SFI will be inaugurating a new annual tradition June 7-8 — the InterPlanetary Festival, which will render Santa Fe’s Railyard district a platform for imagining future human civilizations, on and beyond Earth. The festival, running from noon to 10:30 p.m. both days, will feature a series of discussions, interactive tech expo, film screenings, musical performances, and art installations, in addition to local beverages and food trucks.
Speakers at the festival will include luminaries such as Seamus Blackley, a designer of Microsoft’s Xbox; Cory Doctorow, editor of Boing Boing; Ashton Eaton, Olympic gold medalist and aspiring Mars colonist; Nina Lanza, planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Annalee Newitz, tech culture editor at Ars Technica; Jonathan Nolan, creator of the "Westworld" television series; Martine Rothblatt, founder of Sirius Satellite Radio and of biotech company United Therapeutics; Neal Stephenson, author and futurist; and Pete Worden who chairs the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. They will join complexity scientists and space enthusiasts for two days of discussions about the complex life support systems essential to sustaining interplanetary civilization.
In addition to free and accessible science talks and panels, the festival will feature outdoor musical performances by artist JiHAE, Santa Fe funk band The Sticky, theremin virtuoso Rob Schwimmer, electronic musician and podcaster Michael Garfield, and Los Angeles-based multi-genre group Ozomatli.
Theaters and arts business in the Railyard district will host space-themed events during the festival. The Jean Cocteau Cinema will screen movies like "Forbidden Planet" and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day;" SITE Santa Fe will be showing select episodes from Carl Sagan’s original "Cosmos" series; and the Violet Crown will offer space-themed beers to accompany a screening of "The Fifth Element," to be introduced by Scott Ross, who created the film’s visual effects.
The InterPlanetary Festival is part of the Santa Fe Institute’s ongoing InterPlanetary Project, which aims to bring complexity science to everyone, everywhere, in an exciting, engaging, and experiential way. Those unable to attend in person will be able to watch livestreamed talks and discussions from the Santa Fe Institute’s youtube channel.
Updates and further information on the InterPlanetary Festival are available at interplanetaryfest.org
Organizations interested in sponsoring the festival by participating in the InterPlanetary Innovations and Ideas Expo should contact the festival’s director Caitlin McShea, at cmcshea@santafe.edu or 505-946-3651.
The InterPlanetary Festival is part of Futurition | Santa Fe — a month-long series of festivals and events that brings art, science, and technology together. Taking place from June 7-24, 2018, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, most programs and events, designed for every age, take place in Santa Fe’s Railyard District and are free to the public. Please visit santafefuturition.com for more information. Futurition | Santa Fe is a joint initiative of the Santa Fe Institute, Currents New Media, the Thoma Foundation, form & concept, Meow Wolf, Axle Contemporary and the Santa Fe Railyard.