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SETI Institute
Artists In Residence (AIR) Program
An international leader in the movement of integrating art and science. The AIR program connects contemporary artists with SETI Institute researchers and facilitates an exchange of ideas to catalyze new perspectives, insights, and modes of comprehension.
Our curatorial direction
The AIR program expands upon the SETI Institute’s mission to explore, understand, and explain the origin, nature, and prevalence of life in the universe. The artworks, performances, and public projects resulting from the AIR collaborations are at the cutting edge of artistic and scientific practice. Our program encompasses various artistic disciplines, including visual arts, literature and spoken word, music, film, dance, and theatre.
Our curatorial direction emphasizes projects that consider the evolution of intelligence, ponder the beginnings of life, and critically reflect on our anthropocentric world view.
Our projects
Our community of artists in residence is at the core of the SETI AIR program. We actively support the development, creation, and exhibition of their projects. We are also actively engaged in project-based collaborations with arts organizations and artist groups. These dynamic partnerships include the SETI x AI residency with Ars Electronica and the Making Contact exhibition at the New Museum in Los Gatos. The Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art houses the SETI AIR archive, which allows us to share the AIR program’s creative outcomes with international researchers, artists, and academics.
AAA teacher Theresa Paulsen with students
AAA teachers and observatory personnel in the Gemini-N control room
AAA teachers Kim Abegglen and Anna-Melissa Lyons with students
AAA teachers in the IRTF telescope dome
AAA teachers in front of Lick Obs. 36-inch refractor
Lick Obs. 3-meter telescope adaptive optics laser system.
AAA teachers attending presentation at NASA JPL
AAA teachers during Sept. 2024 curriculum workshop
Residency Artists
Astrophysics
Director, Center for Galactic Research
Newsletter
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Previous e-news
Mar 7, 2025
Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming to the Americas on the Night of March 13-14
Photo by Brian Day NASA
Feb 28, 2025
Earth Detecting Earth
Figure 1. The maximum distances that each of Earth’s modern-day technosignatures could be detected at using modern-day receiving technology, in visual form. Also marked are various astronomical objects of interest.
Feb 4, 2024
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Mar 7, 2025
Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming to the Americas on the Night of March 13-14
Photo by Brian Day NASA
Feb 28, 2025
Earth Detecting Earth
Figure 1. The maximum distances that each of Earth’s modern-day technosignatures could be detected at using modern-day receiving technology, in visual form. Also marked are various astronomical objects of interest.
Feb 4, 2024
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Alumni
SETI AIR Program Team
The SETI AIR program, led by Bettina Forget with guidance from its Advisory Committee, benefits from the expertise of a diverse group of curators, scholars, scientists, artists, and writers. These Advisors play a vital role in shaping the program’s vision by offering their extensive knowledge and unique perspectives. They assist in the selection process for residency nominees, foster connections between artists and the program’s extensive network of institutional partners and collaborators, and contribute insights drawn from their varied professional backgrounds.
Partners and Collaborators
We are fortunate to collaborate with national and international partners who at the forefront of contemporary art. Our primary institutional partners include the Montalvo Arts Center, the Nevada Museum of Art, and the Long Now Foundation. We collaborate on project-based partnerships with art associations and cultural venues such as Ars Electronica and Theater Mitu. The list of supportive institutions in our network includes MIT Media Lab, Stanford’s CCRMA Electronic Music School, Cal Arts, and Gray Area.
Institutional Partners
Montalvo Arts Center
Our partnership with the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP) at Montalvo Arts Center enables us to offer SETI AIRs one month in residence at LAP’s live-work facility in nearby Saratoga, CA.
Set in a 175-acre public park and historic property, the LAP supports the incubation and presentation of art and ideas and hosts over 100 artists from around the world from various backgrounds and disciplines each year. Through this partnership, SETI artists have access to a creative community of artists and thinkers, administrative staff support, and the opportunity to present their work to Bay Area audiences through varied public programming opportunities. For more information about the LAP, see: montalvoarts.org/lap and montalvoarts.org/programs/residency
Nevada Museum of Art, Center of Art + Environment
The Center for Art + Environment, housed at the Nevada Museum of Art, hosted the SETI AIR Program archive.
The Center for Art + Environment is an internationally recognized research center that supports the practice, study, and awareness of creative interactions between people and their natural, built, and virtual environments.
Housed at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Center is home to a focused research library with archive collections from over 1,000 artists and organizations working on all seven continents.
Museum website
Long Now Foundation
The San Francisco-based Long Now Foundation provides memberships for our SETI Air program artists.
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today's accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common. LongNow
Project-Based Collaborations
Ars Electronica
The SETI AIR program partnered with Ars Electronica, based in Linz, Austria, to create the SETI x AI residency.
Ars Electronica, based in Linz, Austria, is best known for its annual festival for art, technology, and society. The organization’s focus on AI, futurism, and digital humanism intersects with the SETI Institute’s research into alien intelligence, machine learning, and the search for cosmic technosignatures. The SETI x AI residency is part of the AI Lab (European ARTificial Intelligence Lab). It offers international artists working in AI a chance to win a residency at a scientific partner institution and the Futurelab of Ars Electronica. Ars Electronica site
Theater Mitu
The SETI AIR Program is supporting the Brooklyn-based Theater Mitu in the development of the cross-disciplinary project Utopian Hotline.
Driven by a commitment to innovation, Theater Mitu expands the definition of theater through methodical experimentation with its form. Framing artmaking as a mode of research and inquiry, we share knowledge, spark dialogue, and strengthen our community through cultivating radical ways of reimagining our world. Theater Mitu embodies this by way of our annual activities: theatrical productions and exhibitions, trans-global research initiatives, artist support opportunities, education programs galvanizing the next generation of artists, and the curated programming of MITU580, our 2,400 square foot multi-use art space in Brooklyn, NY.
Our Network
AIR News
Mar 7, 2025
Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming to the Americas on the Night of March 13-14
Photo by Brian Day NASA
Feb 28, 2025
Earth Detecting Earth
Figure 1. The maximum distances that each of Earth’s modern-day technosignatures could be detected at using modern-day receiving technology, in visual form. Also marked are various astronomical objects of interest.
Feb 4, 2024
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Mar 7, 2025
Total Eclipse of the Moon Coming to the Americas on the Night of March 13-14
Photo by Brian Day NASA
Feb 28, 2025
Earth Detecting Earth
Figure 1. The maximum distances that each of Earth’s modern-day technosignatures could be detected at using modern-day receiving technology, in visual form. Also marked are various astronomical objects of interest.
Feb 4, 2024
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of January 27, 2025
Information for Artists
At this time, there is no open application process. A member of the Advisory Committee must first recommend any artists to be considered for the AIR residency. We are developing a new ‘Visiting Artist’ aspect of our program to allow additional artists short term access to scientists.
SETI AIR artist selection encourages individuals who engage with new media and technology and whose work exhibits a direct relationship with the research that takes place at the SETI Institute. The SETI Institute’s science is leading-edge; so are our artists. Mid-career artists working in the following fields will be considered equally: robotics, rocketry, electronic music, theater and dance, bio-arts, digital and data-arts, computational arts, climate-based works, film and photography, philosophy, poetry, kinetic or land-based sculpture, geophysical and geological based works, planetary or astronomical based works, and drawing. AIR terms range from six weeks to two years. Approved artists may defer their term for 18 months to apply for grants.
During their tenure at the SETI Institute, our AIR artists have the opportunity to engage with individuals and facilities they might not otherwise be able to access. AIR program outreach includes public symposia at the SETI Institute, exhibitions, performances, talks at cultural institutions, and remote field trips. Web-based resources and social media amplify this initiative. The SETI Institute currently has over one million followers through Facebook and Twitter. The SETI Institute AIR position provides private office space, phone, internet, and communal space at the SETI Institute when the artist is physically present. The SETI Institute also offers access to scientists and educators on staff and small to medium meeting rooms to support meetings and events. The artists in residence are expected to comply with the SETI Institute’s volunteer policies and are protected by the same business policies as all volunteers.
Selected individuals are not required to be in residence at the SETI Institute during their term. Generally, it is expected that the artist in residence has an established practice in another location and visits the Institute periodically. The SETI Institute does not directly provide living space, transportation, or funding for artists selected for the program. However, the SETI Institute is available as the institutional home for funded projects that may provide such support.
SETI Institute AIR recipients must generate their own funding. The SETI Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)3, and can be the institutional home to administer government and foundation grants and private donations for individual artist in residence projects. In the case of artists applying for grants under the SETI Institute's auspices, funds received are subject to the same indirect costs as all other awards administered by the SETI Institute. Indirect costs are determined according to Federal requirements.
The Artist in Residence position comes with some public visibility. We hope that the program will eventually be fully endowed—artists' contributions, visibility, and successes will affect this prospect. SETI Institute AIR artists are, through affiliation, SETI Institute ambassadors. It is expected that the artist’s work and behavior will reflect well on the SETI Institute and the scientific community. If this is not the case, the SETI Institute reserves the right to terminate the artist’s position and affiliation at any time.
History of the Program
History of the Program
The launch of the SETI Institute’s Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program is due to an encounter between multi-disciplinary artist Charles Lindsay and the then Chair of SETI Research Jill Tarter in May 2010.