BODIES OUT OF THIS WORLD: the space suit as cultural icon

Shaw, Debra Benita

doi:10.1080/0950543042000193816

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This interdisciplinary field has largely been silent on discussions of outer space natures. We note, following feminist STS scholarship (see Haraway, 1989;Messeri, 2016;Olson, 2018;Shaw, 2004), that preparing for interplanetary existence involves cultural and symbolic work through science fiction literature and other media, including digital games. The return of popular desires for interplanetary exploration has brought a resurgence of paternalistic and colonizing tropes critiqued decades ago by feminist scholars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Nonscalability and generating digital outer space natures inNo Man’s Sky

Tait

Nelson

2021

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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This article examines the generation of digital outer space natures in the space exploration game, No Man’s Sky. Using procedural generation, No Man’s Sky offers nearly infinite planets, flora, and fauna on the fly. With the rapid development of gaming technology and tools, game developers and others are attempting to diversify the representation of various forms of nature in gaming content and to expand the use of games in behavioral change, education, conservation, and other fields. Many scholars argue that games offer promising ways for various publics to understand their place and their interconnectedness with microbes, ecosystems, planet Earth, and beyond. We examine how No Man’s Sky struggled to coproduce digital outer space natures at the two scalar extremes of the vast expanse of outer space and of the embodied player relating within complex biomes. Our results from an in-depth, qualitative analysis of the initial version of the game, of player world-building experiences in No Man’s Sky, and of subsequent developer modifications to the game demonstrate that nonscalability theory is useful for studying what digital outer space natures do in games. We also argue that nonscalability theory would benefit from a more robust engagement with the digital. No Man’s Sky was initially scalable to such an extreme that it made players into objects without an origin story, broader purpose or way to build meaningful relations in the game. For a brief period, this game undermined players’ interplanetary colonial imaginaries. Subsequent updates to the game introduced a limited scope of nonscalability, but only to the extent of satisfying gamers’ desires to become more impactful agents of exploration. We see great potential for analyzing the role of innovations in computing and game design in linking multiscalar digital, outer, and earth spaces, which as other scholars have shown, bear significantly on our understanding of multiple worlds and natures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Nonscalability and generating digital outer space natures inNo Man’s Sky

Tait

Nelson

2021

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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“…This mannequin will here be taken as a starting point for a discussion of how Fuglesang's achievement is broadly advertised as built upon his exemplary marriage to science and technology. As Benita Shaw (2004) has argued, the space suit itself is simultaneously the uniform worn by the heroic conqueror of space and a sign of otherworldliness. The visor of the space suit depersonalizes the astronaut rendering him indistinguishable from his fellows and closely resembling the heavily armoured knight of old -a former figure of depersonalized valour and virtue.…”

Section: The Post Flight Persona -How and Why Fuglesang Became A Funcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The visor of the space suit depersonalizes the astronaut rendering him indistinguishable from his fellows and closely resembling the heavily armoured knight of old -a former figure of depersonalized valour and virtue. Although the mannequin in the space suit at the Stockholm exhibition could not be mistaken for anybody else than Fuglesang, he is still displayed as a detached, anonymous figure, encapsulated in technology, secured to a space station with a lifeline resembling an umbilical cord (Shaw 2004). As Fuglesang himself has testified, the practice of spacewalking, or EVA (Extra Vehicular Activities), requires careful preparations: "the batteries and the pressurization of the suits were continually monitored, the cooling tested, the oxygen level closely controlled.…”

Section: The Post Flight Persona -How and Why Fuglesang Became A Funcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Clynes & Kline 1960 has taken on an expanded meaning, often being viewed as a metaphor for humanmachine systems in general. The astronaut cyborg differs from the intelligent fish imagined by Clynes and Kline in that the astronaut is encapsulated in technology rather than the other way around (Shaw 2004). Treating the body of the astronaut as contiguous with technology and as something to be automatically monitored and controlled, promises to liberate human powers of mind and vision enabling them to be dedicated to higher purpose (Romanyshyn 1992: 114-17).…”

Section: The Post Flight Persona -How and Why Fuglesang Became A Funcmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The First Swede in Space: The Making of a Public Science Hero

Gunnarsson

2009

Cult. Unbound

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The first Swede in space, Christer Fuglesang, has become an iconic figure for the popularisation of science in Sweden. Named as Sweden’s first astronaut in 1992, Fuglesang remained a relatively anonymous and somewhat derisory figure prior to his space launch in 2006. After his space mission, however, Fuglesang has become the very personification of science in Swedish society. In this paper, the transformation of Fuglesang’s public persona and his construction as a Swedish public science hero is analysed in detail. It is discussed how after 2006, Fuglesang can be seen as providing confirmation, both of the existence of a cultural gap separating science from society, and of the ability of certain heroic individuals to bridge this gap in a way that renders it more appreciable to a larger public.In the main part of the paper, three aspects of Fuglesang’s elevation into a Swedish public science hero are discussed: First, the cyborg metaphor is used to analyse the fearlessness Fuglesang expresses towards yielding to, and entering into close communion with science and technology. Second, the transcendence of earthly perspective aspired to by science for so long, and apparently realized through space travel, is discussed in relation to Fuglesang’s personal experiences of space. Third, the inseparability of Fuglesang’s nationality from his heroism is discussed. It was only through the repeated flagging of his Swedishness that Fuglesang’s routine space mission gained any particular significance enabling it to be communicated as a major scientific event.Finally, closer attention is paid to the scientific message Fuglesang is delivering to Swedish society. It is argued that he acts to promote renewed faith and confidence in the ability of science to open up new horizons for the future. The task of the public science hero is to help enable these new horizons to colonize the public imagination

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“…As I will go on to discuss, terrestrial geopolitics are increasingly being determined by extraterrestrial strategic considerations. More abstractly, I want to argue that through space exploration we are forging new subjectivities and new forms of sociality here on earth (Stern, 2000;Shaw, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-Astropolitik— outer space and the orbit of geography

MacDonald¹

2007

Progress in Human Geography

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This paper aims to establish outer space as a mainstream concern of critical geography. More than half a century after humans first cast their instruments into orbit, contemporary human geography has been slow to explore the myriad connections that tie social life on Earth to the celestial realm. My starting point is a return to an early-modern geographical imagination that acknowledges the reciprocity between heaven and earth. Although other disciplinary engagements are discussed, this project represents the first systematic attempt to explore how outer space both challenges and reanimates the `geo' of geography. The example of Global Satellite Navigation Systems is used to illustrate what is currently at stake in the military contest for geopolitical control of Earth's orbit. Nigel Thrift's work on the technological refashioning of precognitive sociality is contextualized within those systems of state geopower that sustain the everyday uplinking and downlinking to and from space hardware. Lastly, the paper offers a critique of the application of classical geopolitics to outer space in the form of `astropolitics' and its will-to-power variant of Astropolitik.

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BODIES OUT OF THIS WORLD: the space suit as cultural icon

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

Nonscalability and generating digital outer space natures inNo Man’s Sky

Nonscalability and generating digital outer space natures inNo Man’s Sky

The First Swede in Space: The Making of a Public Science Hero

Anti-Astropolitik— outer space and the orbit of geography

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