NASA LIE THE EARTH IS FLAT NO CURVE

Video / 30 mins / 2019

In recent years the statement ‘NASA lie the earth is flat no curve’ has been repeatedly scrawled across the city of Newcastle (UK). This graffiti is arguably as throwaway as it is temporary, but perhaps not. Perhaps it has something to say about how divided we have become, especially in our thinking.

NASA LIE THE EARTH IS FLAT NO CURVE is a video-collage made entirely from content widely available from online video media platforms. It was created and first screened whilst undertaking an artist residency at ZK/U, Berlin, in 2019.

The residency was a co-commission between The NewBridge Project (UK), ZK/U (DE) and PUrSI, a Durham Universitiy project researching the Politics of Urban Social Innovation (UK).

“A playful and poetic short inviting us to consider broad social and political predicaments - via the lens of flat earth theory”

Below: watch video trailer and read post-screening tanscript.

In Conversation:

Alice Boulton-Breeze // Lester Drake // Andrew Wilson

Assembly House, Leeds (UK) // April, 2020

“It’s really about the notion of culture as a primary force, how we make sense of or give meaning to the world around us”

Q. In the video there are some really low-brow references, the Prescot punch, the Supermarket Sweep scenes, etc. alongside high-academia and philosophy. How intentional was that and what was your thinking behind it? 

AW: Well, the audience I have in mind is someone like me or someone coming from where I come from. Someone who isn’t necessarily academic or within the arts to be honest. So, it needs to be grounded somewhere which makes sense to ordinary people’s lives.

So, the cultural touch stones or reference points sprinkle a little sugar on the heavier content. But there is also something in supermarket shopping and watching it unfold as a TV gameshow that can have something to say about individualisation and wider political predicaments that the video touches on. So, as Stuart Hall says in the video it’s really about the notion of culture as a primary force, in the ways in which we make sense of, or give meaning to, the world around us.

“It needs to be grounded somewhere which makes sense to ordinary people’s lives”

Q. What response, so far, has the video had from flat earthers?

Andrew Wilson: As far as I’m aware not too many who have seen it. I’ve certainly not pushed it to that particular audience. But at the most recent cinema screening there was one, and what was interesting was not necessarily her contribution to conversation, but the reaction from the rest of the audience. The room became increasingly antagonistic towards her.

Alice Boulton-Breeze: When watching the Brexit scenes I found myself trying to decide if you were a Brexiter or not. But then, I had to stop myself, because that’s really not the point of the video. I feel like I’ve been trained to immediately seek-out if people agree with me or not.

Lester Drake: There is an interesting ambiguity in the video with the questions repeatedly being asked to those two guys on the street. The implication was that they were flat earthers, but it was never really clear whether they were or not. The interviewer said he used the Socratic method, asking questions rather than postulating a position. This reminded me of a study which claims you can never change anybody’s mind via arguing, as people tend to trench into their position. The best way is to ask questions and try to find common ground.

“I feel like I’ve been trained to immediately seek-out if people agree with me or not”

Q. Why did you make the video, and where did everything start?

AW: As an artist, a lot of my work has been intentionally collective, working alongside people with very different experience and opinion. Whether that’s working with Toby Lloyd on Broadcast Bartender; where we have inverted the format of Question Time into a pub conversation - where the event is less about sticking to your position as an individual and more about an experiment in convivial conversation.

Likewise, with We Are Our Media, where we have attempted to identify and platform otherwise hidden stories or experiences that might be contrary or missing from the mainstream.

So, I saw the video, as a way to challenge and think about many of these things. A way to challenge what I’d been doing and the assumptions that were driving them.

“The event becomes less about sticking to your position as an individual and more about an experiment in convivial conversation”

Q. What do you think attracts people to flat earth theory?

AW: Well, why are we drawn to all sorts of things? At the moment there are people in Liverpool and Birmingham smashing up 5G towers based on the idea that they are causing the spread of Covid-19.

It might also be worth pointing out that I’m no expert on any of this stuff. At screenings we open it up into a dialogue, a conversation, as i’m interested in what other people have to say.

ABB: Well, I have a massive distrust of our government for various reasons, and I think a lot of people do. I feel like it’s comforting for people to think we’re getting lied to because it explains away a lot of bad things that happen in the world.

LD: I feel there is something to say about people not feeling nurtured, alienated and without a place in society. In Behind the Curve, the Netflix documentary which came out last year, it seemed like flat earth theory was something that people could grab onto and cultivate friendships from. There is even a really nice bit where a physicist says we shouldn’t be making fun of nor alienating these people, saying flat earthers are really passionate people who just want to do research, but they have been left without the critical tools to apply that research in a more scientific or fundamental way. So, I think this goes back to the idea of individualism creating barriers around us, making us feel like we don’t have a stake in society.

“I feel there is something to say about people not feeling nurtured, alienated and without a place in society”

AW: Yeah, I totally agree. I think that Behind the Curve tackled the issue of social isolation in all of this really well. Especially when it shows how a group of flat earthers disprove their own theories, more than once, yet refuse to see or believe their own results. To acknowledge their own science would possibly mean bigger isolation, this time from their new flat earth family as well as the wider society. Which asks interesting questions regarding what myths we might want hold onto in order to make life more bearable?

Q. Why do flat earthers think NASA are supposedly lying to us?

AW: There are tons and tons of videos out there. But it’s also worth pointing out that not all flat earthers agree with each other either. It’s not one big club with a strict set of rules that you have to abide by. So, I’d say go and investigate the footage and information for yourself. But perhaps it’s in something you said before Alice, about the distrust of authority.

LD: I guess there is something about people who are more knowledgeable about science or economics who are immediately put into a position of power, and if you feel like your life isn’t as good as it can be, or it’s being meddled with you immediately question them because of their authority. I guess that’s the vital point in asking these kinds of questions, because it’s having an effect on our politics in major ways.

“I guess that’s the vital point in asking these kinds of questions, because it’s having an effect on our politics in major ways”