The forthcoming exhibition at Khoj Studios draws a parallel between the earth we inhabit and the outer space. It also focusses on environment degradation, sustainability, recycling and efficient use of limited natural resources
Is survival on earth becoming even more precarious than in spaceIJ Can our cities survive for long if they continue to grow irresponsiblyIJ How can policy makers intervene to make our cities self-sufficientIJ These questions are often raised by artists through their artworks and they come to mind again as one sees posters, photographs, info-graphics and videos made by the CAAS Collective (a trio of Susmita Mohanty, Barbara Imhof and Sue Fairburn) and Rohini Devasher during a two-week residency at Khoj Studios. The works will be displayed in an exhibition titled The Undivided Mind.
The aim of the exhibition is to draw a parallel between the earth we inhabit and outer space, bringing into focus questions about environment degradation, sustainability, recycling and efficient use of limited natural resources. The exhibition explores the ways in which scientific processes and discoveries can be coupled with visual art production and vice-versa. Khoj Studios, the venue of the exhibition, will be converted into a mini space-station as part of its project.
CAAS Collective or the ‘City As A Spaceship’ collective comprises Susmita Mohanty (spaceship designer and aerospace entrepreneur), Barbara Imhof (space architect) and Sue Fairburn (scientist and design researcher). Rohini Devasher is an emerging visual artist who has participated in several past residency programmes at Khoj.
Susmita Mohanty, who was a member of an international crew that lived in isolation on a simulated Martian outputs in the Utah desert in 2004, says, “Ever wondered how astronauts live in outer spaceIJ Their space habitat is not very different in size, basic amenities or socio-psychological stressors from that of a micro compact home or workspace in super dense cities like Mumbai, Tokyo, New York or Sao Paolo. The extreme shortage of real estate, clean air, water, waste disposal in dense cities present living problems not dissimilar to those encountered in extra terrestrial, synthetic environments.
The problems of odour, noise, crowd, privacy, hygiene, upkeep and storage are quite comparable. Yet these space stations are super-efficient and self-sufficient to sustain themselves. A city like Delhi sources almost everything from electricity to water from elsewhere. CAAS is a thought which believes that every city should be self sufficient like a space station.
We need smart cities in future if we have to survive. Smart cities are small, self-sufficient and those which utilise portable habitats — just like a space station. We want people to conceptualise, visualise and materialise how to tread the planet lightly.”
One such model was created by CAAS for the Vienna Science Festival where Vienna was envisioned as a “smart city even growing its crops vertically within the buildings” and which was later included in science textbooks in Vienna.
The works on display at Khoj will focus on data collected through CAAS’ interactions with people of Khirkee and the neighborhood. Says Sue Fairburn, a Canadian scientist who works with concepts of extreme physiology, “Through our collages that juxtapose various living environments on earth and that in space, we want to create a dialogue that earth and space are not exclusive of each other.”
CAAS is a new way of thinking about humans and their relationships with their habitats, transporters and their environment, an intelligent way of designing future cities, such that each city can be composed of small, spaceship-like closed-loop eco systems where most resources that it consumes, are produced locally. Most things these ecosystems spit out get recycled.
Since its inception in 2007, CAAS has manifested itself as a “travelling lab” and has popped up around the world (San Francisco, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Cologne, liechtenstein, Paris, Vienna, Ahmedabad, Como and Toronto) in different avatars — as essays, lectures, technical papers, workshops and also design studios.
Barbara Imhoif, a space architect whose company is involved with the design of SHEE (Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments) for astronauts, says, “living in space is not just about science, it’s also about a harmony in cultural diversity, human emotions, feelings of isolation and dependence. Comparing this to our life in cities, a CAAS City can be an inspiration, an alternate view, for a future city and a way to project and achieve our dreams and visions of an equitable and environment-friendly urban life.”
Rohini Devasher is a Delhi-based artist whose art practice is rooted in science and whose recent work has involved research and fieldwork in amateur astronomy, an exploration of ‘strange’ terrains where myth and fiction blur the boundaries of what is real and imagined.
“For the show at Khoj, I hope to continue this imagination of new analytical and fictitious spaces with the projection of the strange and the poetic into the scientific. I am particularly interested in investigations of natural systems using modes of ‘field work’ and ‘expedition’. I have found these to be particularly useful in the observation and understanding of the relationship between humans, their environment and how this is constructed.”