Space Is the Place

CTL-E-6098 · Work · film · 1973–1974

PROVISIONAL evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07319 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6098.

Space Is the Place is a dual-form work: a 1974 Afrofuturist science fiction film, treated here as the primary form, and a same-titled 1973 Sun Ra album on Blue Thumb Records, covered inside this record. The film was made in 1972 and released in November 1974, directed by John Coney, written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith, produced by Jim Newman, and featuring Sun Ra and his Arkestra, with music by Sun Ra. The Criterion Channel describes Sun Ra bringing his pioneering Afrofuturist vision to the screen in a film version of his concept album, in which Ra and his Arkestra lead an intergalactic movement to resettle the Black race on a utopian space colony, in a whirl of science fiction, social commentary, pseudo-blaxploitation stylistics, and concert performance. The film draws in part on a course Sun Ra taught at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971, titled "The Black Man in the Cosmos." Two cuts are documented: an abridged version associated with Sun Ra at sixty-four minutes, and an uncut version at eighty-two minutes first made available in 2003.

The record

• Also known as: Space Is The Place

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 4 — 747 Program, Wave 11; fourth Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Space Is the Place entity in the live graph at 3,763 entities (exact / normalized / alias match + token containment; CLEAR). ID CTL-E-6098 free. No Work record for the album or the film exists; Sun Ra's Person record (CTL-E-0023) does not home either. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 4 — Scan Tail Wave 3 packet ordered reserve, position 13 of 35 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked clean survivor #1574). The scan supplied the NAME STRING ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — Black America/diaspora canon with a Chicago root noted in judgment only — Sun Ra's Arkestra was Chicago-formed, but this film was a California production; the record is not claimed as a Chicago-made work. Vital status: Not applicable — Work/film (with album inside the record). Release facts instead: film made in 1972 and released in November 1974, directed by John Coney (Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16); Criterion Channel lists the film as 1974, United States (accessed 2026-10-16); album released 1973 on Blue Thumb (Discogs search result, accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — STATISTICS (sourced, dated): Film made 1972, released November 1974 (Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16); album LP released US 1973 on Blue Thumb Records BTS 41 (Discogs search result, accessed 2026-10-16). CONFLICT SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: Runtime — Criterion Channel lists 1 hr 25 min, Wikipedia infobox lists 85 minutes, and Wikipedia's text documents two cuts at 64 minutes (abridged) and 82 minutes (uncut, 2003) — no single runtime is asserted. Album-film relation — Criterion calls the film a version of his concept album, while a Sun Ra discography-informed review found in search calls the 1973 Blue Thumb album unrelated to the film except by title and distinguishes a separate music-for-the-film recording; the relationship is therefore recorded as contested, not settled. TIER: Provisional under CTL-GOV-006 — the 1973 album leg rests on a Discogs search result — the album page itself could not be opened in this pass (HTTP 429) — and the film/album runtime and relation figures conflict across sources, so the album half of the record does not meet the GOV-006 source floor as read evidence. MEDIA: photo HELD (Original 1974 film poster for Space Is the Place, graded example listed as '1974–Sun Ra–Space is the Place–Original Movie Poster' in a concert-poster auction result — specific image for a later PHOTO-001 pass to verify; no license claimed. Album alternative: 1973 Blue Thumb gatefold cover. — named candidate only; file-level rights verification per CTL-PHOTO-001 still required; no license claimed); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6098-space-is-the-place.svg); video FILLED (CTL Short 105 — staged on this Work record under the matching-entity rule; Link Map binding caveat carried in the media block); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (no address-based map spec earned). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (No address-based map spec earned under the packet standard for this record.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = FILLED (CTL-owned @culturetechlens YouTube Short whose subject is this work (matching-entity rule); catalog row and UR) | audio = HELD (No rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged.)

Relationships

• Sun Ra — authored by
  Film written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith, music by Sun Ra, starring Sun Ra (Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16); Sun Ra Person record exists per the brief's peer note

Sources

• The Criterion Channel, "Space Is the Place" (accessed 2026-10-16) — Directed by John Coney, 1974, United States, 1 hr 25 min; starring Sun Ra; film version of his concept album; Afrofuturist vision; Ra and Arkestra lead movement to resettle the Black race on a utopian space colony — https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/space-is-the-place (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, "Space Is the Place" (accessed 2026-10-16) — Afrofuturist science fiction film made in 1972 and released in 1974 (November 1974); directed by John Coney, written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith, produced by Jim Newman; 85 minutes in infobox; background in Sun Ra's 1971 UC Berkeley course; two cuts 64 and 82 minutes — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Is_the_Place (build store)
• Discogs, "Sun Ra – Space Is The Place" master page (search result, accessed 2026-10-16) — LP, Album, Blue Thumb Records BTS 41, US, 1973, with later reissues — https://www.discogs.com/master/84364-Sun-Ra-Space-Is-The-Place (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6098 · Combined Graph record U-07319 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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