“Islands are stars, and archipelagos make constellations. Islanders become islonauts, making connections across the seas and stars.”

These words, set as a starting point by ØY Festival for their 2018 ‘Space Station ØY’, grew into a group project for Móti. In September 2018 we sent out 81 space probes (AKA postcards) to connect with and map creative islanders throughout the universe. These probes were sent to islands all over the world with an invitation for their receiving artist to make their mark on them and send a little snapshot of their own island star back to ours.

50 of our 81 probes made the long journey home, adorned with the marks and messages of islanders all around the world, while some remained in the outermost corners of deep space. Those that did return formed ‘Is There Anyone Out There?’ an installation displayed at ØY Festival on Papay from 16-18th November 2018.

Many of our members made the interstellar, inter-island voyage to Space Station ØY. We travelled to neolithic villages and Orcadian space stations, examined the surface of Mars, listened to tunes from the stars, danced all night at a ceilidh and walked home under the milky way.

A huge thank you to Jonathan Ford (Papay Ranger) and Saoirse Higgins for putting together such an excellent festival, to Jennifer at the hostel for our brilliant accommodation, and to everyone else involved - all the wonderful performances, talks, artwork and great company! The wonderful experience formed long lasting connections between Móti and Papay and we have returned time and again to its gleaming island light.