Deniz Üster

Where do the boundaries of the Earth end? 

Through my  headpiece collection “Terra Nullius”, I speculate on narratives concerning terraforming and Earth’s extending boundaries, inevitably yielding itself to resource exploitation from ocean trenches to the asteroid belt. Through these headpieces, I delve into the ethics of space exploration within a world that possesses ever-expanding boundaries towards micro-gravitational environments, with a touch of humour. 

The agency of gravity, which has given form to all earthlings, actively influences the hierarchy between the background and subject outside our atmosphere. These roles in fact disappear from the geostationary orbit and outwards: the ground would no longer ground; the environment as the background and the subject thereon ceaselessly interchange. The planet, the astronaut, the cosmonaut and their cyborgian satellites become creaturely. 

The following texts and images address the notion of the ‘planetary’; drawing from Gayatri Spivak’s conception on “alterity” and the “creatureliness” of the planet in Rachel Hill’s presentation at the Strelka Institute. 

Through this body of work, I deliberate on the ethics of human expansion into space and a quick historical background on the treaties legalising and forbidding human sovereignty outside our biosphere.  

16 Psyche is a large-scale asteroid in the asteroid belt which was historically believed to be the exposed core of a protoplanet. Worth $10 quintillion, this asteroid is composed of iron, nickel and gold. 16 Psyche will be visited by a spacecraft expected to launch in 2023, to arrive in 2029. 

The flora.

No photosynthesis observed; yet the plants thrive and in fact irradiate.

Their nutrition is entirely provided from beneath.

It turns out there is more to the metallic composition of this planetoid: 

Fungus

Fungus that thrives on the unique composition of nickel, gold and iron of 16 Psyche.

The asteroid’s psyche is in truth its fungus; its very own spirit. The spirit is seductive; but also bears a defense mechanism…

Scrutinising on the ‘planetary’ is to examine how capitalism’s severe expansion, technological innovation, and the inevitable waste have opened up the planet as the space most of us inhabit. The vision of the planetarism, on the other hand, begins by considering how we can govern ourselves to the extent that makes our feedback loops with our planet sustainable for the extant population of life on Earth, regardless of national territories and sovereignties. Whereas, Rachel Hill’s ‘Cosmoplanetarity’ [1] incorporates our planet’s augmenting boundaries through satellites and space stations, into the ‘planetary’. Within this notion, the Earth is not a closed sphere, but rather a dynamic, shifting creature. The erratic nature of Hill’s creaturely Earth borrows its incongruent form from Spivak’s planet which is famously known as a species of alterity. [2]

Co-developed with Lynn Margulis, in Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, organisms coevolve with their environment; Earth and its biological systems behave as a huge single entity, hence it is creaturely. In that sense, the Earth as an open system is also a species of alterity. This entity has closely controlled self-regulatory negative feedback loops that keep the conditions on the planet within boundaries that are favourable to life. [3] Moving from Earth’s geostationary orbit outwards, the aforementioned ‘creatureliness’ is embodied through the celestial objects I created for Terra Nullius; where every astronomical object or land dominates its ‘occupier’ with a visible agency, each creating a counter-narrative.

This is the story of the life and death of Quasar ULAS J1120+0641.

ULAS J1120+0641 was out there with a cosmological redshift greater than 7. It was noticed from our biosphere in 2011, which was just before its death. You might be wondering if the death of a black hole is possible: ULAS J1120+0641 is the evidence of this phenomenon. 

This quasar in fact initially emitted blue light. As it lost its energy, ultraviolet transformed into a cosmological redshift. How did this happen? ULAS J1120+0641 got ill, following the invasion of its accretion disc by parasites from Signus A. Its bright light enticed these thirsty invaders. These spacefaring worms drink black holes as sustenance. They colonise a blackhole, and consume its void until nothing gets sucked in, and no X-ray escapes. It would not be wrong to speculate that these worms serve the expansion of the universe. In the last six billion years, there is so much light contamination in the cosmos due to the drop in black hole population.

The Earth as a planet is metastable according to Hill. Although often thought as adjacent to the biosphere, she asserts that the Earth’s planetary parameters artificially expand outwards, through the increasing population of microgravity infrastructures in geostationary orbits. For her, the satellites and space stations occupying these layers indicate the proliferating flexibility of Earth’s parameters and these new layers feed into Earth’s systems, attuning to life as it is lived on the surface below.  According to Hill, a full account of the planet can only be taken with an awareness of these infrastructural, cyborgian extensions— its artificial expansiveness. [4]

Grounding her project in the expansion of Earth’s perimeters, Rachel Hill does not make a comment about territorial conflicts caused by this, nor the political and the colonial implications of the occupation of Earth’s geostationary orbits. These “cyborgian extensions” remain as “terra nullius”, waiting to be conquered by whoever claims sovereignty over it.

Microbial life on planet Earth came from rocks formed within hydrothermal vent environments around four billion years ago. The planet’s surface was hostile at that time, not much different than our very own moon, Europa. Seawater came into contact with minerals from the planet’s crust, reacting to create a warm, alkaline environment containing hydrogen. The process created the mineral-rich chimneys providing a source of energy that facilitates chemical reactions to form complex organic compounds. This is how life began on Earth, and this is also why we are here on Europa today.

First generation Europaens traveled here three million years ago, they were born on Earth. They built miniature biospheres around the vents; an extraction system eliminated smoke but heat was maintained and water was kept out. First generation Europaens could not breath underwater. 

Biospheres failed catastrophically, and the great loss occurred where millions died and new colonies were brought from Earth. No biospheres were built at this stage, but Europaens developed suits that process the oxygen and hydrogen in water to enable respiration. Biosuits were then engineered not long after, which would adapt to people’s metabolisms. 

These biologically-adaptable prosthetics sped up the evolution process. Only within two million years, we evolved to respire in water, as the surface of our moon remained inhospitable. Our digestive systems also evolved within this period. What provides us home and warmth also produces our food. Bacteria spewing out from the plumes is our sole sustenance. The plumes are sacred, and we are their eternal disciples. Hence us Europaens are also known as bottom-feeders.

The series Terra Nullius is a collection of five headpieces which adopts its title from the Latin expression, meaning “nobody’s land.” In international law, terra nullius corresponds to a territory that belongs to no state; a territory without a master. It implies an absence of sovereignty, as sovereignty requires property rights acquired through the exploitation of nature. [5]

Terra nullius derived from the Roman law term “res nullius”, meaning “nobody’s thing” and referred to wild animals, lost slaves and abandoned buildings as such that could be taken as property by anyone through seizure. This eventually led itself to the European colonisation of the New World. From the Western Sahara to Antarctica there are numerous historical and contemporary claims of terra nullius, not limited to the surface of the Earth but stretching from underground to outer space, bound with numerous jurisdictions and treaties. In this body of work, my focus was particularly aimed at the territories where humans are unable to inhabit in person—such as deep ocean trenches, geostationary orbits and beyond—but claim ownership through exploitation. 

 

The Peregrine Queen lived on the far side of the Moon, the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, even during plenilune. She would curl up in the smallest impact crater she could find, and disguise herself within the curve’s shadow.

There are many visitors to her kingdom these days—mostly postmen—but she does not greet them. She hides in her crater until they are left. Once she is on her own, she would get on with her harvesting. She was a gatherer, not a hunter.

The queen hibernates, hence she is accustomed to hoard her food. From time capsules, to hard drives, love letters to plaster baby feet; the Moon Queen was not a picky eater. She loved eating. Keepsakes were never kept.”

Astrobotic Peregrine Lander is a new spacecraft vehicle set to deliver cargo to the moon in 2023. These parcels will consist of boxes of mementos managed by DHL Moonbox, time capsules and digital files among others. Astrobotic’s new lunar lander is designed to carry payloads for governments, companies, universities, nonprofits and individuals. 

Payload delivery to lunar orbit is $300,000, delivery to the lunar surface is $1,200,000, and $2,000,000 per kilogram for deploying a rover.

The launch of Sputnik in 1957 raised Cold War tensions, triggering the Space Race. Sputnik initiated the militarisation and politicisation of outer space for the first time between two superpowers. This new horizon of exploration and occupation called for new legislation: the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. The treaty forbade claiming sovereignty over outer space and celestial bodies. [6] However, there were many grey areas, hence current space law continues to reproduce terra nullius.

In terra nullius, sovereignty and the exploitation of resources go hand in hand. Although The Outer Space Treaty did not permit the ownership of celestial bodies, its ambiguities allow the extraction of resources, enabling lunar and asteroid mining. The 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act legalised space mining for the USA to clarify the ambiguous areas of the treaty. [7] Japan, China, India, Russia and Luxembourg among others also introduced laws favouring the mining of celestial bodies for profit. 

Within sixty years, space technologies have developed from designating the strength of militarised state power, to becoming an extremely profitable space industry. In short, the militarisation of outer space yielded itself to the commercialisation of outer space. Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the cosmos has become an extension to Earth. Revisiting Spivak’s “Planetarity,” – and perhaps contradicting Hill’s Cosmoplanetarity –  we must instruct ourselves to acknowledge that “what is above and beyond our own reach is not continuous with us as it is not, indeed, specifically discontinuous.” [8] As Elizabeth DeLoughrey points out, “to begin to comprehend a planet that is not overwritten by the militarism of the satellite gaze or the techno-fixes of climate change, embracing the contradictions of alterity and the limits of human knowledge is necessary.” [9] The establishment of such boundaries will conceivably reposition the multilateral, militarised and commercialised (long-distance) gaze both towards the Earth from the geostationary orbit, and towards the cosmos. Such repositioning could perhaps optimistically instigate the ‘horizontal’ alignment of our collective gaze and reimagine proprietorial narratives that involve land, sea and skies; ‘uncreated’ by the Earthlings with direct influence. I would like to see the Terra Nullius project perhaps as a small splinter in the effort to transform the existing rhetoric. 

Once upon a time, an almighty sorcerer called Northrop built a gleaming large boat with the help of  his juniors. He named this vessel The Honey Boat. The Honey Boat was no ordinary ship.  When the vessel is docked, honey would pour from the centre of its mirrored comb. The peasants of the village would queue up with their buckets in their hands; the boat fed the whole village.

The comb was charmed, it in fact was a divine eye trapped and diffused in each hexagonal cell. The eye was a slave that could see the past, so functioned differently than a conventional crystal ball. A crystal ball told the future, nothing could be done about the facts that will form. The Honey Boat told stories from the distant past that no one on Earth ever knew. It discerned the unknowable, hence held the power to change the future. 

There was only one downside to the operation of this miraculous vessel, and that was the problem of fuel. The Honey Boat liked its organic food, solar did not suffice alone. For every voyage of the ship, the village would sacrifice 17 peasants to embark on the ship and join the cruise. A peasant would disappear into the eye of the comb, each earth-month. Not a generous fee to pay for all that honey and the apparition it yields…

Supported by Hospitalfield, the “Terra Nullius” collection was designed and produced by Deniz Üster  during her Flexible Residency at the Hospitalfield House.

Endnotes:

[1] TTF 2020 Fellowship – Cosmoplanetarity”, Youtube, Uploaded by Strelka Institute, 7th July 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzXtKtjEL00.

[2] Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, Death of a Discipline, Columbia University Press, 2003, 72.

[3] Boston, P.J. “Gaia Hypothesis”, Encyclopedia of Ecology, eds. Jorgensen, Sven Erik, Fath, Brian D, Academic Press, 2008, 1727-1731.

[4] All references to Rachel Hill’s research on Cosmoplanetarity and creatureliness are quoted from her Terraforming 2020 Fellowship presentation at the Strelka Institute. The Youtube link to this presentation is provided in footnote 2.

[5] “Terra Nullius”, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 March 2023 last updated, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius#cite_note-Benton-Strauman-2010-02-LaHR-10.

[6] United Nations Outer Space Affairs, “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies”, Article II, accessed on the March 24, 2023. https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/outerspacetreaty.html.

[7] Congress.gov, “H.R.2262 – U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act”, 114th Congress 2015-2016, accessed on the 24th March 2023, https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2262.

[8] Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Planetarity (Box 4, WELT)”, Paragraph, Vol 38, issue 2, 2015, 292.

[9] DeLoughrey, Elizabeth, “Satellite Planetarity and the Ends of the Earth”, Public Culture, Vol. 26 issue 2, 2014, 265.