Category Archives: Space Arts

Living in Space, Space Arts, Space participation

Kickstarter to launch the comic book “FloatBall” about a space sport

Former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Ken Harvey and aerospace engineer Allen Herbert have sought ways to excite young people’s interest in technology and spaceflight and one of the concepts they have developed is a team sport that would be played in microgravity. Called FloatBall, it combines elements of football, basketball and freefall. It was described in this 2008 NY Times article: Marketing Sports as the Next Phase of Space Tourism – NYTimes.com.

Obviously such a game requires sizable facilities in space and low cost transport to support the building and populating of such facilities. Such transport isn’t available yet and may not be for awhile. So they are pursuing a way to keep the idea alive by bringing it first to a comic book world. They have recruited a team of artists and seek to raise $30k on Kickstarter by June 21st to launch the FloatBall comic book series:

Harvey says:

Combining our talents, we came up with a game that would be fun, ferocious and factual. Since society has not yet achieved the level of space proficiency needed to play our new game, we decided that next best step would be to create a comic book about the sport. Not just any comic, but one that is cool and fun like Marvel or DC Comics, and also factually based on scientific possibilities.

FloatBall, like the original Star Trek, will help ignite the reality of today while fueling the imagination of tomorrow. This is where we need your help. We’d like to ask your assistance with funding this project.

Here is a video about the Kickstarter project:

Harvey also says:

If you are a fan of comics, space, sports, or science, then this is the comic for you. We need to raise enough money to produce and distribute the first issue. You can be in on the beginning of something great. Years into the future, your name will be associated with the beginning of a new age of sports in space.

Our goal is to create the first of a series of illustrated comic books delving into the world of FloatBall, the sport of the future. Who knows, with any luck the story will become a movie!

 Preproduction sketches of FloatBall players by the FutureDude team.“Preproduction sketches of FloatBall players by the FutureDude team.”

Space Arts, Space Music

More artists needed for space + Astronaut Karen Nyberg will be drawing and knitting on the ISS

Chris Hadfield’s music communicates a broader, deeper expression of what spaceflight is like than the usual astronaut interview. Michael Belfiore highlights the need for more people with artistic talents to go to space and to use those talents to communicate to the public what it is like there: Chris Hadfield shows why we need the arts in space – Michael Belfiore

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NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg won’t be singing but she has other creative activities planned for her spare time on the ISS: NASA Astronaut Packs Crafts for Space Station Trip – Space.com

Solar Sci-Fi, Space Arts, Space films and videos

Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival – Lille, France, Oct.25-27, 2013 – now accepting submissions

An announcement from the The Philip K. Dick Film Festival:

The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film
Festival Sets Dates For First International Event

New York City’s First Official Sci-Fi Film Festival Now Accepting Submissions
And Expands To France As It Ventures Into Global Awareness

Brooklyn, N.Y. May 20, 2013 – The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival is taking its mission internationally as it honors one of the literary world’s most acclaimed geniuses. A three-day event will mark the first of many worldwide gatherings in the beautiful and historic Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013 at the famous L’Hybride Cinema venue. This unprecedented move will welcome an international awareness to this remarkable festival and extend its celebration of Philip K. Dick to his countless fans who continue his legacy within the genre of science fiction.

The festival is now accepting submissions in science fiction and horror features and shorts. Writers and panelists will be invited to participate in this extraordinary event which will surely be one of many overseas. As further details become available the festival anticipates a successful event in its first global outing. The first New York City festival saw record crowds of over 1,000 participants for the exclusive screening of John Alan Simon’s Radio Free Albemuth which was based on Dick’s 1985 novel posthumously published three years after his death. The weekend-long festival also held numerous film screenings and panels with Simon, esteemed professors Ronald Mallet and Enrique Ricardo Miranda, distinguished writers Angela Posada-Swafford, Walter Mosley and Dennis Paoli and science fiction experts Richard Dolan and Peter Robbins. The team behind the annual festivities will also pioneer its second annual event in December 2013 for a record five-day gathering and a spring 2014 cyberpunk festival in Tokyo.

The Philip K. Dick European Festival of Science Fiction, Science, The Fantastic, Horror and The Supernatural will delight its attendees with its entertaining and visually captivating themes which have made the event a favorable and continued success. The event will take place at L’Hybride Cinema at 18 Rue Gosselet 59000 in Lille, France. Contact the venue at www.lhybride.org. For film submissions, deadlines and contacts please visit www.philipkdickfilmfestival-europe.com and www.withoutabox.com/login/12654 and always be sure to stay informed of all ongoing announcements on the festival’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival and Twitter page at twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest.

About The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival:
The Second Philip K. Dick International Film Festival of Science, Science Fiction, Fantastic Film and the Supernatural and the first of its kind to grace the screens of New York City is organized by filmmakers who understand the difficulties and challenges of telling a unique story in a corporate environment. The year 2013 marks the second year of the festival which will expand it’s genres of films, panels and venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. Guest speakers and writers that best represent the goals of the festival will attend the opening ceremonies. We look for original voices and visions in works submitted. Lastly, this is a festival by filmmakers for filmmakers.

About Philip K. Dick:
“Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.” – Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was one of the 20th century’s most profound novelists and writers within the science fiction community. His exploration, analysis and beliefs led to the publishings of 44 novels and 121 short stories. Dick’s enormous library of works led to several film developments including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck (2003) and most recently Radio Free Albemuth (2010), The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and the successful remake of Total Recall (2012). The film industry is also awaiting the release of King of the Elves in 2014, which will surely be yet another prosperous depiction of Dick’s literary contribution to science fiction. Dick’s enormously effective views comprised of fictional universes, virtual realities and human mutation foresaw an exaggerated version of the current state of government and contemporary life. Though he is gone in the physical form his philosophies live on in the techniques applied to modern stories and films and generate large displays of appreciation and understanding.

Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/The-Philip-K-Dick-science-fiction-Film-Festival/
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/philipkdickfilmfestival
Fractured Atlas Donation Page: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/6853

Solar Sci-Fi, Space Arts

“The Left Hand of Darkness” goes on stage

A reader points me to a dramatization of  Ursula K. Le Guin‘s famous 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. The Hand2mouth Theatre and Portland Playhouse in Oregon have brought the novel to the stage :  Sci-Fi Author, Ursula La Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness” Takes the Stage at the Portland Playhouse – OPB.

In this brief video, the author talks about her book and what it says about the meaning of gender:

General, Space Arts

The Adventures of an Armchair Astronaut and the future of journalism

A Columbia University journalism class offers a set of stories as part of their  Project Wordsworth – What’s a good story worth to you?

Project Wordsworth is a collective of 17 Columbia Journalism School graduate students who are running an experiment—and you’re already a part of it. Each of us has written a good story that transports you somewhere else, somewhere you’ve never been. That’s worth something. But how much? You decide. Your input will teach us something new about journalism’s future. All proceeds go to the authors.

In one of the stories the author tells of becoming fascinated about space and spaceflight and setting out to learn all about it: Cosmic Postcards: The Adventures of an Armchair Astronaut by Kamakshi Ayyar.