From Solar to Nocturnal: Staring at the Sun | Interspecies Interfaces
Event details
| Date | 20.03.2025 › 27.04.2025 |
| Hour | 11:00 › 18:00 |
| Location | |
| Category | Exhibitions |
Opening
Wednesday 19 March, 18.30 pm
EPFL Pavilions - Pavillon A
Enter the Hyper-Scientific x mudac Solar Biennale
Organized in conjunction with the second Solar Biennale presented by mudac and titled Soleil·s, the exhibition From Solar to Nocturnal premieres two new productions: Staring at the Sun by Alice Bucknell and Interspecies Interfaces by Matthew C. Wilson & Emilia Tapprest, realized in dialogue with the scientific community of EPFL.
Alice Bucknell’s Staring at the Sun is a sci-fi documentary that probes the dark side of solar geoengineering, that is, the deliberate, large-scale modification of Earth’s climate systems through manipulation of solar influence. Set globally—from the Louisiana Bayou to the Arctic Circle, from Wyoming to Gstaad, and from the Great Barrier Reef to Indonesia’s palm oil plantations—and narrated by fictional protagonists based on real interviews, it explores geoengineering proposals under research in the US and Europe alongside advancements in climate modeling and digital twin technology.
Wilson and Tapprest’s two-chapter project Interspecies Interfaces focuses on newly evolving contact zones between bats, humans, and technology. It introduces the concept of “other suns” to challenge the solar-centric hierarchy of perception. Just as the transition to solar and other energy sources requires new ways of thinking and designing, the reimagination of human cultural and technological perception of the more-than-human world also demands a shift. The nocturnal world of bats presents an alternative strategy for perceiving and interfacing with the environment: they use echolocation, in which sound, rather than light, serves as the primary signal for orientation.
Spanning world-building technologies, AI, and interspecies sensory translation, the exhibition traces a narrative itinerary from solar to nocturnal while shifting from real-world scenarios to the exploration of alternative visions for how we act, perceive, and interact with our surroundings.
____________________________________________
Staring at the Sun and Interspecies Interfaces (part I)
Opening: Wednesday 19 March 2025
EPFL Pavilions - Pavillon A - 18.30 pm
Joint opening with Archizoom
Dates of the exhibition: 20.03 - 27.04.2025
Tuesday - Sunday, 11h-18h
Interspecies Interfaces (part II)
Opening: Thursday 05 June 2025
EPFL Pavilions - Pavillon A - 18.30 pm
Dates of the exhibition: 06.06 - 06.07.2025
Tuesday - Sunday, 11h-18h
____________________________________________
Enter the Hyper-Scientific
Initiated by the EPFL College of Humanities (CDH), amplified by EPFL Pavilions, and in partnership with the City of Lausanne, the EPFL-CDH Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program “Enter the Hyper-Scientific” fosters transdisciplinary encounters and collaborations between artists and EPFL’s scientific community. The program invites international artists for three-month residencies to realize innovative and visionary projects at the intersection of art, science, advanced technologies, and the humanities.
The Solar Biennale 2
From the spring equinox to the autumn equinox of 2025, mudac will host the second Solar Biennale with the exhibition Soleil·s in the Plateforme 10 arts district and on the EPFL campus. Launched in 2022 in the Netherlands by designers Pauline van Dongen and Marjan van Aubel, the Solar Biennale provides a platform for reflections on the challenges of solar energy. For this second edition, mudac will broaden the theme by bringing together designers, curators, activists, and researchers to explore expanded perspectives on how to approach ecological transition.
____________________________________________
© Alice Bucknell, Staring at the Sun, 2024
Commissioned and coproduced by the EPFL CDH AiR Program 2024: Enter the Hyper-Scientific, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne EPFL and mudac, Musée cantonal du design et d’art appliqué contemporain, Lausanne with additional support from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
© Matthew Wilson & Emilia Tapprest, Interspecies Interfaces, 2025
Commissioned and produced by the EPFL CDH AiR Program 2024: Enter the Hyper-Scientific, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne EPFL with additional support from the Mondriaan Fund
Partners
Enter the Hyper-Scientific – EPFL-CDH AiR Program
Head of Program & Curator: Giulia Bini
EPFL College of Humanities
EPFL Pavilions
Ville de Lausanne
Wednesday 19 March, 18.30 pm
EPFL Pavilions - Pavillon A
Enter the Hyper-Scientific x mudac Solar Biennale
Organized in conjunction with the second Solar Biennale presented by mudac and titled Soleil·s, the exhibition From Solar to Nocturnal premieres two new productions: Staring at the Sun by Alice Bucknell and Interspecies Interfaces by Matthew C. Wilson & Emilia Tapprest, realized in dialogue with the scientific community of EPFL.
Alice Bucknell’s Staring at the Sun is a sci-fi documentary that probes the dark side of solar geoengineering, that is, the deliberate, large-scale modification of Earth’s climate systems through manipulation of solar influence. Set globally—from the Louisiana Bayou to the Arctic Circle, from Wyoming to Gstaad, and from the Great Barrier Reef to Indonesia’s palm oil plantations—and narrated by fictional protagonists based on real interviews, it explores geoengineering proposals under research in the US and Europe alongside advancements in climate modeling and digital twin technology.
Wilson and Tapprest’s two-chapter project Interspecies Interfaces focuses on newly evolving contact zones between bats, humans, and technology. It introduces the concept of “other suns” to challenge the solar-centric hierarchy of perception. Just as the transition to solar and other energy sources requires new ways of thinking and designing, the reimagination of human cultural and technological perception of the more-than-human world also demands a shift. The nocturnal world of bats presents an alternative strategy for perceiving and interfacing with the environment: they use echolocation, in which sound, rather than light, serves as the primary signal for orientation.
Spanning world-building technologies, AI, and interspecies sensory translation, the exhibition traces a narrative itinerary from solar to nocturnal while shifting from real-world scenarios to the exploration of alternative visions for how we act, perceive, and interact with our surroundings.
____________________________________________
Staring at the Sun and Interspecies Interfaces (part I)
Opening: Wednesday 19 March 2025
EPFL Pavilions - Pavillon A - 18.30 pm
Joint opening with Archizoom
Dates of the exhibition: 20.03 - 27.04.2025
Tuesday - Sunday, 11h-18h
Interspecies Interfaces (part II)
Opening: Thursday 05 June 2025
EPFL Pavilions - Pavillon A - 18.30 pm
Dates of the exhibition: 06.06 - 06.07.2025
Tuesday - Sunday, 11h-18h
____________________________________________
Enter the Hyper-Scientific
Initiated by the EPFL College of Humanities (CDH), amplified by EPFL Pavilions, and in partnership with the City of Lausanne, the EPFL-CDH Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program “Enter the Hyper-Scientific” fosters transdisciplinary encounters and collaborations between artists and EPFL’s scientific community. The program invites international artists for three-month residencies to realize innovative and visionary projects at the intersection of art, science, advanced technologies, and the humanities.
The Solar Biennale 2
From the spring equinox to the autumn equinox of 2025, mudac will host the second Solar Biennale with the exhibition Soleil·s in the Plateforme 10 arts district and on the EPFL campus. Launched in 2022 in the Netherlands by designers Pauline van Dongen and Marjan van Aubel, the Solar Biennale provides a platform for reflections on the challenges of solar energy. For this second edition, mudac will broaden the theme by bringing together designers, curators, activists, and researchers to explore expanded perspectives on how to approach ecological transition.
____________________________________________
© Alice Bucknell, Staring at the Sun, 2024
Commissioned and coproduced by the EPFL CDH AiR Program 2024: Enter the Hyper-Scientific, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne EPFL and mudac, Musée cantonal du design et d’art appliqué contemporain, Lausanne with additional support from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
© Matthew Wilson & Emilia Tapprest, Interspecies Interfaces, 2025
Commissioned and produced by the EPFL CDH AiR Program 2024: Enter the Hyper-Scientific, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne EPFL with additional support from the Mondriaan Fund
Partners
Enter the Hyper-Scientific – EPFL-CDH AiR Program
Head of Program & Curator: Giulia Bini
EPFL College of Humanities
EPFL Pavilions
Ville de Lausanne
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Giulia Bini, Head and Curator of the AiR Program For press enquiries : Alison Carré