Together with artist Letta Shtohryn and artist-researcher Daniela Brill Estrada, I’m working on the CGI-documentary with working title Hromovyi Kamin’ (Ukrainian for “Thunderstone”).
In 1866, Europe’s largest meteorite fell in the village of Knyahinya, in the Ukrainian Carpathians — then part of the Austrian Empire. Knyahinya’s well-witnessed fall inspired paintings, fiction, as well as scientific and speculative theories about the origin of life on Earth.
The project investigates the scientific, social, and poetic histories of the Knyahinya meteorite. The main mass of this L5 ordinary chondrite (c. 300 kg) has long been displayed at the Natural History Museum Vienna, where it was for many years regarded as the largest known stony meteorite. The project examines space-heritage ownership, digital restitution, and historical speculation about the origins of life.
One theory suggested that it contained coral-like structures, which led to speculation about the origins of life on Earth stemming from outer space. This idea is part of a broader hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms, known as directed panspermia.
The project will result in a 360 dome documentary-performance and an AR (augmented reality) audiovisual play on the hiking trail towards the meteorite impact site in Knyahinya.
The project is supported by the Arts Council Malta and the Natural History Museum Vienna.