Week 9 Blog Post: Space+Art

This topic for this week is space and art. It seems to be hard for me to think of any link between these two terms. However, after watching the lecture videos, I feel that there are several connections between art and space.


Firstly, the powers of Ten interests me most because most people do not really have a clear understanding of how big the space is. To think about that there are more planets out there and to think there could be other forms of life broadens the perspective of human beings. Besides, the contrast between the space and an atom make me think a lot. The space is definitely something we need to explore more because there is no limit for human beings to expand our knowledge of the space. In the other hand, an atom seems to very small, but we still need to put in more effort as people still knows little about the atomic world. The powers of Ten teaches human beings to never underestimate the complicated nature of the world.

The Milky Way Galaxy from the film, Powers of Ten, by Charles and Ray Eames

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/powersof10/45841/images/45841-hi-10_21.jpg

Secondly, I was very interested in the part of lecture mentioning Apollo 11. The manned lunar landing means a lot as it was a historic day in human beings. It is unbelievable that the astronauts were able to have a conversation with students in Maryland from space. I find several interesting things NASA has done on its official website in the past. For example, NASA hosts “Human in space” Youth Art Competitions to raise awareness of the NASA researches and projects among the youth. NASA has several endeavors to promote space science and technology using art as a form of platform.

Apollo 11 liftoff from launch tower camera

http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/kippsphotos/39961.jpg

The last lecture mentions several movies and TV productions about space and art. The space technology indirectly boosts the film industry as it provides great ideas and sources for movies like 'The Core,' 'Gravity' and 'Tomorrow'. Since space science is an interesting topic to the public, the movie producers will be very happy to adopt it into the movies.

"Invasion '55"-one of the early movies with space science in 50s

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO0e1wCuO629Q7nuHev4AFhQcSpGmdpbShyphenhyphenRLIVRdys27skuery7M3iQOnmC3ePN6r5f8Zn7k1uxf4wmOprxOQxaBY7n2KTprpVNBUYZvmLi4-iKvr7XstwTS9C-wSiLoa8ZPmSSi5iy0/s1600/inv55_0001.jpg

All in all, space science and art get connected in several different areas, and the advancement of space science actually inspires the artists to produce more artworks. It is great to see the positive mutual effect between art and space science.

Reference:

"Powers of Ten. Based on the Film by Charles and Ray Eames. An Eames Office Website."Powers of Ten. Based on the Film by Charles and Ray Eames. An Eames Office Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.powersof10.com/film>.

"Powers of Ten: How the Eames' Experimental Film Changed the Way We Look at Chicago-and the Universe." Slate Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/12/powers_of_ten_how_charles_and_ray_eames_experimental_film_changed_the_way.html>.

NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/november/nasa-astronauts-chat-live-from-space-station-with-maryland-students/>.

Dunbar, Brian. NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html>.

Lowodourink. "Modern Science Fiction Space Movies." IMDb. IMDb.com, 10 June 2011. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/list/Y9BzN28vGPU/>.