Week 9: Space & Art

Space + Art, the last topic for this class, best ties previous class materials together and emphasizes how artists and scientists are conversing with one another to push boundaries both in the scientific and nonscientific communities.
            Professor Vesna’s discussion of Copernicus’ contribution to astronomy led me to think about how Copernicus was also an artist because using his scientific research, he was able to depict the solar system (Vesna, part 1). Connecting with the video Power of Ten, Copernicus and the video seem to deliver a common message of the vastness of our world through illustrations/drawings.

Power of Ten by Eames Office
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0

Not only does topic of space provide us perspective about our own world, what I found most interesting was how the focus on space has fostered education and influenced pop culture, ultimately appealing to both the scientific and nonscientific communities. The Space Race, which started from the launching of Sputnik into space, has initiated a new movement, encouraging scientists to further explore what’s beyond Earth (Vesna, part 3). Specifically, although not all projects were successful, the U.S. was able to send the first person to land on the moon and invested in numerous Apollo missions. 

Badges earned on the 17 Apollo Missions 
http://spacetechnoandmoonmissions.weebly.com/top-ten-discoveries-on-apollo-missions--moon-fun-facts.html

From an educational perspective, the increasing interest in space has pushed for the development of academic organizations that promote scientific discussions such as the Arctic Perspective Initiative created by Marko Peljhan whom goal was to enable scientific, technological, and educational opportunities for people in the North and Arctic regions (Peljhan).  In addition, the entertainment industry was inspired by space through the creations such as Star Trek, E.T., and Gravity. As the public shows increased interest in regards to space, commercial space crafts became a new field of research and investment. Personally, this area of research caught my interest because it introduces a opportunity for the public to be directly engaged in the space age, and thus I am enthusiastic about what to come for future space inventions.

Movie Poster for Gravityhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/

References:
"List Of Apollo Missions". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_missions. Accessed 30 May 2018.

Peljhan, Marko. "ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE". Arcticperspective.Org, 2008, http://arcticperspective.org. Accessed 30 May 2018.

"Powers Of Ten Blog | An Eames Office Website.". Blog.Powersof10.Com, 2010, http://blog.powersof10.com. Accessed 30 May 2018.

"Powers Of Ten™ (1977)". Youtube, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0. Accessed 30 May 2018.

Vesna, Victoria. "8 Space Pt1 1280X720". Youtube, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8. Accessed 30 May 2018.


Vesna, Victoria. "8 Space Pt3 1280X720". Youtube, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WOqt_C55Mk. Accessed 30 May 2018.

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 4, 2018 at 3:58 PM

    Interesting note on how space exploration has influenced pop culture. In a way, this type of exposure in it of itself has allowed more people to learn about space. Although everything in pop culture may not be accurate and sometimes the information may be too complicated to understand (The Big Bang Theory), it stills opens up a front for people to learn about space!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJune 6, 2018 at 8:19 PM

    Your examples are all show how much the space race has influenced the ideas people have in different artistic fields, especially in movies as you mentioned. I think that the space race has also impacted how art and ideas are shared. The space race allowed the development of satellites and paved the way for cable TV where a person instantly had access to hundreds of channels. This allowed different artworks, like movies, to reach many over the entire globe.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: Math + Art

Image
In Professor Vesna’s lecture, math influences art in many ways, from allowing art to appear more realistic to expanding the different forms of art. For example, the vanishing point, developed by Brunelleschi during the Renaissance, has allowed a two-dimensional drawing to have a three-dimensional appearance. Leonardo Da Vinci utilized the vanishing point to create a Renaissance masterpiece, Last Supper. Last Supper  by Lenoardo Da Vinci https://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-last-supper.jsp Furthermore, the use of math has allowed art to be represented in a variety of forms beside a two-dimensional artwork that most individuals are familiar with. Among them, origami, architecture, and music are three art forms that I identify to be representative of the novelty and innovative elements that math adds to art. Robert J. Lang is considered a pioneer in the cross-disciplinary field of math and art because he uses math to produce symmetrical 3D objects from paper. It is a difficult to
Read more

Week 8: Nanotechnology & Art

Image
This week material can be expressed through the lens of Dr. Jim Gimzewski and Dr. Victoria Vesna in the article, “The Nanomeme Syndrome” Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science,” in which they highlight that nanotechnology is part of the third culture that embraces both the art and science to produce new inventions, which ultimately blur the lines separating art and science (Gimzewski and Vesna). Nanotechnology has a plethora of applications, from advancing medicine to producing new commercial products and artworks. Nanotechnology has advanced medicine through learning about the drugs’ physical and chemical properties and examine the manipulations that can be done using nanotechnology to improve/optimize drugs. For example, Abraxane, a drug to treat breast cancer, is known for its low toxicity level in compared to other drugs used to treat cancer because of its nanoparticle formulation (Zhao et al.). Also, in the
Read more

Event 3: The Postgenomic Condition

Image
Dr. Jenny Reardon's talk about her book and implications My Own Image I attended a talk given by Dr. Jenny Reardon from UCSC, called “The Postgenomic Condition: Justice, Knowledge, Life After the Genome.” Her enthusiasm for the topic and her intriguing viewpoints caught my attention. Before, I only had a general idea about what The Human Genome Project (HGP) is, a project focusing on the determination of the sequence of nucleotide base pairs that make up human DNA. However, after listening to her talk, I learned that the current direction of The Human Genome Project highlights the diverse applications of this project as well as the issues arisen due to unequal access to the genome database.             A strong connection that I made with the diverse applications resulting from this project is in the lecture “Biotech + Art.” I believe that the key machinery/driver of the Human Genome Project is the machines that do the sequencing (National Human Genome Research Institute).
Read more