First contact

My practice investigates how astronomical imaging technologies function as a first point of contact with other planetary bodies and potentially other life forms, making it vital to consider how these systems might be imbued with attention and care. This paper explores how spectroscopic data from planetary science can be translated into material and sculptural forms through artistic research. Focusing on recent James Webb Space Telescope observations of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and its water plumes – a significant site in the search for extraterrestrial life – as well as Hycean exoplanets – the project investigates spectroscopy as a scientific-cultural interface between human perception and deep space.

Using RAW datasets from JWST instruments including NIRSpec and MIRI, I examine how molecular signatures associated with water, salts, and potential biosignatures can be understood through processes of printmaking, crystallisation and chemical transformation. Working with RAW observational data foregrounds the uncertain boundary between signal and noise, revealing the search for biosignatures as a process of interpretation, calibration, and attentive negotiation rather than straightforward detection.

Drawing on Richard Panek’s description of spectroscopy as a technique that ‘collapses distances between a faraway object and your hands,’ the work seeks to materialise astronomical data beyond its conventional graphical representation. Current experiments involve crystallising and fermenting data in saline solutions linked to the mineral compositions of Enceladus’ subsurface oceans and exoplanet K219-B, alongside the use of natural pigments and chemically reactive surfaces that continue to transform over time.

The project situates these material practices within broader questions around non-human agency and planetary life, asking how artistic methods might contribute alternative sensory and conceptual approaches to astrobiology and SETI research. By bringing together spectroscopy, sculpture and planetary sciences, the paper proposes a mode of interdisciplinary inquiry that treats astronomical data not only as information, but as matter capable of tactile, ecological and imaginative encounter.