The critically acclaimed Our Place in Space, is part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, and is a unique collaboration across art, science and technology - an epic scale model of the solar system designed by artist and children’s author Oliver Jeffers, incorporating a 10km three-dimensional sculpture trail. The project also includes an interactive AR app, and major learning and events programmes. Our Place in Space is totally free and open to everyone.
From creating a star to writing a symphony for the universe, inventing a new form of transport, building a Minecraft planet or connecting with space watchers around the globe, Our Place in Space invites participants to consider how we might better share and protect our planet in future and what is the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’? It brings our solar system down to Earth and sends us soaring into the stars to find new perspectives and reconsider what it means to live life on Earth.
Our Place in Space has been designed by Oliver Jeffers with support from leading astrophysicist Professor Stephen Smartt. It has been produced by Northern Ireland’s leading creative media arts centre, Nerve Centre Collective and features music by award-winning sound artist Die Hexen.
Stretching from Midsummer Common in the heart of town and along the riverside to the Woodland Trust’s Cow Hollow Wood in nearby Waterbeach, Our Place in Space reflects the size of each planet at scale and the distance between them, starting with the Sun.
In advance of the trail opening in Cambridge, organisers have been working with partners on the ground in Cambridge such as navigation authority Cam Conservators, the City Council and Cambridge University, to make the trail a reality. Alongside the trail, a launch events programme will animate the city centre from 30-31 July with interstellar tours, STEAM activities, stargazing, live music performances and film screenings.
There are opportunities for local people to become a Trail Guardian or volunteer while the trail is in Cambridge, helping enhance and support visitors’ experience of the trail and to assist with events and programming. For more information email volunteering@ourplaceinspace.earth.
Executive Producer, David Lewis of the Nerve Centre said: “We’re really excited to work with partners on the ground to help tour the sculpture trail to Cambridge and to bring the world of Oliver Jeffers to new audiences. Over two years in the making, Our Place in Space is a remarkable piece of work that combines science and art and has been thrilling children and adults alike in Northern Ireland, and this is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the best of Northern Ireland talent across the UK.”
The trail is accompanied by the Our Place in Space augmented reality app which is available on Apple and Android devices and allows users across the world to take a walk through our solar system, experiencing the planets in augmented reality and considering 10,000 years of human history on earth. Users will collect space souvenirs, including characters from the world of Oliver Jeffers, as well as launching a personalised star into space.
Oliver Jeffers says: “For centuries, we’ve defined ourselves by who we are and who we’re not. Which side we choose, on what ground we stand, who and what we fight for. A human story, that lives merely in human minds. But with distance comes perspective – and what happens to our perspective on everything when we look back at Earth from space? Our Place in Space is a playful experiment that asks: What is the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’? Which side are we on, and if we look back at ourselves from vastness of outer space – alone on our tiny planet, the only one that can harbour life – should there be any ‘sides’ at all?”
Our Place in Space is one of 10 major creative projects commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a celebration of creativity taking place across the UK in 2022. UNBOXED features free large-scale events, installations and globally accessible digital experiences in the UK’s most ambitious showcase of creative collaboration.
Martin Green CBE, Chief Creative Officer of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK says “Our Place in Space embodies UNBOXED’s aims to bring people together and celebrate creativity through a project that is both fun and incredibly important in its aim for everyone to reflect on life on earth and their relationships with those whose beliefs may be different to their own. It opens our eyes to a better future of understanding and collaboration.”
Following Cambridge, Our Place in Space will finish its tour back in Northern Ireland at Ulster Transport Museum and North Down Coastal Path (17 September – 16 October 2022).
Our Place in Space is produced by Nerve Centre Collective, led by arts organisation the Nerve Centre and commissioned by UNBOXED with Belfast City Council. The collaboration behind the project includes the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, National Museums NI, NI Science Festival, Big Motive, Taunt, Microsoft, Jeffers & Son, Dumbworld, Live Music Now, Little Inventors, Cambridge University, the National Trust and Urban Scale Interventions.
UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is funded and supported by the four governments of the UK and is commissioned and delivered in partnership with Belfast City Council, Creative Wales and EventScotland.
info@ourplaceinspace.earth - https://www.ourplaceinspace.earth
