Martian Encounters

Interdisciplinary conversations about otherness, belief, territory, and other factors shaping our future on Earth, and Mars, and beyond.

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“Martian Encounters: Imagining Alternate Non-Colonial Futures” is a series of international, interdisciplinary conversations, bringing together thinkers and practitioners from various fields of art, science, and literature to address four major themes shaping our visions of the future on Earth and beyond: Maps, Temples, Borders, and Ecosystems. Uniting scientific, social, political, and cultural perspectives, we will explore these topics through a central concept of “otherness,” interrogating how we define people, things, and ideas as different, foreign, or alien.

The conversations will be held in English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation between both languages, allowing a broad audience to follow the discussions in either language. Concurrently, there will be an in-person exhibition at the Palacio de la Autonomía in Mexico City, considering the same themes through visual art and science. 

“Martian Encounters” aims to weave new threads of thought between disciplines related to space exploration and other planets—starting with Mars, the closest and most familiar planet in our Solar System—but also to human interaction with planet Earth. We hope that interdisciplinary dialogue can uncover new ways of thinking, enabling us to more responsibly and carefully address complex issues, such as sending humans to Mars and responding to the climate crisis on Earth.

The event will take place virtually via Zoom on November 12 and 13, 2024. It will feature five panels: one for each theme (Maps, Temples, Borders, and Ecosystems), along with a final synthesis session.

Schedule & Registration

Borders, Tuesday, November 12, 9:00 – 10:30 am (Central Mexico Time)
Featuring astrophysicist Juan Claudio Toledo, multidisciplinary artist Martha Riva Palacio, and community-based researcher, media artist, and doula Alexandrina Agloro, moderated by Marcela Chao

Temples, Tuesday, November 12, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (Central Mexico Time)
Featuring fiction author and editor Erick J. Mota, fiction author and Arabic Studies scholar Luis Carlos Barragán, and essayist, poet, and analog astronaut Kate Greene, moderated by Libia Brenda

Ecosystems, Tuesday, November 12, 4:00 – 5:30 pm (Central Mexico Time)
Featuring biologist and science communicator David Venegas, space architecture researcher Elena Rocchi, and ecologist, environmental educator, and writer Jessie Rack, moderated by Alejandra Espino del Castillo

Maps, Wednesday, November 13, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (Central Mexico Time)
Featuring video game designer Randy Smith, literature scholar and language activist Mito Reyes, and Indigenous futurism scholar Grace Dillon, moderated by Joey Eschrich

Martian Weirdness, Wednesday, November 13, 4:00 – 5:30 pm (Central Mexico Time)
Featuring space anthropologist Anne Johnson, physicist and astrobiologist Antígona Segura, fiction writer and journalist Gabriela Damián Miravete, and poet, essayist, and analog astronaut Christopher Cokinos, moderated by Marcela Chao

Details

These conversations are all free and open to the public. After the event, video recordings of the panels will be hosted on the Center for Science and the Imagination YouTube page, https://youtube.com/imagineASU, Marsarchive.org, and Fundación UNAM.

“Martian Encounters” is organized thanks to a collaboration between the Center for Science and Imagination at Arizona State University, Future Tense (a project of ASU and New America), Marsarchive.org, El Cúmulo de Tesla, the Palacio de la Autonomía at UNAM, and the Art, Science, and Technologies program of the Institute of Astronomy at UNAM.