Das Week 9: Space + Art

Editors, Artspace. 3 Sept. 2017, www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/ten-depictions-of-the-cosmos-by-modern-masters-55022. Accessed 27 May 2022.

 As Professor Vesna stated, space unites many of the topics and ideas we’ve touched on throughout these past nine weeks, including everything from nanotechnology to biotechnology (Vesna). The diverse nature of the concept is attention-grabbing, and once its potential in pop culture was tapped, it’s been flowing ever since. Space began to work hand in hand with film and television on a large scale, including films like Gravity by Alfonso Cuaron and Interstellar by Christopher Nolan. Interstellar has been a favorite of the public’s, and the 2014 dramatic piece even used physicist Kip Thorne’s observations and intellect to ensure they were as close to scientifically accurate as they could be in the realm of creativity (Tate)! 

Morgan, Chris. ET, www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_facts_you_might_not_know_about_et_the_extraterrestrial/s1__35132396.

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Another fan-favorite is ET by Steven Spielberg, which aided in influencing how the general public views the idea of space, adding more of an extra-terrestrial mystery layer to the advancing existence of space in art, dubbed, “the most magical moment in cinema history” (Speckhals). 

Gribble, Richelle. To Space, from Earth, www.richellegribble.com/to-space-from-earth.

‌Transitioning into the performance arts space, artists like Richelle Gribble demonstrate an intriguing path of combining space and art, in the way she travels to incredible places all over the globe, allowing her art to reflect her travels. Her space art DNA capsule, entitled “To Space, From Earth”, was planned to fly into space by this year, 2022, and is the perfect example of a world where space and art live closely together (Gribble). Another artist that dances this line is Kathleen Forde and her work “Dancing on the Ceiling”, which unites the metaphor of weightlessness in an anti-gravity setting to comment on social, political, and personal structures, referencing space exploration and dreaming (Forde). 

All in all, art finds a way to explore things both known and unknown, and given how little we know about space and its true abilities and capacities, it is genuinely an awesome and extraordinary feat to create work about what we don’t understand. In the words of Richelle Gribble, “...to neglect science in art making removes a crucial aspect of our common human experience, which is typically what art aims to unify and promote”.

SOURCES:

Forde, Kathleen . "Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity curated by Kathleen Forde : EMPAC Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center : Troy, NY USA." Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity curated by Kathleen Forde : EMPAC Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center : Troy, NY USA. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May 2022.

Gribble, Richelle. “About: Richelle Gribble.” RICHELLE GRIBBLE, 2021, www.richellegribble.com/about. 

Speckhals, Linda. “E.T.: Creating Movie Magic That’s out of This World.” Groovy History, groovyhistory.com/e.t.-creating-movie-magic-thats-out-of-this-world. Accessed 27 May 2022.

Tate, Karl. "The Science of Interstellar Explained (Infographic)." Space. Purch, 7 Nov. 2014. Web. 26 May 2022.

Vesna, Victoria . "Space + Art ."  27 May. 2022. Lecture.