Space + Art

"The way for man is open!" 

(https://hyperallergic.com/71262/kill-the-fly-and-save-

the-child-and-other-propaganda-at-the-british-library/)

          I could not agree more with Professor Vesna's statement that space is where it all comes together. When I think about space, the first thing that comes to mind are the planets and stars. However, this past 9 weeks have shown that space is involved in almost everything - from math to robotics, to biotechnology and nanotechnology. 

          Throughout history, space has always been an area of great interest due to the fact that much of it is unknown. Starting with individuals like Nicolaus Copernicus, who constructed a mathematical based model of the universe that placed the Sun at the center, to developments during the height of the Cold War like the space race and related space age between the two great powers, space has been at the center of it all.

"Space race propaganda poster" 

(https://www.pinterest.com/pin/525162006540331346/)

          It is fascinating how the space race entered into popular culture and allowed for what was once imagined in our minds to actually become reality (Space Exploration + Art Part II). As Roger Malina, an astronomer and member of the Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group stated, "one of the defining achievements of the twentieth century was the birth of the space age," which "was possible because for centuries the cultural imagination was fed by artists, writers and musicians who dreamed of human activities in space" (spaceart.org). Therefore, it was early 1950s sci-fi classics like Destination Moon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Forbidden Planet that would trigger the space age with the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite (Sputnik 1) into space in 1957, the first human being (Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin) to travel into space in 1961, and the first person (Neil Armstrong) to walk on the Moon in 1969. 

"Destination Moon" 

(https://scifist.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/destination-moon/)

          The space age not only had an impact on filmmakers, artists, and writers alike, but also gave rise to agencies like NASA, which would allow for more scientists, astronomers, and artists to get involved in space exploration and research. For example, the Cosmic Dancer, the first 3D geometric artwork that was created by artist Arthur Woods to assess the integration of art into space, would be launched to the Russian Mir space station in 1993. On the Mir space station, the sculpture was freed from the force of gravity, as it freely floated and could be seen from any angle. The crew members were able to interact with the sculpture and noted the importance of having it included in their environment, as one cosmonaut indicated the joy the sculpture brought to him and his fellow cosmonauts, which danced "freely on its own" to music and "circled around us for some reason...that we can really call dancing!" (cosmicdancer.com). While Wood's space sculpture looks more like what you might expect to see in a museum, its launch marks a turning point for artworks in outer space by showing how art can provoke new ways of understanding the universe. 

"Cosmonaut Alexander Polischuk and the Cosmic Dancer" 

(https://www.cosmicdancer.com/cosmic_dancer_contact.php)

          Aside from artists integrating artwork in space, scientists have also been involved in a wide array of research and projects to develop new technology that will provide new capabilities for space exploration. For instance, NASA has been working on launching Astrobee in space, a new free-flying robot system, that will work alongside astronauts as they help advance research. The Astrobee system will help assist crew and perform duties on spacecraft, such documenting experiments, taking inventory, and moving cargo around. This in turn will increase astronaut productivity while at the same time helping us learn more about the future of robotics in space (NASA Ames).
   

"Astrobee" (https://www.nasa.gov/astrobee)

          To date, the integration of art and technology into space has yielded so many creative projects and works that have aided in helping both scientists and artists to better understand outer space. While much of space remains unknown today, the merging of these disciplines will be instrumental in our quest for mastering this frontier.  

Sources:
Vesna, Victoria. "Space Exploration + Art Part I." YouTube, 29 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=6ZIqTR332l8.

Vesna, Victoria. "Space Exploration + Art Part II." YouTube, 29 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=hLZMDpoP-u0.

Vesna, Victoria. "Space Exploration + Art Part III." YouTube, 29 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=4WOqt_C55Mk.

Vesna, Victoria. "Space Exploration + Art Part IV." YouTube, 30 May 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=J5ClKO6AJPo.

Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group. MIT Press, 1996. Assessed May 24, 2019. https://spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html.

Woods, Arthur. "Cosmic Dancer - A Space Art Intervention by Arthur Woods." Greater.Earth. Assessed May 24, 2019. https://www.cosmicdancer.com/. 

Chen, Rick. "Here's Looking at You! Astrobee's First Robot Completes Initial Hardware Checks in Space." NASA Ames Research Center, May 17, 2019. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ames/here-s-looking-at-you-astrobee-s-first-robot-completes-initial-hardware-checks-in.