SPACE Lab [co-creative art-astronomy experiments]

[Please see attached 6-page case for further details.]

Periastra is about making worlds meet and exploring our place in the Universe through different knowledge systems. In this scenario, science is the empirical and quantitative inquiry, and art is the aesthetic and emotional inquiry of the Universe and our place in it. This proposal recognises that the communication of scientific results is a vital part of academic research and will allow for this.

But we also see it crucial to enable first-hand experience on how science is done: we will facilitate creative collisions to experience and discuss the joys, perils, pitfalls and struggles of scientific research and of creating new knowledge. We want to invite questions related to the definition of success and failure and to consider scientific research as a deeply human endeavour that can be done by anyone with an inquisitive mind.

We envision two stages of the project, in order to reach both the general public of Lewisham and beyond as well as young children of the STFC Wonder Initiative. In the first stage, 'Periastra' will facilitate the creation, communication and exhibition of collaborative astronomy researched art to the general public as well as specifically to participating primary school children.

In a second stage, these children will co-create themselves in their own settings as well as in the gallery, facilitated by experienced ArtScienctists and creative technologists, i.e., people that are familiar with integrating art and science. The children will be able to exhibit their creations and learning outcomes in the same gallery space as the professional participants and invite their parents and carers to come along.

The overall aim for this second stage is to foster curiosity and creativity without the fear of failure and the ability to ask and investigate questions collaboratively based on the themes and explorations of the first stage. We want the children to interact with role models, and have taken care to invite professionals they are more likely to identify with.

Children and adults alike will learn that there are multiple ways to engage with a question - by allowing scientific and creative answers side by side. We ask big questions: What is in outer space? How did the universe begin?

What are we all made of? How does the world around us work? And what is my place in this all? These questions are universal and engaging with these questions extend beyond formal training.

Together with our project partners, we are able to provide safe spaces for collaboration, creativity, imagination and innovation skills, which are the declared outcomes of 21st century learning (e.g., Nakano 2018) and prominently feature in considerations of employability of today's highly competitive and congested global market (Helyer 2015). However, a comprehensive approach to creativity is hard to teach; nor can "wonder" and "intuition" be taught (Elkins 2017).

However, far beyond conventional "classroom teaching", engaging, playing and experiencing joy with aspects of science and art, as we envision and anticipate through Periastra, can foster all of the above.

Our focus on the human, creative and joyful aspect of research we want to discuss the human learning processes through brilliant original mistakes, supporting a re-thinking of the paradox of culture's deep seated fear of being wrong. We want to lead experiences that show that science questions evolve over time and can be created, evolved and answered by anyone - including someone that looks like them or has a similar background.

We thus anticipate events for all ages centred around these topics and aim to de-mystify science as an "ivory tower" subject for the "selected few". Children also do not need to know "What they want to be when they grow up" but we want them to understand that the world can be understood through multiple knowledge systems, some that are based on expressions and others based on explanation.