Who does the sky belong to? Who has the power to move through it, communicate through it, watch from it or imagine it differently?
We invite you to join us for a participatory creative workshop exploring the sky as both a shared medium and a contested space. Together, we will talk about the ways the air has been used for surveillance, control and violence, particularly in relation to the colonial histories of the Middle East. Then we will ask whether we can imagine air otherwise: as a medium of connection, care, love and coexistence. Through conversation, writing and art, we will collectively develop images and narratives around the sky and our relationship to it.
The workshop is open to anyone interested in exploring these questions with us. No previous artistic experience or knowledge of the subject is necessary.
Who Does the Sky Belong To? grows out of the AHRC-funded research project Coloniality and Communications: British Telecommunications in Mesopotamia in the Early Twentieth Century, led by Prof. Burçe Çelik and Dr. Sebastian James Rose at Loughborough University, with artist collaborator Sena Başöz.
Participation: Free. To register, please write to sena.basoz@gmail.com