Melbourne International Arts Festival (2017) AU

How to... Survive on the Moon!

Keynote Performance

Commissioned Solo work for 'Survival Skills in Desperate Times', Arts House Melbourne.

Welcome. You are now the guest of a space-art crew originally scheduled to dock with a Qantas Earth-return vehicle on the lighted surface of the moon. However, due to Lunar-Google WiFi connectivity difficulties, your vehicle was forced to land deep in North Melbourne Crater: some 200 kilometres from the rendezvous point. During manual re-entry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged. Your host @artistastronaut knows the drill and leads the way, but needs your help. Your survival depends on reaching the rendezvous point, signalling the mother ship and transferring frequent flyer rewards to 3D-print a shelter at SpaceBnB terminus until rescue arrives. A playful, participatory and informative performance keynote combining elements of a NASA Workshop, an ESA Human Spaceflight Lesson, and the artist's own civilian astronaut training with a local Aussie twist.

Sarah Jane Pell, How to...Survive on the Moon. Arts House Melbourne and MIAF 2017. Photos Maria Alma Ocampo.

How to...Survive on the Moon! written and performed by Sarah Jane Pell. Images ESA, SPELLART. Technical team Arts House Melbourne. Photos courtesy Maria Alma Ocampo.
Technical requirements: Life-raft, Box of matches, Food concentrate, Rope, Parachute silk, Portable heating unit, two (toy) pistols, dehydrated milk, two cylinders of oxygen, Stellar map (of the moon’s constellation). Audiene seated in Airline Seating Configuration. Projection. Vision Mixer. Adobe Premier & After Effects. Live AR Camera/Green-screen. Microphone.

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This work is part of the Performing Astronautics project assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

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