Unit 9: Space + Art
I think having a
topic on Space was the best way to end this course! The lectures this week demonstrated
how all of the different topics discussed throughout this quarter could be tied
together. In order to explore space, scientists have worked alongside artists using
nanotechnology, biotechnology and much more. The American astronomer, Carl
Sagan, describes our Earth as the “Pale Blue Dot” and how everything we know
occurs here. The videos presented this week show how tiny and lucky we are to
live on this perfect pale blue dot in relation to the rest of the space
universe. When looking at our Earth from a distance, I think it looks like one
small perfect little artistic dot.
Image courtesy of: http://palebluedotltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Untitled-27.jpg
My favorite aspect
of this week’s lecture was Part 3, which described the role of animals in space
discovery. It was sad to see the first dog in space died after 6 days due to
technological failures, but amazing to find out that we were able to use
animals to pioneer space exploration. This was used to introduce the
chronological order of how space studies have evolved. We have grown from using
animals to humans and now robots to be used to better explore and understand
space.
The entire
concept of space exploration is fascinating to me because I do not know much of
how it is possible, regarding the engineering. It is also a little frightening
to think there are millions of unidentified planets and universes out there that
could have life of their own but I hope that we are able to use modern
technology and art to find the in other galaxies.
SOURCES:
“A Pale Blue Dot.” A
Pale Blue Dot. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/pale_blue_dot.html>.
"Animals Provide Ideas
to further Space Exploration: FUTURE'S BUILDING BLOCKS." The Times
of India (1861-current): 31. 2005. Web
"ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE
INITIATIVE." ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE. Web. 27 May 2016.
"CODED UTOPIA." Continental
Drift. N.p., 27 Mar. 2007. Web. 27 May 2016.
Vesna , Victoria. Space + Art
Lectures. 2016. Film. 25 May 2016.
Hi Jake!
ReplyDeleteI agree that the topic of space really did tie in everything that we learned during the course of the class. I found it very sad that a few of the animals didn't make it either, but they go down in history and really benefited our technological advancements in the space race and science as a whole. It's fascinating to think that we still don't know that much about space, and the things that mankind can learn and discover are infinite.
Great that you spoke to the role of animals in space discovery! We sometimes forget that animals are able to help immensely in experimental situations that are sometimes ill suited for humans. Technology advances, like you mentioned, have even furthered are ability to push boundaries with self operable robots being used in some missions now. I wonder if we will at some point ever let robots do all our exploration or maintain an interest in discovering things ourselves!
ReplyDelete