Daniela de Paulis, M.A.

Daniela de Paulis, M.A. is a Media Artist exhibiting internationally, a licensed Radio Operator (IU0IDY) and Radio Telescope Operator, member of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee, and member of the METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) advisory panel.

Between 2009 and 2019, she was Artist in Residence and Founder of the Art activities at the Dwingeloo radio telescope, where she developed the Visual Moonbounce technology and a series of innovative projects. Among others were OPTICKS and COGITO in Space, for which the cabin of the radio telescope is used as the stage for live interactive performances.

The Visual Moonbounce technology was developed for OPTICKS by Daniela, consisting of sending and receiving images as radio waves, using the Moon as a natural satellite. In COGITO in Space, she combined cutting edge neuroscience and radio technologies through a rigorous scientific and artistic process. Both OPTICKS and COGITO in Space are now travelling internationally.

During her ten years research at the Dwingeloo radio telescope, she invited international artists to work at the facilities, establishing the reputation of the radio telescope in the cultural fields while promoting the hobby of amateur radio amongst the general public and the professional art world. The legacy of her work at the radio telescope has been influential for other artists working at the facilities.

Since 2010, she has been collaborating with a number of international organizations, including Astronomers Without Borders and more recently with the Human Space Program, lead by space philosopher Frank White and with the Space Society Working Group, lead by space philosopher James Schwartz.

Daniela was the Founder and Director of AstroArts at Astronomers Without Borders for nine years. Early on in Astronomers Without Borders’ history, it became apparent that art is a part of science in astronomy. Before we learn what stars are and why they’re arranged the way they are in the sky, we are taken by the remarkable beauty that they bring. The night sky has inspired works of Visual, Auditory, and Crafted arts.

In 2005, Daniela earned her Post Graduate Certificate in Education and Art at the University of Greenwich in London. She earned her Master’s Degree of Arts in Visual Performance at the University of Plymouth in 2003. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Fine Arts from Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma in 1998. There she graduated in painting, however the confined and solitary studio work soon proved to be a limitation to her artistic practice.

Daniela has been independently training in Contemporary Dance and Performance Art since 1987. In 1992, she enrolled in the Architecture course of La Sapienza University before moving to the Fine Arts department of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome in 1994.

In 1996, while still living in Rome, she began working with dance and movement in collaboration with choreographers, sound artists, and other performers. In 1998, Daniela moved to London to train in movement techniques such as Body Mind Centering, Release Technique, Dance, and Contact Improvisation.

In 2001 she enrolled for a Master’s Degree at Dartington College of Arts in Devon. Visual Performance was the main subject of study in the two years course during which her professional experience as a performer joined with former training in painting, resulting in a multi-disciplinary practice that she has been developing since. While at Dartington, Daniela became interested in the relationship between architecture, economy, and nomadism.

She was Art and Design Lecturer at Barking College for three years until 2009 when she joined the Dwingeloo radio telescope team.

Daniela is the recipient of the Baruch Bloomberg Fellowship in Astrobiology at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, where she will develop a new radio artwork in 2022. She is a regular host for the Wow! Signal Podcast. She has published her work with the Leonardo MIT Journal, Inderscience, Springer, Cambridge University Press, and RIXC among others, which you can find at her Homepage.

Daniela spoke at The 2021 Assembly of the Order of the Octopus conference, a virtual conference for early-career researchers who work in, or would like to begin working in, the field of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), also known as the search for technosignatures. She also gave a talk for the Kepler Space Institute as part of a course on the cultural aspects of the Overview Effect, led by space philosopher Frank White.

Watch Kosmica Paris 2013 — Daniela de Paulis and the COGITO in Space Documentary. Watch Daniela de Paulis (Artist) at a Stanford LASER/LAST.

Read D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier Rides to Space atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket. This mission featured a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) experiment in collaboration with Daniela and INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica).

Read Scipio’s Dream and CBK Rotterdam’s Art and Science report.

Visit her LinkedIn profile, ICARUS Interstellar profile, dblp profile, ORCiD page, and her Homepage. Follow her on DutchCulture, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram, and Twitter.