Due to COVID response measures, this event has been postponed until Friday, September 23, 2022.

From the Cleveland Museum of Natural History website:

Artist, writer
Associate Professor of Integrated Media, Oberlin College
President, Space Song Foundation
  

As part of our Centennial Speaker Series, we are pleased to welcome writer and artist Julia Christensen to the Museum. In this presentation, she will discuss The Tree of Life project and the Space Song Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to transcend obsolescence on planet Earth and in outer space.   

The Tree of Life is a public project that combines art and science to take concrete steps toward launching an interstellar space mission in the coming decades. The project tackles one of the most difficult and elusive challenges of developing an interstellar spacecraft—longevity. If a spacecraft is ever to reach an interstellar destination, light-years away, we must ensure that the technology on board is operational when it arrives. We must also develop communication systems here on Earth that will reliably receive messages from interstellar space over very long time frames. Finally, it is crucial to gain long-term public investment in the story—even beyond human lifetimes. The Tree of Life combines cutting-edge technologies with hardy technologies of the past. The public art/science project consists of a long-lived spacecraft that will operate consistently for 200 years and communicate with terrestrial antenna systems built from live trees, which are capable of “singing” a “data-song” with the spacecraft for centuries.   

Julia Christensen formed the Space Song Foundation with a team of scientists and engineers employed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The nonprofit promotes longevity at the intersection of art, science, and design, and aims to design long-term space missions that extend beyond contemporary technology’s fast upgrade cycle.

We are excited to offer both an in-person and virtual option for this event. Please make sure you are selecting the preferred option when purchasing your tickets. The virtual event will be held via Zoom; invitations/links will be sent multiple times to registrants. Please provide your most up-to-date email address when registering to ensure you receive information about the event.   

The Museum’s doors will open at 6pm; a bar will offer wine and beer for purchase. The lecture will begin at 7pm EST. Please note that the café will not be open during this event.  

Please note:

  • All in-person attendees must be vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19 within two days of the event.
  • All in-person attendees ages 2 and up will be required to wear masks while in the Museum, except when actively eating or drinking.

Tickets available on the CMNH website.

Physical Address

304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124