Space-Place-Making… Escaping Gravity.

Durham University's LIGHT YEARS project (part of the ‘Into the Light’ Place Partnership initiative) is gaining velocity and new partners. More than a programme it’s become a movement, and using culture as a connectivity tool has become paramount for us. As such we’ve repositioned Light Years as a ‘studio’ rather than a programme.

Light Years Studio being a hub to nurture collaborations across wildly different partners and locations – with the ultimate goal of triggering a New Space Age in the North of England.

After our community launch with Big Bang: A Summer Space Fayre, where scientists, artists and circus performers (!) took over TCR Hub in Teesdale, we’ve been continuing the grassroots work, preparing ‘Spooky Action’ for this year's Celebrate Science festival. Halloween space fun for little ones (named after Einstein’s phrase for entanglement theory “spooky action at a distance") – which will include a world renowned astrophysicist giving a lecture on black holes as ‘Space Dracula’ (I will share photos, I promise).

On the more serious side, Light Years Studio is deeply involved with the launch of SPARC: the new Space Research Centre from Durham University, the European Space Agency and Space North East England Space North East England. SPARC will forge a new era of human beings in space, and Light Years Studio will bring the public in on the action.

We’ve commissioned artist Sarah Stamp to develop a new exhibition that explores perceptions of the cosmos during the time of the Venerable Bede 1,200 years ago. Artists being artists, Sarah has taken the project in a completely unexpected, fascinating (and way cooler) direction – creating her own playful, alternative reality, female Bede-like character.

We’ve been working with street artists CYCAN CIC, who will make six huge space-themed ground murals across the region, in school playgrounds, car parks, roofs, in a project called SEEN FROM SPACE. At first shot from a drone, then building towards a MASSIVE artwork shot by a space satellite – it’ll need some figuring out but The North East Technology Park - NETPark experts tell me it is possible. The collaboration between graffiti artists and sat-technologists should yield something pretty special.

We’ve also helped some of our incredible rocketry students win a huge grant to run engineering engagement across the whole of the UK.

And we’re making: a space rave album; a documentary using old school practical SFX; a touring Mars habitat… but more on those another time…

Under the banner of ‘space-place-making’, the studio approach enables us to prioritise the matchmaking and relationship development aspects of these diverse (and awesome) projects. Reaching people from totally different backgrounds is the only way to ignite a New Space Age.