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X-WR-CALNAME:SAAO
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.saao.ac.za
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for SAAO
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TZID:Africa/Johannesburg
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TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
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DTSTART:20250101T000000
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DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20251011T200000
DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20251011T220000
DTSTAMP:20260430T224010
CREATED:20251001T131950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251008T182820Z
UID:24946-1760212800-1760220000@www.saao.ac.za
SUMMARY:NRF|SAAO Cape Town Open Night
DESCRIPTION:Join us for Open Nights at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town\, held on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. \nEach evening begins with an engaging presentation on astronomy or a related field of science\, followed by a guided tour of the Observatory’s rich history—including our library\, museum\, and the historic 120-year-old McClean Telescope. \nWeather permitting\, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy stargazing through the McClean and additional smaller telescopes. \n\n\n\nGates open at 7:30 PM.\nFree entry for children aged 6 and under.\n\n\n\nPlease email cptbookings@saao.ac.za or call +27 21 447 0025 if you have any queries regarding bookings. \n\n\n\n\nSpeaker: Kamil Adam Hassim \nAbstract: \n\n“Patterns of the Universe Lines Across Space and Time” \nIn this lecture Kamil will explore the intertwined relationships of art\, science\, culture and technology and explore how ancient indigenous philosophical frameworks in Southern Africa integrated observational knowledge of the universe into their world-views. \nKamil will recall the story of two independent solutions to navigating the open ocean – the British invention of the mechanical clock and Polynesian Wayfinding – illustrating the ways in which culture can profoundly influence scientific and technological progress. \nHe will also share his project developed in collaboration with astronomers and scientists at SALT and SAAO\, “Event Horizon” – a series of artistic installations\, exhibitions and an art-science instrument exploring the nexus between frontier science and ancient indigenous knowledge in Southern Africa. \n\nBio: \n\n\nKamil Adam Hassim (b.1997) is a transdisciplinary artist whose work explores  how our relative cultural paradigms shape human perception\, memory\, and belief. Engaging both scientific institutions and indigenous knowledge systems\, Hassim’s art is an exploration of the intersections of culture and technology and the use of nature and natural phenomena as an artistic language. \nHassim is one of the youngest artists globally to be awarded a residency at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) and the only artist to have undertaken independent residencies across all major astronomical observatories in South Africa—including the (South African Astronomical Observatory) SAAO\, the (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory) SARAO\, and Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory HartRAO. These engagements have informed his enduring interest in the relationship between modern scientific practice and ancestral cosmological systems\, and the entanglement of cultural and scientific worldviews. \nAt the core of Hassim’s practice is an inquiry into how cultural paradigms shape human perception and the kinds of information that become available through them. He draws upon cosmology\, particle physics\, indigenous epistemologies\, and spiritual technologies—probing the thresholds between the scientifically knowable and the sensed\, the measurable and the mythical. Informed by a praxis of Wayfinding\, his work navigates the liminal spaces between science\, art\, and ancestral knowledge to propose new frameworks for understanding reality and agency. \nHis installations often form sensory architectures— multi sensory compositions of sound\, optics\, and custom-built instruments that invite audiences into expandedperceptual states. In Event Horizon (2023)\, exhibited at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg\, refracted light from a defunct astronomical prism became a medium for rethinking the visibility of suppressed knowledge systems under colonial epistemology. \nIn the Karoo desert\, as part of the Fluid Boundaries and Tankwa Artscape residencies\, Hassim enacted a counter-land art strategy—allowing the ancient landscape’s vast frequency field to recalibrate his perceptual rhythms and inform sonic improvisational works. During the FluidBoundaries residency in 2025\, he is also collaborating with scientists at the department of Earth Science UWC and water researchers at UJ\, extending his inquiry into the material intelligence of ecological systems. \n\n\n  \n  \n\n 
URL:https://www.saao.ac.za/event/nrfsaao-cape-town-open-night-16/
LOCATION:Cape Town\, Observatory Rd\, Observatory\, Cape Town\, 7925\, South Africa
CATEGORIES:Cape Town Tours
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