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Eulogy for the International Space Station

Ruxing Xiao

Ruxing Xiao is a spatial designer, and architect, from Beijing China, based in London. She has worked as a 3D designer at an international exhibition design firm for 4 years. She possesses a wide range of skills, including research, narrative space design and project management. Her practices use narration as a powerful method to educate and influence the public in institutional and public spaces. 

Ruxing Xiao is a spatial designer, and architect, from Beijing China, base...

"Eulogy for the International Space Station" is a speculative sonic fiction that uses the metaphor of the spaceship's eulogy to inspire contemplation about space exploration as an alternative living solution. 

The project hosted a workshop/event that invites space enthusiasts to reimagine space stations through participatory installations that sonify real-time electromagnetic data. The sound resources collected during the event were used to compose the eulogy in collaboration with composer Hengrui Zhang, using sound to enable personal interpretation and collective reflection on the future of humanity. Sonic fiction (Kodwo Eshun, 1998) offers a means of decoding our relationship with technology, reimagining humanity in the post-human era, and discovering new modes of being in the world. 

Final work

Eulogy for the International Space Station 🚀

Warning: Contains flashing images
A Person inserts geometrical spaceship toys inside metal cylinder lit installation.

ISS Imagination Ceremony-Launch Session

At the end of the ritualistic workshop, we came together to pay our final respects to a true marvel of human achievement - the International Space Station. People joined us in imagining the future of space exploration by building the future space station together. 

The image shows a disassembled geometrical spaceship toy, and depicts hands assembling the toy.

Mag-Spaceship

The assembled spaceship blocks invite the audience to assemble them and imagine a future community like the ISS. The blocks connect by magnets which can change the EMF data. Metaphorically, every tiny change will cause further change due to the laws of physics - everything connected together as a whole. 

  • A person sits with cylinder in Greenwich Park, surrounded by metallic mats wired together and assembling toy by hand
  • A person sits with cylinder in Greenwich Park, surrounded by metallic mats wired together and assembling toy by hand
  • A person sits with cylinder in Greenwich Park, surrounded by metallic mats wired together and assembling toy by hand

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Eulogy for the International Space Station

"Eulogy for the International Space Station" is a speculative sonic fiction that uses the metaphor of the spaceship's eulogy to inspire contemplation about space exploration as an alternative living solution. ...

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