Inhabiting Extraterrestrial Space - Data set of 477 images

Data set of 477 images on Space Habitat

Abstracted from the research project « Habiter l’espace extraterrestre »

HEAD-Genève
Partenaire scientifique : L’Observatoire de l’Espace, le laboratoire culturel du CNES (Paris)
Projet financé par le Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique (FNS)

website : habitat-extraterretre.ch

Abstract of the project

Objects conceived and realized to inhabit extraterrestrial space are arousing a strong resurgence of interest with regards to the ecological questions as well as the economic issues they cover. Thus, "Leaving earth" has become a contemporary reality often mentioned but whose understanding is, however, rarely based on scientific research dedicated to space or extraterrestrial habitats and remains most often far from a specific basis, whether historical, material or cultural.

The two historical and cultural lines followed by this research start from the same point: the implementation of a corpus of space research images made up of documents produced within the framework of authenticated works, supported by state institutions at an international level (Space Agencies) belonging to an official voted project and specifying one or more elements of an inhabited space object. At the margins of this framework, we have opened this corpus of documents to "pioneer" engineers who worked before the advent of the space age in 1957 and whose influence will be lasting on its future developments. 

The corpus of images from the fields of space communication, architecture, cinema and visual arts, are based on proven links between the objects and images they gather and those of space research. They are also opened to other images and objects, whose connections stem from these first connections.

The relationships of these images and objects can be queried through descriptors applying to all the fields of the database. They ensure a given research to have transversal or multidisciplinary dimensions. Each corpus generated by these researches is a scientific material of knowledge related to the cultural history of space habitat. This research main goal is to enable researchers from the human sciences as well as artists to seize these corpuses and to contribute in the writing of this history.

Research team

Christophe Kihm, Associate Professor, HEAD - Geneva, HES-SO (principal applicant)

Floriane Germain, Doctor, PHD in museum studies, mediation, heritage, space archives expert (scientific assistant),

Jill Gasparina, Assistant Professor, HEAD - Geneva, HES-SO (scientific collaborator)

Anne-Lyse Renon, Senior lecturer at the Laboratory of practices and theory of contemporary art, University of Rennes 2 (scientific assistant)

With the cllaboration of Gérard Azoulay, director of the Observatoire de l'Espace, the cultural laboratory of the CNES (Paris).

General information

Images in the database are classified according to five fields:

- Space research

- Space communication

- Architecture

- Cinema

- Visual arts

The following dataset gives access to the 477 image files of the database. Each image file includes descriptors and metadata linking the image to other images in the database such as:

Field, Subfield, Title, Author(s), Date, Sponsor(s), Country of Origin, Type of document, Dimensions, Creation Techniques  , Medium of the Original, Conservation Place of the Original, Diffusion Medium of the Document, Inhabitants, Type of Habitats, Situation in Space, Dedicated Activitie(s), Localisation (Associated Space), Related Material Object(s), Situation in the Research Process, Type of Collaboration, Collaborator(s), Related Theme(s), Comments, Related Project, Related Object.