Space Out! Interstellar Media

Space Out! Instellar Media. March 5th-6th, 2025. Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology's Symposium. University of Toronto Mississauga.

Date: March 5–6, 2025
Location: University of Toronto Mississauga and St. George

Overview

The Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology is inviting you to Space Out! Interstellar Media, a research symposium on the media, culture, and life in the cosmos.

When the current and former owners of social media sites and e-commerce platforms increasingly turn their lustful gaze to outer space, we should take note. Yes, outer space is obviously the site of future wealth and resources, but it is also a field of activity shaped by the tools, artifacts, devices, and frameworks of media studies, revealing that humanity’s relationship with the cosmos is a mediated one.

We rely on satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) for communication as well as for health and environmental monitoring and planning; on Geo Positioning Satellite (GPS) for navigation; on space travel apparatuses for the development of methods of storage and transportation of information, bodies, and goods; on tele-communication devices for interplanetary transmission; on the tools of media archeology for data sampling; on the tools of media geology for mining and extraction; and on the tools of information sciences for data processing and visualization. 

By focusing on outer space, the ICCIT symposium invites us to rethink our relationship to space, media, technology, land, population, property, resource extraction, and environmental management without falling into the traps of military, colonial, capitalist, sexist, classist, racist, and ableist logics. Space Out! draws attention to the quickly unveiling post-planetary moment and, for one day, encourages us to focus on interstellar media and ask: what kinds of theories, stories, analyses, methods, techniques, and ethics are needed to live in the cosmos?

Activities (full schedule below)

Space Out! will feature presentations from a diverse roster of invited speakers. These include Valerie Olson (UC Irvine), Fred Scharmen (Morgan State University), Katarina Damjanov (The University of Western Australia), De Witt Douglas Kilgore (Indiana University Bloomington), and Chris Russill (Carleton University).

University of Toronto PhD students Upasana Bhattacharjee, Lauren Knight, Suarjan Prasai, Bryan Mark, Yuxing Zhang, Arun Jacob, Kaushar Mahetaji, Lucas Wong, Priyanka Verma, Hiu-Fung Chung, and Mathew Iantorno will also deliver 5-minute “theory pill” talks that target a number of concepts that revolve around the symposium theme. You will also hear from the organizers Marie-Pier Boucher, Jeremy Packer, and Tero Karppi.

Space Down, a film by Dominic Gagnon, will be screened the evening prior to the symposium and followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.

Registration

Pre-Conference Film Screening

Date: Wednesday, March 5
Time: 5:00pm–7:00pm
Location: Centre for Culture and Technology, 39A Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, ON

Screening of Space Down, a film by Dominic Gagnon, followed by a Q&A.

Register for the Film Screening

Space Out! Symposium

Date: Thursday, March 6
Time: 9:15am–5:00pm
Location: Collaborative Digital Research Space (MN3230), University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Toronto, ON

Space Out! Interstellar Media symposium. Lunch will be served.

Register for the Symposium

Graduate students will have priority registration for the event.

Full Schedule March 6, UTM

9:15 - 9:45 : Coffee and Goodies

9:45 Opening words

10:00 – 12:00 Session 1

Moderator: Daniel Guadagnolo

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:30 Session 2

Moderator: Julie Chen

2:40 – 4:10 Session 3

Moderator: Negin Dahya

4:10 – 4:40 Closing remarks