WEEK 9: SPACE + ART

Space has always been a source of beauty for me as I love finding constellations and searching for the planets among the many stars. This weeks readings and lectures were thus extremely enjoyable as they exposed me to art by artists like B.E. Johnson of the Leonardo Space Art Project whose former job as a NASA employee cemented my faith in the fact that scientists definitely see an art-like beauty in whatever they study (LSAP). However, the second lecture by Professor Vesna opened a new perspective for me about how space and art can intersect - space exploration itself is a way of revealing celestial beauty to humans (Vesna).

Johnson, B.E. Rocky Mountain High.

Having taken a class on the history of science's bout with religion, Copernicus' example of being an astronomer was well known to me - but Professor Vesna talking about him while discussing space art made me rethink Copernicus and other astronomers as artists themselves. A lot of such scientists seek celestial secrets for their beauty itself - for example, Vatican astronomer Consolmagno has talked of how he studies space to reveal Gods' beautiful work (Mullen). If one makes a painting and another scourges space for patterns and wonderous objects like comets, are they not both artists who use their skill to fulfill a very aesthetic goal?

“NASA Astronaut Takes in 'Earth's Beauty' from Space.” IB Times.

This argument is also helped by the fact that we consider directors and writers of space-based science fiction to be artists. Cuaron's Gravity shows its audiences beautiful images of Earth as seen from space but so does the video above - if the utility derived from both these works is the audiences' amazement, then they are both equivalent artists in my opinion (Cuaron). One may argue that space exploration takes billions of dollars to achieve what movies and novels do when it comes to aiding audiences' interests, but in recent times we have had space missions like India's Chandrayaan whose budget was lower than that of Gravity's (NBC)!

Chandrayaan 2

Chang, Kenneth. “India's Chandrayaan-2 Embarks on Mission to the Moon.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 July 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/science/chandrayaan-2-india-moon.html.


“Leonardo Space Art Project.” Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers, https://spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html.

Mullen, Leslie. “Reverence for the Heavens: How Astronomy and Religion Intersect.” Space.com, Space, 20 Jan. 2011, https://www.space.com/10656-astronomy-religion-cosmos-intersection.html.

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture Part 2” Space+Art | Lectures.
              https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/129896/pages/unit-6-view?module_item_id=4852527

“Why India's Mars Orbiter Mission Cost Less than 'Gravity' Movie.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 24 Sept. 2014, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/why-indias-mars-orbiter-mission-cost-less-gravity-movie-n210681.

Cuarón Alfonso, et al. Gravity. 2013.




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