Space and Art


From very early on in human civilization, the sky has been a source of curiosity for people on Earth. The video, Powers of Ten, conveys the vastness of space, zooming in as far in as a proton and far enough out to capture the galaxies in our own cluster as well as those as far away as the Virgo Cluster ("Powers of Ten"). It is no surprise then that it has found its way into artwork ranging from thousands of years ago, to present day. Stone Henge, a world heritage site in England composed of large rock slabs dated back to around 2100 BC. Though it appears artistic, researchers have determined that it is modeled after the stars and possesses astronomical qualities ("Introductory...").

Stone Henge
Throughout history, because gazing up at the sky and admiring the stars is such a timeless experience, there is a myriad of artwork centered around stars. Cultures ranging from ancient Africans to Native North Americans, to Islamic cultures on the Arabian Peninsula have artwork based on astronomy (Fraknoi).

Starry Night
Even more contemporary artists focus on the sky for inspiration. A prime example is Vincent Van Gogh. In 1889, he painted Starry Night. The piece features the moon, the morning star, Venus, and circles and circles of orbs of light meant to represent the night sky from his view in France (Kooning). The Space Race between Russia and the United States further demonstrates the human infatuation with outer space. (Vesna) The nations spent billions of dollars to explore the sky they had been looking up at just as artists all over the world had been exploring it for millennia.

 
Modern art based on space exploration
Works Cited


Fraknoi, Andrew. “Unheard Voices: Astronomy of Many Cultures.” Multiverse, University of California: Berkeley, 2016.
Vesna, Victoria. Art and Space (Part 3). Youtube, 29 July 2013.
“Introductory Astronomy: Stonehenge.” Washington State University, astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/im-lab/stonehenge/stonehenge.html.
Kooning, Willem. “The Starry Night.” Museum of Modern Art, 14 Oct. 2013, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889.
“Powers of Ten.” EAMES Office, IBM, 1977.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Neuroscience and Art

Image
Artistic Depiction of Human Brain I think that the study of art and the brain is particularly interesting because the ideas and creativity that spur artists to design their work originates in some way, shape or form from their brains. Whether they are inspired externally or internally, the action of shaping their work occurs within their minds. Similarly, humans experience art through their brain after it is perceived by their senses (Tucker). Carl Jung On a physical level, every human has the same physical makeup roughly, of their brains. They have the same types of cells, the same types of neurotransmitters, etc. It is fascinating that these same components can produce such a wide array of artists, and people in general. John Brockman believed that despite all of the science and math defining these components, that “conscious involves noncomputable ingredients” (Brockman). How then does one characterize the brain? Another school of thought believed that the brain couldn...
Read more

Event 3: Body Worlds

Image
Digestive System Display For my second event, I visited the Body Worlds exhibit at the California Science Center. The exhibit features human organs and organ systems separated and preserved, enabling viewers of the exhibit to view first hand the different structures and functions of different parts of the human body. Thought the exhibit showed primarily individual systems, it conveyed well the interdependence of the systems on each other. Ancient Egyptian Dissection Being at the exhibit made me realize how far the human understanding of the human body and the representation of the human body has come. The first instances of dissections of recorded trace back to Ancient Egyptians (Vesna). After the death of Egyptians, their bodies would be cut open and mummified. This process often entailed skilled morticians altering the bodies in ways that preserved them for thousands of years. This process has been captured in much Egyptian art and is well-known today. Art and science w...
Read more

Bio Art

Image
Joe Davis With the discovery of DNA and subsequent ability to manipulate it, it has arisen as a potential medium for art. Some artists like Joe Davis (Vesna) have seized the opportunity and pioneered it as a new canvas on which to paint. As a medium this calls into question the ethics of using DNA as an art form as well the value of the medium (Elsevier). Joe Davis noted that he is likely the most successful publisher in history because the E.coli. This highlights a key feature of art being encoded in DNA in that it can be replicated very quickly and efficiently. Thus his Microvenus symbol is within the DNA of millions of cells of E.coli. Another feature of art being encoded as DNA is the permanence and capacity of the data stored within in it. Supposedly all of the world’s data could be stored in it (Extance). Microvenus There are ethical concerns about using DNA as well. One such example is if using it as an art medium could continue into genetically modifying o...
Read more