RYAN FIORENTINO IS A LOS ANGELES BASED ARTIST, CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND SENIOR LEADER AT NASA. HIS WORK REFLECTS BOTH AN INSIDER'S PERSPECTIVE ON OUR SPACE-FARING AMBITIONS AND A CRITICAL EYE ON THEIR CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS. ROOTED IN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH, HIS PRACTICE MOVES FLUIDLY BETWEEN ART, ANTHROPOLOGY AND SPECULATIVE DESIGN, INTERROGATING THE ARCHITECTURES, BOTH PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIETAL, THAT SHAPE OUR EVOLVING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SELF AND THE UNKNOWN.

THROUGH DIRECTORIAL FILM, LIVE PERFORMANCE AND EXPERIMENTAL SCENOGRAPHY, FIORENTINO CONSTRUCTS ALTERNATIVE REALITIES THAT UNSETTLE DOMINANT NARRATIVES OF PROGRESS AND THE CONQUEST OF SPACE. THE WORK SERVES AS A CONDUIT FOR EXAMINING HOW OUR INTERFACE WITH THE UNIVERSE MIRRORS THE CULTURAL INTERIORITY OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE.

BY MINING THE AESTHETIC AND LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS OF SPACE HISTORY, FIORENTINO ENGAGES IN A FORM OF TEMPORAL EXCAVATION, ONE THAT BLURS THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE, TECHNOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY. HIS WORK ASKS: WHAT EMOTIONAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND SOCIAL ARCHITECTURES MUST BE DESIGNED FOR HUMANKIND TO ENDURE ITS OWN EVOLUTION, NOT JUST IN SPACE, BUT IN THE INCREASINGLY ALIEN CONDITIONS OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE ON EARTH?