The Capitol acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. We respectfully acknowledge their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. We also acknowledge the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

Lighting Off

Ground control to lockdown town

Should we leave Earth?

In lockdown of 2020 (the ‘big’ one) we streamed Matt Wolf’s stranger-than-science-fiction documentary Spaceship Earth (2020) about eight visionaries who in 1991 spent two years quarantined inside a self-engineered replica of Earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. Cue life-threatening ecological disaster, interpersonal tensions and a media blitz suggesting it was nothing more than a cult.

You can still catch the film on DocPlay here before taking a deep dive with our panel on climate resilience, earthly dystopias, speculative fictions, life on Mars, eco-futurism, astrofuturism, and the social experimentation emerging from the experience of being locked down in our own private biospheres at home. Professor Michelle Gee, Director of the Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre, speculative fiction writer Dr. Rose Michael, and speculative designer Dr. Ollie Cotsaftis – all from RMIT – take part in this discussion. Then, check out our exclusive masterclass with director Matt Wolf (NYC) here.

“I find it quite inspiring to think that people have been motivated by a very long-term, abstract goal that isn’t necessarily directly related to their own short-term future.” – Rose Michael

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