Meeting Astronaut Sunita Williams in Ljubljana

Seen from Above: During her visit to Slovenia, former U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams and record holder among women for the number of days spent in space, of Slovenian descent on her mother’s side, spoke at the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana about what it meant to remain aboard the ISS for 268 days rather than the planned eight.

“You have to go far, far from Earth to realize how interconnected we all are …”

What a great honor and inspiration it was to finally meet Mrs. Sunita Williams in person—someone who is such a profound inspiration for humanity on so many levels, and a true testament to the fact that perseverance in difficult times matters, and that there is nothing more logical, nor more worthy of protecting, than our one and only planet Earth.

With Dr. Tomaž Rodič, Director of Space.SI, Col. Sunita Williams and Mr. Brian Greaney from the US Embassy in Ljubljana

I had the honor of first “meeting” Mrs. Sunita Williams digitally in April 2021, during the COVID pandemic, when the ASEF Gala (led by the Stanford University professor Jure Leskovec) was moved online at the last minute. At that occasion, Mrs. Sunita Williams received the ASEF Lifetime Achievement Award and, as a gift, my DBE – Data Bank of Emotions: Message from Earth perfume.

This work was created with the intention of offering astronauts and future space travelers a way to counter feelings of isolation and homesickness—by carrying a “DBE Message from Earth” that can instantly evoke sensations of our planet Earth as home.

Thank you, dear Sunita, for remembering DBE – Message from Earth, and for never losing hope of returning home. You are a true inspiration to so many of us.

My sincere thanks also to the Embassy of the United States of America and Mr. Brian Greaney for the kind invitation, as well as to Dr. Tomaž Rodič, my collaborator on the 6 m steel Conduit@Empathy, permanently installed in Kenya, and on the 5 mm Earthling@Conduit, soon bound for the Moon aboard the Lifeship, in collaboration with Moon Gallery Foundation.

Conduit E@Motion in Nairobi, Kenya

Earthling@Conduit ready for its travel to Moon, together with Moon Bound Book, project of Moon Gallery

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