Institute Designer of Experiences, Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun- Stépanian, has led the initiative. Experiences initiatives build on Ben Hayoun-Stépanian's past work with leading scientists and engineers to devise subversive events and performances (previously in Cern, Super Kamiokande, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Imperial College London, SLAC, etc.). Another example is the International Space Orchestra, a project she created and direct since 2012 at NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute.

Dr. Ben Hayoun- Stépanian develops interdisciplinary research environments and platforms with SETI Institute's scientists to implement, deconstruct, perform, enact, reenact, sing, mix, modify, and design musical or filmographic acts on their scientific research. Together they work on designing experiences to engage the public with the core mission of the SETI Institute. Dr. Ben Hayoun- Stépanian is also the Vice-Chair of the IAF (International Astronautical Federation) Technical Committee on the Cultural Utilization of Space (ITACCUS), a member of the IAF Space Education and Outreach Committee (SEOC) and a member of the IAA (International Academy of Astronautics) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) permanent committee amongst others. She runs the Space Culture session at the International Astronautical Congress, where she works to amplify new and fresh ways to implement outreach and critical thinking into scientific institutions and beyond with members of the public.

 

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Projects:
 

The International Space Orchestra (ISO) is the world's first orchestra of space scientists. Blending space exploration, bassoons, harps and triangles, planet-poking and bluegrass-playing spacecraft operators – The ISO's members are individuals drawn from NASA Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the International Space University. The International Space Orchestra is an experiential and hybrid research laboratory, where space scientists are implementing, deconstructing, performing, singing, mixing, modifying, and designing musical acts. It is a provocation to action: a call to imagine and disrupt future human relations to space science; to adapt space science to our creative needs.

They previously performed sold-out shows with Sigur Rós, Beck, Damon Albarn and Bobby Womack, The Prodigy, Penguin Café, Japanese composer Maywa Denki, Savages, and more on some of the most epic stages of California (Davies Symphony Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Fillmore Theater etc.). In this tangential reality, your Flight Controller conducts arias, and the Payload Officer works a baritone sax, while the Capsule Communicator is on the triangle and an astronaut on percussions. Following the Tragedy rules defined by the ancient Greeks, the ISO chorus introduces the public to the emotional nuances of space science missions. In 2015, European Space Agency Italian Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti brought the ISO music Compact Disc to the International Space Station. Since then, the ISO record is orbiting the Earth onboard the International Space Station, experiencing Zero Gravity inside the Cupola.

The International Space Orchestra is currently rehearsing with director and SETI Institute Designer of Experiences Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun- Stépanian and two-time Grammy-Award winner ISO musical director Evan Price at NASA Ames Research center, California- and online!

The International Space Orchestra feature film was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and was singled out by the Guardian as' "as thrilling as watching a rocket launch."

http://internationalspaceorchestra.com/

 

Welcome to the real "Armageddon."

Hollywood relies on Bruce Willis to save the world in Armageddon, but who are the real-life heroes seeking to protect our civilization from the next significant asteroid impact?

One of Indiewire's six highlights of SXSW 2015, singled out by Janet Pierson as 'pretty nuts,' Selected at Sheffield 2015 and raved by SoundOnSight as 'bombastic,' Disaster Playground investigates future outer space catastrophes and the procedures in place to manage, assess, and minimize the risks.

We are so used to a particular version of disaster. We know what it looks like: Hollywood CGI. We know its characters: Bruce Willis as the ultimate hero, the scientist with terrible news, and the flawed president who is always presidential in a crisis. We know the dramatic rescues, the high-tech equipment, and the chain of command – that reassuring sense that someone understands what to do.

The reality is, in fact, different. Disaster Playground is a 'theatre of cruelty,' a critical platform where scientific surprise and its process can be more acclaimed than box-office success.

The film follows scientists leading the monitoring and deflection of hazardous Near-Earth Objects and the real-life procedures in place in the event of an asteroid collision with the Earth. From NASA and the SETI Institute to the White House and the United Nations, DISASTER PLAYGROUND follows people responsible for protecting humanity from a potentially devastating asteroid impact.

Disaster Playground is a real film at the edge of space fiction: space decadence with a cutting-edge approach through the re-enactment of off-nominal situations by world-renowned space experts at NASA and the SETI Institute.

With an original soundtrack featuring electronic music label Ed Banger Records and The Prodigy.

http://disasterplayground.com/

 

Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian founded the University of the Underground- Stépanian in February 2017, as a charity with ANBI status (RSIN 8575.82.781). The University of the Underground is a free, pluralistic and transnational university based in the basement of nightclubs- with headquarters in Amsterdam and London- and actively working with both institutions and nightlife. As a charity, the University of the Underground hopes to bring generations together to democratize access to public institutions and trigger changes and critical reflections through the use of creative and experiential practices. With an explicit focus on political theory and philosophy, design of experiences, music, theatrical practices, film, social actions, and social dreaming aims to provide toolkits for members of the public and students to participate in revealing power structures in institutions. The University of the Underground supports unconventional research, countercultures, and practices that apprehend and challenge the formulation of culture, the manufacture, and commodities of knowledge. For the University of the Underground, it is essential to rethink education beyond national borders and build a federation of cooperative schools globally to support the development, identification and empowerment of countercultures in institutions. As a result, the University of the Underground has started to run educational programs in the USA, starting in summer 2019, in collaboration with the Hannah Arendt Center of Bard College and the United Nations; but also, with the American University in Cairo and online in collaboration with Bassiani, a nightclub in Tbilisi in Georgia.

Most recently, The University of the Underground launched the High School of the Underground for the 12-18, inviting youths to join for after school programs; this program is run by one of recent graduate and former alumni- Alexander Cromer.
The University of the Underground charity supports students from around the world by granting them scholarships. At the same time, it co-hosts a master's program, the Masters Design of Experiences, with an accredited academic partner, as well as running public events, radio programs, and workshops.

The University of the Underground has a board of international thinkers, philosophers, activists, academics, politicians, musicians, filmmakers, innovative entrepreneurs but also creatives and curators such as Prof. Noam Chomsky, Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, academic Prof. Arjun Appadurai, European MEPs Magid Magid, performers such as Ishmael Butler of Digable Planets and Shabazz Palaces and musicians Massive Attack, drag performer Peaches Christ, Ted Prize winner and SETI Institute scientist Dr. Jill Tarter, activist Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, author and McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers, President of file transfer service WeTransfer, Damian Bradfield with MOMA curator Paola Antonelli amongst others pluridisciplinary practitioners.

http://universityoftheunderground.org

 

(2019- London Film Festival- Grierson Award Selection- International best documentary selection)

I am (not) a monster features political activist Noam Chomsky, Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Hannah Arendt's students: Arjun Appadurai, Leon Botstein and Richard Bernstein, nonsense artist Novbumichi Tosa of Maywa Denki, robot maker Hiroshi Ishiguro, Japanese Living National Treasures: Bunraku puppeteer - Kanjuro Kiritake II, kimono master - Takayuki Takahashi, Noh Theatre master - Hisa Uzawa, Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid, cyborg artist Neil Harbisson and many more - students, alternative schools and brilliant thinkers.

To act is to begin something new', said Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest thinkers of all time who passed away in 1975 and coined the concept of the 'banality of evil.' In this bombastic film, learn about the origins, thinking processes and mechanisms of activism, our risky thoughts and our collective fears. It is a most urgent film unraveling some of the reasons why Trump, Le Pen and others have captured people's imaginations by reviving past ideologies. From dangerous plots to dangerous actions, you will hear about our collective fears, both past and present, but also encounter the contemporary monsters and actors of the future: the humanoids. Your guide in this adventurous journey is the alternative educator Nelly Ben Hayoun, who armed with puppets and dressed as Hannah Arendt, teases the greatest thinkers of our age while challenging them to an impossible pursuit; the search of the origin of knowledge.

Interviewing Hannah Arendt's former students and key philosophers and activists, 'designer of experiences' Nelly Ben Hayoun takes Hannah Arendt on a world tour in 16 cities, an impossible pursuit through four continents - looking for the origins, mechanics and power dynamics behind knowledge. Trained by Noh theatre and Kabuki experts in Japan, with puppets in hand, Ben Hayoun is questioning the ownership and plurality of our thoughts, and the means by which freedom of learning and innovative educative federations can exist in contemporary times. She is hoping to return from her travels in Japan, Ethiopia, California, Arizona, New York State, United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany with the source of knowledge in her suitcase so that she can share it with her students, down below, in the University of the Underground.

http://iamnotamonster.world/

 

In development. For release in 2022.

Old worlds decolonize future worlds, and migrant bodies prepare to settle on the moon. Through role-play, magic, and doppelgängers, RED MOON offers an experimental vision and template for diasporas beyond Earth. How will the first families of the moon understand origins, borders and territories?

The movie RED MOON offers a formally creative storytelling format to portray the non-linear narratives and historical arcs of immigration and colonization. Nelly Ben Hayoun- Stépanian casts and invites three doppelgängers and their families to research histories of civilization, diasporas, and movement of populations from territories to territories, land to sea, land to the sun, water to land; and Earth to the moon. Together, and in different locations, they all train in preparation for a new utopian moon society. The film culminates in a scenario in which Ben Hayoun-Stépanian responds to the direction of her doppelgangers in crafting a speculative moon utopia. The film will be completed in Spring 2022.

 

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