SpaceCollective is a community driven website where information and ideas are being exchanged about the current state of our species, our planet and the universe. The website, founded by film-maker

Rene Daalder Rene Daalder (born René Daalder 3 March 1944 in Texel, North Holland, died December 31, 2019, sometimes credited as Renee Daalder) was a Dutch writer and director. He lived in Los Angeles. Originally a protégé of Russ Meyer, Daalder has worked ...

in collaboration with interactive designer Folkert Gorter, went public at the end of 2007, and is now occupied by more than 2500 contributors. Gorter is besides the site's interaction designer also the main curator of the ''SpaceCollective Gallery'', a showcase of images and texts. The system architecture and technology of the website is created by Josh Pangell. A series of videos is presented on the website called "''The Future of Everything''". These episodes are edited by Aaron Ohlmann and produced by

American Scenes Inc American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

; executive producer: Joseph Kaufman. The website's slogan is "''Where forward thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction today''".

History

The initial idea of SpaceCollective was to make a story driven website based on the idea of

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ...

Voyager Golden Record The Voyager Golden Records are two phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended fo ...

, a time capsule that contains the life on Earth that was sent into space. But soon

realized that in a place of non-linearity and interactivity such a movie-like project wasn't going to work. Daalder teamed up with Folkert Gorter to build a website with intrinsic value of its own. Inspired by thinkers like

Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and '' S ...

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridg ...

and

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...

, who helped articulate the future by adopting a pop culture vernacular, they wanted to "''use the online platform to do something similar for our times in a radically different interactive medium''". They wanted to use the Internet to create updates of the

and beam them up in space every month. Because in 2006 the Internet shifted from primarily text-based to video-based they decided to create the video series called "''The Future if Everything''". In an interview with

Volume Magazine ''Volume Magazine'' is a quarterly international magazine published in Amsterdam. ''Volume Magazine'' is a project bArchis(Amsterdam)OMA(Rotterdam) anC-Lab(Columbia University, New York). ''Volume'' was created as a global idea platform to voice ...

said the goal of the project is: "''The Internet and the larger digital realm of computer intelligence it connects with provide us with the blueprint for the future far before the physical world is able to follow its lead. And in the case of Space Collective we use all the information that is available online to help people see the forest for the trees, opening them up to new perspectives. There are lots of people with the desire to change the world, but they have been conditioned that that is an almost impossible ambition to accomplish.''".

Projects

A growing number of universities, architecture and design schools are conducting projects on SpaceCollective. Several of these courses are initiated by SpaceCollective, others are originated by the schools, who may opt to open them up to the public or restrict them to participation By Invite Only. The Public Projects, whether created by SpaceCollective or its members, are open to all registered users. One of these projects is "''The Voyager update project''".

References

External links

SpaceCollective website

Interview with Rene Daalder on SpaceCollective

SpaceCollective on Facebook {{DEFAULTSORT:Spacecollective American science websites Space organizations