The Association of Autonomous Astronauts is a worldwide network of community-based groups dedicated to building their own spaceships. The AAA was founded 23 April 1995. Although many of their activities were reported as serious participation in conferences or protests against the militarization of space, some were also considered art pranks, media pranks, or elaborate spoof. The AAA had numerous local chapters which operated independently of one another, with the AAA effectively operating as a collective pseudonym along the lines of

Luther Blissett (nom de plume) Luther Blissett is a multiple-use name, an " open pop star" informally adopted and shared by hundreds of artists and activists all over Europe and the Americas since 1994. The pseudonym first appeared in Bologna, Italy, in mid-1994, when a numbe ...

. Sztuka Fabryka is a worldwide non-profit artists organisation based in Belgium. The Association's ostensible five-year mission, a reference to '' Star Trek'', was to "establish a planetary network to end the monopoly of corporations, governments and the military over travel in space". Artists who became involved were often connected to the zine scene or

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Scho ...

movements. The five-year mission's completion was marked at the 2000

Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2 ...

conference. Some chapters have continued activities to the present day. Several AAAers have experienced zero-gravity training flights. The writer

Tom Hodgkinson Tom Hodgkinson (born 1968) is a British writer and the editor of '' The Idler'' magazine, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, ...

described participants as "a loose bunch of Marxists, futurists, and revolutionaries on the dole", going on to explicate their mission as "reclaim ngthe idea of space travel for the common man". To the AAA, he said, "space travel represented an ideal of freedom". Annick Bureaud of '' Leonardo/OLATS'' viewed their work as "space art" that "combine freely space, cyberspace, raves, esoteric things, techno-music, etc.", calling attention to "how they recycle ... key images (the MIR Space Station, the astronauts on the Moon, etc.) ... mixed with science-fiction (and specially Star Trek) buzz-words or images" and then subjected these "sacred icons" to "iconoclastic treatments". In his book ''Unleashing the Collective Phantoms,'' the theorist Brian Holmes said of the AAA: "The ideas sound fantastic, but the stakes are real: imagining a political subject within the virtual class, and therefore, within the economy of cultural production and intellectual property that had paralyzed the poetics of resistance." The London chapter participated in the J18

Carnival Against Capitalism The Carnival Against Capital took place on Friday 18 June 1999. It was an international day of protest (also known as J18) timed to coincide with the 25th G8 summit in Cologne, Germany. The carnival was inspired by the 1980s Stop the City protest ...

protests during that year's G8 summit, with a contingent of AAA members dressed in

space suit A space suit or spacesuit is a garment worn to keep a human alive in the harsh environment of outer space, vacuum and temperature extremes. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, ...

s delivering a petition against the

militarisation of space The militarization of space involves the placement and development of weaponry and military technology in outer space. The early exploration of space in the mid-20th century had, in part, a military motivation, as the United States and the Sov ...

to the headquarters of Lockheed. The group was particularly concerned about the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft and its RTG power source performing an earth fly-by to boost its speed toward the outer Solar System.

Timeline

*23 April 1995: Launch of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts in the grounds of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, UK. *23 April 1996: Publication of 1st Annual Report: "Here Comes Everybody!" *23 April 1997: Publication of 2nd Annual Report: "Dreamtime Is Upon Us!" *21–22 June 1997: 1st Intergalactic Conference – Public Netbase,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

*23 April 1998: Publication of 3rd Annual Report: "Moving in Several Directions At Once!" *18–19 April 1998: Intergalactic Conference – Link Centre,

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

*23 April 1999: Publication of 4th Annual Report: "Space Travel By Any Means Necessary!" *18 – 27 June 1999: Space 1999: Ten Days Which Shook The Universe – various venues,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, UK. http://www.deepdisc.com/space1999/ *23 April 2000: Publication of 5th Annual Report: "See You In Space!" *The 333 days : series of encounters following the 5YP, including Gravité Zéro festival in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

*23 April 2005: AAA's ten-year encounter in

(http://confluences.net), in support to Steve Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble *23 April 2007 : AAA II Wake-Up Communique: "The Dream Is Just Beginning"

AAA groups and links

*AAA mailing list: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/aaacommunityspaceprogram/ * *AAA 333 Bologna (It) *AAA Anzio (It) *AAA Vienna (At) : http://aaa.t0.or.at *Raido AAA (UK) : http://www.uncarved.org/aaa.html *Nomad AAA *AAA Glasgow Cabal (UK) *AAA Kernow (UK) : http://www.myspace.com/bodminmoorexplorer *Disconaut AAA (UK) : http://www.uncarved.org/disconaut/ *Dionysian AAA (UK) : http://www.angelfire.com/id/ASP/DAAA.html *Inner City AAA (UK) *East London AAA (UK) *Jungle AAA (Nl) : https://web.archive.org/web/20041224082447/http://www.socialfiction.org/jungleaaa/ *Oceania AAA : http://www.deepdisc.com/aaa *AAA Aotearoa (NZ) *AAA Insurgent Cosmos *AAA Parasol (UK) *AAA Toronto (Ca) : http://mirmnp.blogspot.com *AAA Noordung (Si) : https://web.archive.org/web/20090815023929/http://www.postgravityart.org/ *AAA Argentina *AAA Guyane (Fr) *Orgone AAA *AAA Paris Nord (Fr) *AAA Paris Sud (Fr) *AAA Montpellier (Fr) *AAA Amsterdam/Area 23 (Nl) *AAA 10 Year Anniversary Video Site : https://web.archive.org/web/20061231171346/http://semaphore.blogs.com/aaa/ *Forum AAA Rosko (Fr) : http://www.rezoweb.com/forum/technologie/aaaroskoforum.shtml *AAA Twin Cities (Minnesota, USA) *AAA Porto (Pt) *AAA Chamberí (Madrid, Es) *AAA Space Arm Program (Ca) : https://web.archive.org/web/20130827095612/http://w----e.net/spacearm.html

Music

* "Rave In Space" CD (2000) ::http://www.discogs.com/Various-Rave-In-Space/release/379802

Influences on other subcultures

*Datacide magazine : https://web.archive.org/web/20050125235045/http://datacide.c8.com/ *

London Psychogeographical Association The London Psychogeographical Association (LPA), sometimes referred to as the London Psychogeographical Committee, is an organisation devoted to psychogeography. The LPA is perhaps best understood in the context of psychogeographical praxis. Lo ...

: http://www.unpopular.demon.co.uk/lpa/organisations/lpa.html *Gigabrother : https://web.archive.org/web/20180904053226/http://www.gigabrother.com/ *The Laboratory Planet journal : http://www.laboratoryplanet.org

References

External links

Red Giant
* http://world-information.org
OLATS, Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et Techno-SciencesMakrolabAcoustic Space LabEl Club de los Astronautas, space agency founded by artistsAutonomous Space Agency Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Association Of Autonomous Astronauts Organizations established in 1995 International artist groups and collectives Private spaceflight Space organizations Psychogeography International anarchist organizations