“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” – Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“Pulau Semesta / Island Universe” is an old cosmological theory initially espoused by mystic Swedenborg in which, without direct observation (no tools, no telescopes), anticipated ideas about galaxies/clusters/cosmic filaments. On earth it relates to island biogeography that shaped our understanding of evolutionary theory /Indonesian (Malay Archipelago) ecology & natural history, and species (both human & non human) dispersal as well as mechanisms of speciation (species formation =origin of novelty).
What kind of insularity is possible today? Waters are rising, islands get drowned, how to breach/jump cross over the ever widening gulfs btw various individual isolates data/world bubbles/island continents (and is it actually a thing to look fwd in an era where everything is connected, geo-located, swappable etc?)
What is Cozzzmo? Cozzzmonautica has been largely a bottom-up collaborative, traveling, nomadic event, always hosted by local networks of amateur astronomers, space exploration afficionados, former science teachers, sci-fi communes & clubs collaborating with various artists trying to organize a thematic sleep over (with people coming over with sleeping bags, mats, favorite pillows to sleep for one night in the same environment). It is always no- or lo-budget, localized, regional and based on local fandoms, flows of passion, amateur/hobby researchers, informal networks. It draws inspiration from afrofuturism, sinofuturism, Soviet space exploration & cosmism, traditional paleo-astronomy, STEAM(promotion of Science +Arts) initiatives, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series, failed & utopian space agency projects.
The crux of the event was temporarily transforming various venues into cozy makeshift spaceships by imaginative means – and inviting everybody to tuck in and participate in a series of lectures, documentaries and sleep concerts.
These art & science wonder shows and sleep concerts take place in galleries, regional natural history museums, university classrooms, private homes and clubs under the banner of The Space Agency for Nocturnal Journeys to the Origins of the Universe.
Here is a preview of the previous cozzzmo edition from 2017 in Timișoara, Shipwreck Cosmologies.
Biography
Ștefan Tiron
Ștefan Tiron (Batu) was born in 1976 and has a degree in the History and Theory of Art at the Art University Bucharest. He had scholarships and residencies at Academia di Romania in Rome, Akademie Solitude Stuttgart, Chez Bushwick Brooklyn New York, PAF in France, Q21 Vienna, Utopiana Geneva.
Since 2000 he has been writing about necrosophy, cultural hacking/open-resource /rip-off dynamics in Bucharest (for Springerin), the Bucharest megastructure (for Archis), a study of Steampunk lifestyles (Idea Art+Society), space tourism for Monochrom and The Beastly Revolution for Critic Atac.
Between 2006-2017 he founded and co-curated the sleep-over & alternative education programme celebrating the legacy of Science Fiction, DIY Space Exploration and Cosmology, Cozmonautica.
As an information dealer from the East, he facilitated the selling of Surveillance Technology from the East to the West at Sigint 2009 in Koln, Germany.
2014-2015 organized a post-invasive HYPERDENSITY & Swarm frotteurism horrorshop in Utopiana residency, Geneva.
2017 he published Cosmic Drift & Temporal Divergence, a book reuniting a collection of essays about speculative fiction and SF published by tranzit.ro Sibiu as part of the DADA 100 series, Editura Global Media Sibiu. The book contains a series of essays written between 2013-2016 “about exiting inter-dimensional portals and sacred caves, falling through interstellar gates, or conversely catching up, syncing and mismatching after a long time.” (Goodreads description)