A Mixed-media Installation Based on the Evidence of Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence

In the twentieth century, humanity has not only made great cosmic discoveries, but has also redefined the concept of 'alien' or 'other' through advances in science and engineering. The result was the creation of the myth of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. This mythologising of the cosmos gave rise to communities of people who claimed to have contacted or sighted extraterrestrial beings. These people came to be known as "contactees". But often people don't take contactees seriously and call them crazy. The purpose of my research is to show that humanity has a need to believe in something more than what we see in everyday life. The hunt for extraterrestrials by the contactors is a method of escapism from a boring reality. My research will also show that the image of the 'alien' is a construction of the political, social and cultural context of the time. In order to create a qualitative project and to explore this issue, different types of methods have been used: the analysis of the image of extraterrestrial beings in pop culture and the collection of data from ufological websites. The main expected outcome of the project is a multimedia installation based on the evidence of communication with extraterrestrials and a collective exhibition on the observation of the unseen and the elusive. In addition, a visual study of the evolution of the representation of the alien in popular culture from the 1950s to the present, presented in the form of a long read, is also being created.