Category Archives: Space Arts

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.

Space Arts, Space Music, Space Science

The International Space Orchestra – the documentary

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The International Space Orchestra is described as

the world’s first orchestra of space scientists. Blending space exploration and bassoons; planet-poking and bluegrass-playing spacecraft operators – the International Space Orchestra’s members are individuals drawn from NASA Ames Research Center, SETI (Search for Extra-terrestial Intelligence), Singularity University and the International Space University.

Last September 2012 they premiered their  “Ground Control: An Opera in Space” in a live performance in San Jose. The opera was

written by Blur and Gorillaz frontman DAMON ALBARN with BOBBY WOMACK; MAYWA DENKI and PENGUIN CAFE’s ARTHUR JEFFES. With lyrics by BRUCE STERLING & JASMINA TESANOVIC. Musical director: Two time Grammy-Award winner EVAN PRICE.

The project and it’s goals:

In this tangential reality, your Flight Controller conducts arias and the Payload Officer works a baritone sax, while the Capsule Communicator is on the triangle. Merging science, technology, design and opera – Ground-Control: An opera in Space aims to reach the final frontier! The International Space Orchestra, is an experiential and hybrid research laboratory, where space scientists have been invited to implement, deconstruct, perform, sing, mix, modify, and design musical acts in a control room.

The project’s mission is to introduce the public to the emotional nuances of space science technologies, the people working with them and the challenges and opportunities of an exciting new era of commercial space exploration. Fuelled by Silicon Valley-based commercial space companies such as Virgin Galactic, Space X and Google – the space industry is at one of the most exciting moments in its history – and projects such as near-earth asteroid mining and sending humans to Mars orbit are being discussed as realities for the 2030s.

A documentary about the project will be shown on May 17th at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California: May 17 Event at SETI Institute – The International Space Orchestra Feature Documentary (66min) – SETI Institute

A brief clip from the film:

Space Arts, Space films and videos

“2001: A Space Odyssey” as a children’s comic book style menu in 1968

Never would have imagined that 2001: A Space Odyssey, a wonderfully visual but intellectually complex movie, would be depicted in comic book style in a children’s restaurant menu : “2001: A Space Odyssey” Howard Johnsons Children’s Menu (1968) – Dreams of Space/Books and Ephemera – May.8.13

Here are three of the panels:

1968HowardJohnson2001-12[1]

1968HowardJohnson2001-20[1]

1968HowardJohnson2001-22[1]

Space Arts

The “Private Moon” of artist Lenoid Tishkov

The artist Leonid Tishkov brings combines beauty and whimsy in his Private Moon works:

Education, Space Arts

Space art contest winners gather at National Space Symposium

A report on the space art contest at the 29th National Space Symposium  (see also the earlier report: 2013 Space Foundation student art contest winners selected – Space-for-All at HobbySpace):

Art Contest Award Reception Attracts Student Winners
from Across the U.S.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 8, 2013) – The 36 winners of the 2013 Space Foundation International Student Art Contest were invited to attend the Space Foundation’s 29th National Space Symposium, being held at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs this week.

Grand Prize, 3rd-5th grade and 1st Place, 3rd-5th Grade, Drawing Vincent Zheng
Vincent Zheng – Grand Prize, 3rd-5th grade and 1st Place,
3rd-5th Grade, Drawing 

Young artists from 12 countries were selected for the top slots from among more than 4,700 entries representing 45 countries, including 38 U.S. states and territories – the largest response since the contest began three years ago.

Surprisingly, nine of the student artists and their families from across the U.S. plan to attend the Space Symposium’s April 10 art contest reception, including:

Poem Shiuey, Meyerholz Elementary School, San Jose, Calif.
Grand Prize, PreK- 2nd Grade and 1st Place, PreK- 2nd Grade, Painting and Mixed Media

Vincent Zheng, SKA Academy of Art and Design, Duluth, Ga.
Grand Prize, 3rd-5th grade and 1st Place, 3rd-5th Grade, Drawing

Skylar Duncan, The Colorado Springs School, Colorado Springs, Colo.
1st Place, 3rd-5th Grade, Painting and Mixed Media

Bryan Montenegro, The Mirman School, Los Angeles, Calif.
2nd Place, 3rd-5th Grade, Digital

Edwin SJ Nah, St. James Episcopal School, Los Angeles, Calif.
2nd Place, 6th-8th Grade, Painting and Mixed Media

Koty Thomas, Penn Trafford High School, Harrison City, Pa.
3rd Place, 9th-12th Grade, Painting and Mixed Media

Raquel Arens, Air Academy High School, Colorado Springs, Colo.
1st Place, 9th-12th Grade, Digital

Sydney-Paige Kay, Jericho Senior High School, Jericho, N.Y.
2nd Place, 9th-12th Grade, Digital

Ananya Jain, Jericho Senior High School, Jericho, N.Y.
3rd Place, 9th-12th Grade, Digital

The students will meet former NASA astronaut Dr. Leroy Chiao at the reception, and will receive ribbons and prizes co-sponsored by Fisher Space Pen. Dr. Chiao is Space Foundation special advisor – human spaceflight.

About the Contest
The Space Foundation invited students from around the world in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade to submit original artwork depicting the theme, If I Were Going…, challenging them to imagine how they would personally experience space travel, exploration or settlement and then interpret that idea into an original work of visual art.

Where to See the Artwork
Winning artwork submitted for this year’s contest can be seen on the Space Foundation website photo gallery at www.spacefoundation.org/media/photo-galleries, and at www.artsonia.com/museum in the If I Were Going… Space Foundation art gallery.

Learn more about the annual Space Foundation International Student Art Contest by visiting www.spacefoundation.org/education.