Week 9: Space + Art

This week's topic was extremely fascinating, as I have always been interested in space, but never thought about its relation to art. One topic that I found interesting was buckyballs, which were not only found as a solid form in space, but were also studied by nanotechnologists. Nanotechnologists have been able to manipulate buckyballs due to their small size, leading to new discoveries. Because buckyballs are found in a solid form, "they may be an important form of carbon, an essential building block for life, throughout the cosmos" (Dunbar 2012). Buckyballs have also contributed to medicine, as the small size of the buckyball is used for targeted drug delivery (Azonano 2006). As shown, understanding the structure of the buckyball led to many important discoveries, from medicine to the formation of life.

A buckyball which is made up of 60 carbon atoms

(Gibney 2015)

NASA’s Art Program is one medium that space exploration is presented to the public. Artists work with astronauts and scientists to portray space exploration. There are 73 pieces of art, ranging from paintings to sculptures, that help portray space exploration. Without art, visualization of what space exploration is like would be difficult (Smithsonian 2015).

An example of an artistic representation of space exploration

(Smithsonian 2015)

Similarly, The Leonardo Space Art Project has a similar goal of portraying space activities through artists, writers, and composers. As Annick Bureaud states, "artists have been the fuel of space exploration, embodying in their art the dreams of humankind, making these dreams desirable for engineers to achieve" (Leonardo 1996). It is no surprise that art is extremely important in expressing space exploration.

Lastly, as Roger Malina states, "the space age was possible because for centuries the cultural imagination was fed by artists, writers and musicians who dreamed of human activities in space" (Leonardo 1996). Things that were once just ideas portrayed through artistic mediums such as film and TV are now becoming a reality. For example, as mentioned in lecture, the construction of a space elevator was mentioned in The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke (Vesna 2013). Currently, designs of the space elevator are being done by multiple companies (Anthony 2014).

An artist's representation of a space elevator

(Anthony 2014)

A different artist's representation of a space elevator 

(Price 2000)

Space exploration wouldn't be possible without space art. Without artists, portraying space exploration to the public would be difficult. As technology advances and new space ideas are formed by artists, we will continue to see art and science overlap. I am looking to forward to learning about new discoveries and advances in space exploration as artists and scientists continue to collaborate.

Illustration depicting the future of space exploration 

(National Geographic 2015)

Citations:

Anthony, Sebastian. "Google X Admits It’s Working on a Space Elevator, Teleportation, Hoverboards | ExtremeTech." ExtremeTech. 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/180682-google-x-admits-its-working-on-a-space-elevator-teleportation-hoverboards>.

Azonano. "BuckyBalls - A Nanotechnology Building Block, How To Make Them, History, Properties and Applications." 2006. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1781>,

Dunbar, Brian. "NASA'S Spitzer Finds Solid Buckyballs in Space." NASA, 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/feb/HQ_12-057_Spitzer_Buckyballs.html>.

Gibney, Elisabeth. "Buckyballs in Space Solve 100-year-old Riddle." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 15 July 2015. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://www.nature.com/news/buckyballs-in-space-solve-100-year-old-riddle-1.17987>.

Leonardo. "The Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group." 1996. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html>.

National Geographic. "Future of Spaceflight, NASA Missions Information, Future Missions Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic." 2015. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/space-exploration/future-spaceflight/>.

Price, Steve. "Audacious & Outrageous: Space Elevators." NASA Science. 7 Sept. 2000. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/>.

Smithsonian. "NASA Art" Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service - About the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service's Exhibitions. 2015. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/nasa_art/main.htm#top>.

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. "Space + Art". 2013. Web. 29 May 2016.