Interview with Minna Långström

A series of interviews with SPACE Art + Technology artists in residence.

What were you doing in the year leading up to the residency?
I've been working on a documentary called The Other Side of Mars which was completed at the end of January this year. It is a film exploring to what extent images can take us to places, and how real it is. It follows Mars rover driver and roboticist Vandi Verma from her workplace at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as she uses different robotic cameras to closely investigate the Martian terrain. I was fascinated by her rare perspective of the planet which resulted in a film that has been shown at various film festivals and an installation that recently was shown in the group exhibition Super:Organism organised by the Waag Society in The Netherlands.

What are you working on at the moment?
Now I'm working on my next project which I've been thinking about for years, and am quite excited about. It is a science fiction film that I'm now planning the production for, and I hope to work with British actors for parts of it. So I'm looking for collaborators while I'm working on the script. The film involves more or less speculative surveillance technologies which existing analogs I'm also researching at the moment. This is a theme I've worked with earlier, so I don't feel like I'm starting from scratch.

How have you found the residency so far?
I really enjoy working here, especially being able to discuss the work with the mentors provided by the residency programme and having such a functional studio space. The residency coordinators have been extremely helpful and I've had several valuable studio visits and discussions during my time here. The workshop we are doing here at SPACE in December – with a quite playful approach – really supports the research for the film and I'm looking forward to it!

What’s coming next?
The film I'm working on will certainly keep me and many others busy during the coming years if it goes into production. I also have material already filmed for a documentary installation that I will edit next spring for an exhibition in August. I will be working at a residency in Paris during late spring, and there has been talk about screening my Mars film here in London then too, so I look forward to taking the train back here this spring. Also it will be lovely to revisit for the SPACE Art + Tech Showcase in the autumn of 2020.