Andrew Williams, artist in residence at the University of Leicester Space Research Centre, has composed a new work that includes sounds from space. For an installation at a recent exhibition,
Andrew Williams gathered sounds and data from space—including recordings made by satellites and long-wave radios.
The sound for the installation comes from two main sources:
* Electrons hitting the Earth’s upper atmosphere – recorded using Long Wave Radio by Cluster II satellite on the 9th of July 2001. The recording is entitled Chorus. The title comes from the brief, rising-frequency tones caused by the impacts of electrons, which sound like a chorus of birds singing.
* A deep pulsing sound emanating from the Sun, recorded by the European Space Agency Soho spacecraft and caused by bubbles emanating from deep within the star.
The unique project involves projecting the sounds through multiple speakers and also features projections of still images and videos on multiple screens.
The Art in Space section at HobbySpace describes various art related works and projects that were done in space or at least in weightlessness. These include The Cosmic Dancer Project described on artist Arthur Woods‘ site about artworks that were taken to the Mir space station in the 1990s.
The Arts Catalyst is a UK based program that sponsors interactions and exchanges between the arts and the science/technology worlds. They usually have a few space related projects in progress at a given time. For example, there is the Republic of the Moon exhibition in London:
It’s nearly four decades since humans walked on the Moon, but it now seems likely that we will return there this century – whether to mine for its minerals, as a ‘stepping stone’ to Mars, or simply to do scientific research. In a provocative pre-emptive action, a group of artists are declaring a Republic of the Moon here on Earth, to re-examine our relationship with our planet’s only natural satellite.
After two decades working with space dreamers from the European Space Agency to anarchist autonomous astronauts, The Arts Catalyst will transform Bargehouse into an Earth-based embassy for a Republic of the Moon, filled with artists’ fantastical imaginings. Presenting international artists including Liliane Lijn, Leonid Tishkov, Katie Paterson, Agnes Meyer Brandis, andWE COLONISED THE MOON, the exhibition combines personal encounters, DIY space plans, imaginary expeditions and new myths for the next space age.
Marking the start of its twentieth anniversary year, The Arts Catalyst will animate the exhibition with performances, workshops, music, talks, a pop-up moon shop bysuper/collider and playful protests against lunar exploitation. A manifesto declaring the Moon a temporary autonomous zone, with responses from artists and scientists to novelist Tony White’s call to “occupy the Moon!” will be published in print and e-Book formats to coincide with the exhibition.
The artists in Republic of the Moon regard the Moon not as a resource to be exploited but as a heavenly body that belongs to us all. The exhibition asks: Who will be the first colonisers of the Moon? Perhaps it should be the artists.
Here is a video from several years ago when a group of “artists, dancers, film-makers and scientists” tried out various activities while experiencing weightlessness during parabolic trajectories on a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 : Attention Weightlessness
The FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, also known as The World Air Sports Federation) is sponsoring the FAI Young Artists Contest again:
The FAI Young Artists Contest is an international art contest for youngsters between the ages of 6 and 17. Each FAI Member Country sponsors the contest in their country, and the national winners are submitted to the International Jury each year.
The Theme for the 2014 contest is : Flying to save lives.
The entries can include space topics related to the contest theme and not just aviation.
I’ve mentioned before that astronaut Karen Nyberg, currently an ISS crew member, likes to sew as a hobby. (See posts here and here.) She is now joining with Quilts.com and challenging other sewing enthusiasts to combine their star themed quilt squares with the one she has made on the station : Astronomical Quilts Block Challenge – Quilts.com (pdf).
She describes sewing in microgravity in this video. At the end she describes the astronomical quilt project:
International Space Station Expedition 37 Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA, a lifelong lover of sewing, is inviting fellow crafters to join her in stitching together a global community space quilt.
Nyberg, who is in the final weeks of her mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, recently shared a star-themed quilt block she was able to complete during her limited free time in space. She is now inviting quilters from the public to create their own star-themed quilt blocks to help celebrate her mission and passion for the quilting arts.
“Now that I’ve tried my hand sewing in space, I can say one thing with certainty: it’s tricky,” Nyberg said in a video sent down from the space station. “This is what I’ve made. It’s far from being a masterpiece, but it was made in space. I’m inviting all of you to create your own star-themed quilt block. We’ll be combining them with my block to create a quilt for next year’s 40th anniversary International Quilt Festival in Houston. I can’t wait to see what we make together.”
Nyberg’s complete video and other video clips of her quilting aboard the space station will be featured in a NASA exhibit at the 39th annual International Quilt Festival Thursday through Sunday, Nov. 3 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. Sewing and quilting include many of the principles and technical skills used in developing equipment for spaceflight missions. The exhibit will include sewn samples from spacesuits and parachutes, a cargo transfer bag and other soft goods from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The deadline for submitting a block for the quilt is Aug. 1, 2014. For more information about where to send your block, visit: http://www.quilts.com
Nyberg and The International Quilt Festival will collaborate on having the squares stitched together for display at the 40th annual International Quilt Festival in 2014 and at other public displays. The Houston festival is the largest annual quilt festival in the world, attracting more than 60,000 guests annually.
Nyberg arrived at the space station with Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency in May. The trio is scheduled to return to Earth Nov. 10.