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| Helium and Water I-III Image & Sound by Laura Fong Prosper ~1 min. each The updated final version of the work: laurafongprosper.com/projects01/waterandhelium-7kax4 |
HELIUM AND WATER: On New Space Extractivisms
Drawing
its name from the two most sought-after resources in current commercial
space missions—helium-3 and water— and through the use of AI and
analogue video synthesisers, I reimagine 16mm archival footage from the
Soviet Space Program, blending speculative and ancestral aesthetics to
create a visual dialogue that bridges the past, the present, and the
future. The soundscapes, crafted from archival audio inputs and
processed through a Moog Subharmonicon synthesiser, further immerse the
audience in a layered sensory experience that evokes both the nostalgia
of early space explorations and the urgency of its contemporary ethical
dilemmas. The retro-futuristic aesthetic, rooted in vintage equipment
and speculative design, reimagines the utopia of cosmism and its
socialist ideals.
The relevance of this work is amplified by the current political context, marked by the rise of fascism and the unchecked power of oligarchs who seek to extend their dominion beyond our planet and perpetuate terrestrial inequalities and ecological crises in the cosmos. Through its fusion of art and technology, the project invites viewers to envision a future where space exploration is guided by principles of equity and collective stewardship, where ethical, inclusive, and sustainable approaches to humanity’s role in the cosmos are more important than the pursuit of profit, ownership and power.
AI use: I
feed the AI (Midjourney) with photograms or still frames from the
digitised 16mm film archives together with astrophotography and
microphotography and generate visuals with prompts or blending two or
more images together. Later these images were animated with PixaMotion
3D software and processed through analogue video synthesizers.
Biography:
Laura Fong Prosper (1978), a Panamanian
artist based in Berlin, creates immersive, process-driven works that
explore collective memory, eco-feminisms, retro-futurisms, and ancestral
imaginaries. Working across video, analog film, new media, and, most
recently, textiles, she brings together the body-territory and
decolonial narratives to build bridges between the past, present, and
future. Her approach as a “recycler” of materials, archives, and
electronic gear reshapes how we engage with history and technology.
Laura studied Film Editing at Cuba’s International School of Film and TV (EICTV) and received an M.F.A. in New Media Art from the Bauhaus University Weimar in Germany. She earned fellowships at Cologne’s Kunsthochschule für Medien (KHM) and Tongji University in Shanghai. She was one of the Fellows of the Human-Machine program of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
Her work has been shown in Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro), Americas Society, New York City, Arsenal Institute for Film and Videoart, Berlin amongst many others. She’s part of the permanent collections at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá (MAC) and the Murzi & Morgan Collection of Latin American Contemporary Art.
Laura Fong Prosper, Berlin