Students, experts explore integrated development of art, design and space technology

The 2026 International Space Art and Design Collaborative Camp, co-hosted by the News Center of the China National Space Administration and Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts and Design, kicked off at the university on Thursday.

According to its organizers, the two-week interdisciplinary event has brought together more than 120 students from 34 universities from over 20 countries and regions, along with domestic and overseas art and design educators and spaceflight experts, to explore new pathways for the integrated development of art, design and space technology.

At the launch ceremony, Wu Qiong, dean of the Academy of Arts and Design; Yi Lin, acting deputy director of the CNSA News Center; Xie Jun, deputy chief designer of the Beidou navigation satellite project and researcher at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp; Li Mingtao, chief scientist at the CNSA Asteroid Monitoring and Early Warning Research Center; as well as Barbara Brownie, vice-dean of the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art in London and representative of the camp's international tutors, shared insights on art-technology integration, space culture communication, space exploration and international cultural dialogue, calling on young people to bridge art and technology and contribute to a shared space future for humanity with creativity.

Tibor Balint, former chief human-centered designer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, delivered a keynote speech identifying human-centered design as a new space paradigm that boosts mission value and reduces risks, adding that deep-space missions should also address astronauts' psychological needs.

Lectures given by other guests covered space strategy, deep-space science, and artificial intelligence, laying a solid foundation for the camp's co-creation phase, which features six themed tracks guided jointly by Chinese and international tutors, according to the event's organizers.