With each futuristic film, an apocalyptic or dystopian scenario. That of a handful of humans fleeing Earth to reach or conquer a more hostile environment. “Space Amazons was born out of a sense of breakdown in the imaginations of the future”, analyzes François-Xavier Petit, historian and managing director of Matrice, the innovation institute behind the project.
Alongside Claudia Del Prado, innovation manager, they want to reinvent the spatial imaginations of the future by mixing science, literary creation and web 3, thanks to the contribution of a community. An ambitious project, qualified by its creators as “multiverse” – a contraction between multiverse and universal – which raises a question: How to appropriate our universe other than in the mode of conquest or of a planet B?
“If the future is that of extractions on Mars or on the Moon, we have lost”, warns François-Xavier Petit, anxious not to reproduce the errors of the past. Partner of the ESA, he recalls that another way is possible: “80% of the work of the European Space Agency is in fact turned towards the Earth”. And not towards conquest.
A work rooted in reality
Anyone who wants to travel in space must choose their crew carefully. To write prospective stories based in 2075 – a date far enough away to still be able to change the course of history – the same selection is necessary. “The future is much too serious a subject to leave to SF writers alone,” he continues. We want to get people on the same rocket who have extremely different knowledge and skills.”
By February 20, Matrix is therefore counting on the recruitment of fifteen feathers, as well as thirty experts and scientists to advise the authors. Then, a four-month physical residency in literary and scientific creation will begin. “We are going to give the authors a certain number of spatial experiences so that they can produce a work rooted in reality”, describes François-Xavier Petit, enthusiastic.
A traveling residence
The base camp will be in the premises of Matrice in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. But this residence is intended to be itinerant. Trips to the European Astronaut Center in Cologne (Germany), to the Toulouse Space Center or even to the Guiana Space Center in Kourou are scheduled. From a Discord server open to all, a community will be able to interact with them, to think about the stories of the future which will be the subject of a book, published by Éditions Bragelonne, by 2024.
“To get out of the dystopia and imagine a desirable future, we need the collective”, observes Claudia Del Prado Sartorius. At the end of this residency, a drop of NFT is planned. A DAO (decentralized autumn organization) can then contribute to the evolution of the stories.
“It is because we will have built these imaginations and that we will have dreamed them very strongly over several generations, that we will be able to bring about a happy future in our society”, insists François-Xavier Petit, confident in the ‘coming. Utopian? May be. But according to him, “dreams and utopia are the primary issues that make tomorrow possible”. The proof. “We didn’t find the space rocket all at once, we had to dream of the Moon for a very long time”. To meditate !