Week 9: Space + Art

Space, a concept that human has been interested in for centuries, keeps holding people's attention today. In ancient times, people named stars in the universe after different gods, such as Jupiter, Mars and Venus. Stories about this unknown space then started to flourish.

Artists, scientists, musicians and writers in all times are all fascinated by it, creating thousands of beautiful works. Many movies and novels have depicted the travel in space, such as E.T., the Jetsons and Planet stories. These artworks evoked many people's curiosities of space as well as inspirations for scientists. My favorite work about space exploration is Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan. The beautiful scenes of the universe along with the amazing music created by Hans Zimmer are really impressive.

The scientific exploration of space also started early in human's history. People used to believe that the Earth is at the center of the universe until Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a model that the Sun is actually at the center. However, space is huge, much huger than mankind can ever imagine. Neither the Sun nor the Earth is at the center of the space. Actually, we are all tiny pieces of the universe, just like what shows in the video Powers of Ten.

Space is indeed fascinating but also terrifying. On November 3, 1957, Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being that human sent into space. It only survived hours due to overheating, not six days that most people believed. But Laika was not the only life that was taken away by the universe. Many died for the space exploration, for example, the Space Challenger disaster in 1986. Though tragedies did happen, human also made progress. Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and finished a 108-minute orbital flight. On July twenty, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon - one of the most historical moments in the human history.

Space dog Laika

Space is an excellent topic to end our discussion in art and science since itself is a perfect combination of them. It connects all the topics that we have learned so far together: nanotechnology, mathematics, robotics and much more, and shows us a beautiful picture when all these subjects come together. With artists and scientists working with and inspiring each others, I believe we will find out the mystery of the universe one day.



Sources:

EamesOffice. "Powers of Ten™ (1977)." YouTube. YouTube, 2010. Web. 29 May 2016. 

"The Poetics of Spaces: Outer Space." ENTROPY RSS. Web. 29 May 2016. 

"Heroes of Space: Laika the Space Dog | Space Facts – Astronomy, the Solar System & Outer Space | All About Space Magazine." Space Facts Astronomy the Solar System Outer Space All About Space Magazine. Web. 29 May 2016. 

"The Copernican Revolution." Copernicus. Web. 29 May 2016. 

"INTERSTELLAR - Official Movie Site." Interstellar. Web. 29 May 2016.

Uconlineprogram. "8 Space Intro 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 2013. Web. 29 May 2016. 

Uconlineprogram. "8 Space Pt1 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 2013. Web. 29 May 2016. 

Uconlineprogram. "8 Space Pt3 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 2013. Web. 29 May 2016. 

Uconlineprogram. "Space Pt4." YouTube. YouTube, 2012. Web. 29 May 2016. 

Uconlineprogram. "Space Pt6." YouTube. YouTube, 2012. Web. 29 May 2016.