WEEK 9: SPACE+ART


As mentioned by Professor Vesna, this week's unit on space and art ties in all of the previous units of this course. Although we have wondered about the sky and the cosmos since the beginning of human history, serious studying of astronomy began with Nicolaus Copernicus (Vesna). Understanding and exploring space has since become a growing interest in not only politics (through the development of the Cold War between Russia and the US), but also popular culture.

Sputnik I was launched on October 4, 1957, and became the first of many advancements in space exploration that triggered the Space Race between the US and Russia.
The film Powers of Ten illustrates the universe as an arena of both continuity and change. By changing our view of a single image from macro to micro to nano, the artists demonstrate the depth of space and science itself. In addition, the film demonstrates how perception can change from on perspective to another, particularly philosophically the relative size of our world and the implications of our world relative to the entire universe. By studying the relative sizes and changing our perspective, we may be able to apply such understandings to generate new solutions and ways of thinking.


Various perspectives of an image from different distances. 
Space in art is most apparent in film and television. The popularity of franchises such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and Zenon (a Disney trilogy I watched as a child). Through the growing interest of space exploration in government, filmmakers as artists act as the mediator between the public and the science community as their films help the public better understand space. This notion reminded me of the article "The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring the Fact and Fiction in the Construction of a New Science" as like nanotechnology, space is often misunderstood. Through the development of film and art projects such as the Leonardo Space Project, people may begin to understand and accept space as an important field, allowing for an interest in space exploration to become a national priority, as opposed to space exploration's current dependence on private funding.

Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was one of the movies influenced by pop culture's interest in space.


Works Cited

Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. "The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of fact and fiction in the construction of a new science." Technoetic Arts 1.1 (2003): 7-24. Web. 1 June 2017. <http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm>.

 Hunt, James. Powers of Ten. Digital image. N.p., 8 Oct. 2010. Web. 3 June 2017. <https://a.fastcompany.net/upload/eames_fastcompany.jpg>.

Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers. Leonardo Space Art Project, n.d. Web. 02 June 2017. <http://spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html>.

Powers of ten: a film dealing with the relative size of things in the universe, and the effect of adding another zero. Dir. Charles Eames and Ray Eames. Powers of Ten. YouTube, 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 1 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0>.

Sputnik I. Digital image. History, n.d. Web. 3 June 2017. <http://www.history.com/s3static/video-thumbnails/AETN-History_VMS/21/205/tdih-oct04-HD_still_624x352.jpg>.

Vesna, Victoria. "8 space pt1 1280x720." Los Angeles. 1 June 2017. YouTube. Web. 1 June 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8>.

 Vesna, Victoria. "Space Pt 6." Los Angeles. 1 June 2017. YouTube. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYmOtFjIj0M>.

Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. Digital image. IMDB, n.d. Web. 3 June 2017. <https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjE0NzY3NTg5MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMTYzNjc5._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg>.

Comments

  1. Na Hyun SongJune 7, 2017 at 9:55 PM

    I agree with you with the idea that the space in art is most apparent in film and television. Films and televisions are easily accessible by public and many people watch TV daily and go to theater pretty often. As you said, there days, there are many films that are related to space and as a result, to the public, films are the area in which people can experience and know about the space the most.

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