Frank Pietronigro to Present Paper at LESS REMOTE

September 14, 2008

San Francisco, Calif. — Interdisciplinary artist Frank Pietronigro will present his paper “The Potential Contributions of Queer Culture on the Future of Space Exploration” on October 1, 2008, at the LESS REMOTE: The Future of Space Exploration – An Arts and Humanities Symposium. The event organized by Flis Holland and The Arts Catalyst in association with Leonardo and OLATS and is co-sponsored by the IAA Commission VI to run parallel with the 2008 International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

This symposium will offer a forum in which specialists from many disciplines will be invited to consider the future of space exploration in the context of our current understanding of social, economic and technological imperatives. One of the aims of the symposium is to foster a dialogue and exchange between the cultural and space communities. Speakers from the Space Science & Engineering and Arts & Humanities communities will present keynote lectures on space exploration and its possible futures. Papers are also invited from the broad constituency of interest among artists, cultural analysts and historians, that has examined the wider implications of the scientific exploration of space for the better part of a century.

For more details visit www.lessremote.org.


About Pietronigro's Presentation

Pietronigro will discuss that as a cosmology unique unto its own, queer culture has and will offer a differentiated contribution to the evolution of future space exploration while expanding the Arts, Humanities and Culture in Space in ways that are universally enriching. The artist is a member of San Francisco’s LGBT community and he has flown twice in microgravity, on a parabolic flight, where he engaged in flagging, a dance convention that originates within the LGBT community. This action was intentionally employed within the site of space exploration, as a way for the artist to demonstrate that queer cultural production can be enjoyed as alternative leisure time activities during space exploration.

By offer this position, the author advocates that, as a species moving off their home planet, we strive our best to ensure that sexism, racism, homophobia, and others forms of bias and prejudice are left behind as we move beyond our planet to explore our solar system with the hope that if and when we meet other universal species we are able to greet the other species with a spirit of openness, hospitality and generosity.