Prompt
Kosmos Nekros started as a simple observation, that only three humans have died in outer space.
To die in space is to approach two shared unknowns: the limit of the human in terms of its mortality and our planetary limits in the extension of outer space.
The culmination of the research was to define Cosmos and Necros, the shared boundary conditions at the limits of knowing and unknowing.
Process
Project work began with the gathering of archival material and interviewing of individuals working in the space industry.
Adonis Leboho's writing and research created an initial 25-minute script that rigorously explored life and space systems. From there an initial video draft was created.
Large amounts of image and video were turned through, with Valeriia Tolkacheva essential in finding amazing first hand accounts from astronauts: diaries, journals, paintings, and video.
As the visual designer I developed the look and edit of the video, creating weekly cuts. This included creating the bilingual design language and a schema for simplifying the complex research material into compelling slogans.
Together with Valeriia, the project was distilled into a website and the difficult conceptual elements of the research were eased with more visual attention.
Outcome
Kosmos Nekros succeeded in interrogating space exploration at an unfashionable time, at the height of the Bezos, Branson, and Musk space race.
Our work argued for the importance of space and life systems research, not for space tourism or sacralization.
Nikolay Boyadjiev presented Kosmos Nekros at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and it is currently being compiled into a Terraforming anthology.
