Text by CLOT Magazine
Lumen presents the exhibition Through the Looking Glass at Ugly Duck London, which looks at how technology has influenced our collective view of the Universe. Running until October 20, 2019, Through the Looking Glass is co-curated by Becky Lyon and Natasha Sabatini. It sees over 40 artists exploring how technology has allowed us to gaze so deep into the distance, yet we find resolving the figures it produces immensely difficult.
Humanity has strived to understand our greater environment – the cosmos. Through the transition of new technologies, new evidence and logic-based thinking, we have progressed from a view of early mythologies and seasonal cycles to philosophical models and current-day astronomical concepts. From the premises that the earliest human would have looked up and gazed at the stars in the same way that we do today, through technological developments our understanding allows us to reach further, to explore bigger questions about our existence and the fabric of reality.
As part of Through The Looking Glass, another iteration of the ‘Elastic Nature’ sessions was hosted by Becky Lyon, this time joined by Prof. Ian Crawford as he illuminates us on the relatively new field of Astrobiology. Is there life out there? How can we begin to know what we’re looking for? How is knowledge of life on earth impacting our search for extraterrestrial life – and what might E.T. tell us about ourselves? When our own species and co-species are at a melting point – why invest resources in the search for life?
