Trout Fishing in Space

Written By Charles Lindsay

This is a trailer for the TROUT FISHING IN SPACE traveling show, a collaborative live music + projected video performance envisioning a future when humans will leave earth for good. Projection clips and shots of the debut are mixed with rehearsal portraits. The audio was recorded live at the debut performance in Woodstock. The earth bound video subjects are locations I’ve shot including Greenland, Costa Rica and the western United States. The Cassini mission imagery of Saturn was provided by Planetary Astronomer Mark Showalter at The SETI Institute. Cassini animations and video editing by Miguel Jiron. Rehearsal and live show documentation thanks to Liron Unreich and Catherine Chalmers. The CARBON 7 video morphing was accomplished in Maya by Matt Wachter and Eric Hanson. Musicians include Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Billy Gomberg, Dan Snazelle (of SnazzyFX) David Rothenberg and myself, Charles Lindsay. Thanks to Ariel Shanberg and The Center for Photography at Woodstock for the performance opportunity. Thanks to Laura Bernstein for help with carbontheblog.com and our brochure design.

Charles Lindsay

Charles Lindsay is an intermedia artist whose work explores the frontiers of technology, storytelling, and the cosmos. A Guggenheim Fellow, New York Times bestselling author, and founder of the SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence program (SETI AIR), Lindsay creates immersive installations that fuse salvaged aerospace components, AI-generated visuals, and biomorphic soundscapes into powerful vehicles for reimagining narrative. His projects ask provocative questions—what if an AI could dream? What if a Mars rover became a Zen monk?

Lindsay has collaborated with NASA Ames, Bell Labs, and exhibited globally, including at the MIT Media Lab. At SETI, he explored conceptual links between whale communication, Morse code, and AI pattern recognition. A dream in Kyoto—of a parking meter selling time and space in a Zen garden—became a realized installation, blending ancient philosophy with digital inquiry.

As an early alpha tester for OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video platform and a lifelong lucid dreamer, Lindsay pushes the limits of how AI can amplify human consciousness. His installations function as sensory laboratories, inviting audiences to navigate the terrain between digital revelation, aesthetic curiosity, and the collective unconscious. With humor, paradox, and deep curiosity, Lindsay’s work imagines new frontiers for art, science, and the soul.

https://www.charleslindsay.com
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