Week 9 | Space + Art

Week 9 | Space + Art
Nicole Chuhak

An artistic rendering of the constellations

     This week's lesson on space and art was a very good way to round out the class. Space really serves as a blanket for all the topics we've discussed this year, including robotics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology (Vesna). I find this topic extremely interesting because I feel like it can mean a variety of different thing, all of which are very interesting.

Poster for the film Gravity

     For example, when we talk about space and art we could be
referring to how art has influenced the space race. The mystery of space has been depicted in art for centuries in many forms; Art has been used to explain the stars in the stories of the constellations, the seasons, and to speculate whether or not we are alone (Smith). This constant curiosity expressed in our art manifests itself in our technological advancements in the space field. We can now send people into space, send drones even further into space, and take telescope photos even further still, all because science has the desire to answer these questions that have been expressed through art.

     We could also talk about how space has influenced art, especially in television and cinema. Films
such as Interstellar, Avengers, and Gravity are all some of the biggest films of the last 5 years that center on space and its technology (Rotten). I think that this omnipresent space theme has really enhanced cinematography over the last 30 or so years and that the world would be quite different without our Sci-Fi movies.

Pillars of Creation

     Finally we can discuss how art and science work together in a way the results in some of the most breathtaking images I have ever seen. The most obvious example is the Hubble Telescope, which has been taking these amazing photos for the last 25 years (Hubble). I am particularly fond of Pillars of Creation shown at right, not only for their beauty, but also for what they represent to the world of science (NASA). In the end that's why I took this class; I wanted to see the marriage of technology and art working to create something together that wouldn't be possible without the other.



Sources:

Hubble Site. "Hubble Telescope". Web. 2015

NASA. NASA. Web. 27 May 2015.  

Rotten Tomatoes. Web. May 2015.

Smith, Roberta. "‘Mind Is Outer Space’." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 July 2013. Web. 27 May 2015.  

Vesna, Victoria. "Unit 9: Space + Art". Lecture. 2012