Star Net, 2024

Florence Steel and Lucia Webster

Textiles installation, dimensions variable.

Star Net is an interactive installation which invites the audience to consider their place within the cosmos. At once grounded within both spiritual and scientific realms, the immersive experience asks participants to reflect and contribute to a dome of constellations. Through this act, individuals are entwined within processes of creation, weaving both cultural and atomic histories throughout a cosmic tapestry.

The solar centrepiece is emblematic of Steel and Webster’s playful approach to soft sculpture and astronomy. The globular, vibrant, and dynamic design is drawn from interactions between plasma and magnetic field lines within the sun, and consists of multiple layers to mimic the convection and radiation zones beneath the photosphere. Hung only for one night when the sun passed over the celestial equator, Star Net is fundamentally about transcosmic relationships, and is thematically underpinned by its temporal anchoring to the equinox, which holds profound cultural and symbolic significance throughout many places and times. It signifies the intersection of astronomy and human experience, embodying the balance between light and darkness, day and night, and both cosmic and earthly cycles. 

The concept for Star Net was inspired by the Bawaka Collective's paper 'Dukarr lakarama: Listening to Guwak, talking back to space colonisation’ in which they critically examine the concept of 'outer' space. The term 'outer' implies a separation, and is reminiscent of the language of colonial discovery doctrine such as 'New World' and 'Terra Nullius.' Similarly, space is not new, nor unoccupied. Since the first dawn, people across the globe have had deep relationships with the sky. We are not separate from the cosmos; we are within the galactic disk. Not only are we encompassed by the universe right now, but we are part of it. According to the Bawaka Collective, everything is part of Country; there is no ‘outside’ – “what we do in one part of Country affects all others.” The effects of space colonisation are already affecting Country; with light pollution, satellite interference, and destruction of sites for the development of space facilities affecting access to the stars. By considering our relationship to the cosmos, we acknowledge our interconnectedness with all aspects of existence, from the microscopic to the celestial. Star Net encourages participants to engage with the cosmos not as distant spectators, but as active participants in the ongoing narrative of the universe.

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Star Net was made possible through Yeehaw, Canberra’s first Bildung Cooperative.

Thank you to Lucia Webster for all your hard work, to Karlie Noon for speaking and facilitating star gazing, to Annika Romeyn and the install team, and Michael Bones for event coordination and moral support.

References:

A. Mitchell, S. Wright, S. Suchet-Pearson, K. Lloyd, L. Burarrwanga, R. Ganambarr, M. Ganambarr-Stubbs, B. Ganambarr, D. Maymuru, R. Maymuru, Dukarr lakarama: Listening to Guwak, talking back to space colonisation, Political Geography, Volume 81, 2020, 102218, ISSN 0962-6298, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102218.