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Wednesday, Jan 21, 2026
The SETI AIR program kicks off the year by supporting Invisible Skies, a public art event in San José that brings together art, community, and the cosmos. Looking ahead, our plans for 2026 include the launch of Speculative Life, a new residency that will bring BioArt into dialogue with astrobiology, the second edition of the Cosmic Chronicles Literary Award, and we're looking forward to welcoming new affiliate artists into the program. It's going to be a busy year! With new partnerships and collaborations on the horizon, we wish our artists, collaborators, and community a wonderful start to the year ahead.
As always, make sure to catch up on our SETI AIR news and events.
Clear skies,
Bettina
Invisible Skies
The SETI Institute’s Artist-in-Residence program is collaborating in the project Invisible Skies San José, a large-scale, participatory public artwork conceived by artist Elizabeth Turk. This one-night flash art experience will transform San José City Hall Plaza into a temporary observatory, inviting approximately 2,000 community members to become living constellations. Carrying artist-designed, LED-lit umbrellas, participants will create luminous formations that turn the civic space into a shared, imaginative sky, echoing the project’s guiding statement: Joy is an act of defiance.
In keeping with the project’s celestial spirit, the SETI Institute will be on site with telescopes, offering the public an opportunity to observe the night sky (weather permitting) from a designated viewing area in front of the City Hall rotunda. Umbrellas will be distributed to registered participants beginning at 5:30 pm, and while no formal choreography is planned, volunteers are encouraged to wear black and assemble into constellation-like formations as the event is documented from above.
Date: January 31, 2026
Time: 5:30–7:30 pm
SETI AIR Artist News & Events
List Projects 34: Brittany Nelson
Solo exhibition at MIT List Visual Arts Center
Cambridge, MA, USA
January 15 - March 29, 2026
Daniela Brill Estrada, Ines Montalvo
Transdiscourse 3: Women in Art, Science, and Body Politics
Edited by Jillian Scott
Publisher: De Gruyter Brill, 2026
Cosmic Metabolisms: Xin Liu’s Ecological Imaginaries at Frieze London
Review by Isher Dhiman in Contemporary Visual Arts Network
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