The crew poses among the Aspen trees during a strategic session on Saturday’s launch day of Aspen Year 2222: Wild Future Outpost. This event was the first of this year’s Aspen Space Station iterations. Interactive programming and artistic encounters, led by local artist Ajax Axe, will begin throughout town and in the wilderness until September.
The year is 2222. The west was burnt by a wildfire long ago and people abandoned the area. But after the climate collapsed, the forest is regenerating again. A group of ecologists, artists and natural philosophers known as “The Burnt States Federation” has landed in Aspen. And they have a mission.
“We are studying what we find around us and developing a more sustainable culture that we may live in here in the future,” said the leading artist and activist behind the Aspen Space Station. Said Ajax Ax.
This scenario may be imaginative, but the mission behind it is real.
Ax is at the forefront of an organization called Earth Force Climate Command, a network of artists, activists, designers and thinkers working on prototyping and implementing community visions and solutions for a global-focused future. I am. And she encourages the community to get together and participate in the experience.
Participants in the Wild Future Outpost Strategy Session are wearing spacesuits during a launch event behind Aspen Mountain on Saturday. Colorado and Kenya-based artist Ajax Ax created wearables from recycled flip-flops.
Through creative and artistic efforts, the EFCC launched a space station initiative in Lamb, Kenya last winter, followed by the first Aspen space station last summer.
Narratively speaking, the Aspen Space Station will return to orbit in the summer of 2022, the summer of 2222. 200 years later, the iteration, entitled “The Wild Future Outpost,” is attended by 11 local artists, fostering interactive exhibits and immersive experiences in different parts of town and in the wilderness. ..
“The idea is to have an experiential event schedule that really makes people feel as if they were participants, not just the audience,” Ax said. “The big thing for me in this project is to get people together and not feel like a voyeur just looking at something from the outside.”
Captured are NFT images from visual artist DJ Firth’s new motion series “Portraits Of AnOther”. The NFT portrait series depicts the potential future of what humans would look like when fused with AI. As one of the 11 local artists involved in this year’s Aspen Space Station iteration, Furt will premiere his project on August 7.
The Wild Future Outpost will be launched in a strategic session on Saturday and will continue until September. The programming roster includes art installations, workshops, book clubs, food labs, parties, and other events aimed at building communities and thinking positively. Most events are free and require registration.
Ax, who lives between Aspen and Kenya, said the goal of the space station project has always been to unite the community by imagining a naturally rooted, materialistic future.
“It’s ironic to be in the world of art because the world of art is so materialistic,” Ax said. “But the best thing for me is when we can be creative together as a community in the wilderness. It’s the magic of a group of people in the mountains doing crazy things together … it really is. It makes people feel connected. “
This year’s space station was originally set up to take place in and around the historic area of Ashcroft Ghost Town, 11 miles up Castle Creek Road from the roundabout.
“I had some first ideas about where I wanted to run the space station this year,” Ax said. “Due to certain permission restrictions, that wasn’t possible on the timeline we wanted.”
The need to find a new location on the space station in a short period of time was accompanied by a silver lining. Ax says WildFuture Outpost can take over multiple locations for a more “dynamic experience.” The artist also formed new partnerships with organizations and institutions, and many offered to rush to host the programming of the project.
“I think discussing what we want in the future in different situations really helps us grow our project,” she said.
Part of this summer’s environment includes a workshop at the Aspen Museum (late August), a 2222 press conference at Explore Booksellers, and an installation at the entrance to the Intersect Aspen Art Fair. Members of the EFCC will attend the Art Fair all day on July 31st, make pledges and provide participants with information about the project. Artist Chris Erickson’s life-sized Firepod installation will take place at the Red Brick Center for the Arts, and on August 4th, an event featuring space station artists will take place on the lawn in front of the center.
According to Ax, the location of the other events is confidential and will be revealed at registration, including the premiere of the NFT portrait series by visual artist DJ Firth on August 7th and Clarity Fornel’s “Future Ritual” on August 14th. increase. Experience as participants are picked up from Aspen’s site and blindfolded until they arrive at the event’s destination.
In the artist Noripao’s project, participants use a bamboo stylus to engrave a message on a clay tablet about what they want people to know 200 years from now. The tablet is then fired and buried in a location, where the space station team registers the location with a historic organization.
Certain activations such as Furt, Fornel, and Pao will only be open to “advanced Futurists,” Ax said. Those who are interested in these events must take a six-question multiple-choice test called the “Future Promising Exam” and get a high score to participate. The entry exam, accessible from the EFCC website, aims to get people to think about carbon dioxide emissions, she explained.
“It’s a playful test, but it’s also very serious,” she said. “And that’s what we’re always trying to do in a project. Playfully tackle something very serious to get people into a problem that’s difficult to talk to or tackle.”
From the early days, the space station project has aimed to experiment at the social level, try new things, and get the community to think about ways to change the future.
The artist explained how the space station model is a great metaphor for the future. This is a fun and engaging way to inform the community and enable people to participate in EFCC initiatives. With more artists and organizations participating for the second lap of the project in Aspen, Ax is currently working on building a long-term plan for the EFCC organization, not just the space station.
“We are starting to get more financial support than ever before,” Ax said. “And the level of enthusiasm for the project from the community was tremendous. It gives us a lot of momentum coming this year.”
The Wild Future Outpost will continue until September. For more information on registration and access to updated schedules for events, please visit: thefutureisonearth.org Or follow @earthforceclimatecommand On Instagram.
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