Latent Space Realism. Artist talk with Metahaven

For too many, outer space exploration has become today the symbol of escapist tendencies that replace the need for climate adaptation with human expansion beyond Earth. However, the dream of collectively overcoming the escape velocity of our home planet is not the only possible cosmic perspective at our disposal. In this talk, I will argue that any meaningful terrestrial ecology is a genre of applied astronomy; there is no planetary without the extra-planetary. Spanning astrobiology, exoplanet science, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and even contemporary neuroscience, this talk will introduce the argument of my upcoming book Environmentalism Beyond Earth (2027, Bloomsbury Academic) in order to show what the care for habitability of our planet means from the cosmic perspective, and what kind of planetary subjects we become if we stay faithful to this perspective.