In The Karman Garden: Armenian Pomegranate from Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian

This is the second installment in a four-part series, The Karman Garden, spotlighting the four Karman Community members who are providing seeds for the World Seeds Payload as part of the Karman-Jaguar Earth Seeds for Space partnership. Read more about the partnership here.

Though this is far from their first time bringing inspiration and action from space to Earth, 2022 Karman Fellow, multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and SETI Institute designer of experiences Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is marking a new milestone with their contribution to the Karman-Jaguar Earth Seeds for Space partnership: pomegranate seeds. 

To represent their own Armenian origins, Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian knew exactly which seed would do the job on the International Space Station (ISS). Pomegranates are a core symbol of Armenia, ubiquitous in iconography. In Armenian mythology, they represent fertility, abundance, and good fortune. The fruit features prominently in Armenian cuisine and also holds a distinct role in many ceremonial traditions, appearing widely across art forms. (For instance, in notable films such as Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates.) Building on this rich cultural heritage, and as part of a critical conversation on outer space as a space for liberation within an ecofeminist, postcolonial context, Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is challenging the absence of pomegranate seeds in the space commons. Until now, they have never been studied as part of a cultural, research, or outreach mission to space.

Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is collaborating with George Fayvush D.Sc., Head of Department at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, on post-flight seed research. Together with Dr. Franck Marchis and Dr. Lauren Sgro from the SETI Institute, they plan to publish a research paper following the mission that provides a “critical review of extraterrestrial landscape and extraterrestrial aesthetics as a potential for a global peace effort and project prompted by the decommissioning of the ISS in 2030.” The collaboration builds on Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s 15-year focus on demilitarization and decolonization in space affairs.

Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian plans to further expand the project through a series of conversations and an exhibition on posthuman ecofeminisms in collaboration with Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum in 2025 and 2026. Additionally, they will be running workshops for students at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena as well as more youth centers, universities, and institutions around the world, drawing on the mission’s findings.

More broadly, Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian views the mission as a cultural astrobotany experiment, providing space to critically examine the role of heritage, biodiversity, and commons in space exploration. This extends much of their interdisciplinary work since their Karman Fellowship, as they have sought to bring decolonial practices and transnational thinking to space, including a 2023 lunar analogue mission exploring intergenerational trauma and space futures. This endeavor also brings to life in a new way their establishment of the “Decolonial Practices” (E1.2) session at the International Astronautical Congress, initiated by Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian as a part of their Karman Fellowship in 2022, which addresses ongoing disparities in the space sector by examining its colonial roots and the systemic repetition of oppressive narratives. In Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s words: “In a time when space and Earth are increasingly marked by militarisation, this mission invites us to question borders and reimagine seeds, plants, and extraterrestrial life as tools for peaceful engagement and posthuman ecofeminist inquiry.”

The pomegranate seeds representing Armenia, provided by Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian are scheduled to fly to the ISS with Crew-11 on July 31st and return with Crew-10 in August.

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Photo Credits:

Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian photographed by Greta Stepanyan and produced by Maxim Saakyan at the Armenian Institute, London

Pomegranate photographed by Nadine Stépanian