In the BBC six o\u2019clock news of 15 July 2015, as a result of the first New Horizons images, several paintings of Pluto were shown (some by myself) with the statement, \u2018There is no longer any need for artists\u2019 impressions.\u2019 This comment was of course intended to be whimsical but, as the public sees it, there is an element of truth in it. We have after all now received images from all of the major bodies in our Solar System.<\/em><\/p>\n There will always be a need for artists (quite apart from the aesthetic aspects; space art can be at least as beautiful as terrestrial art) because from space probes we only see the whole object \u2013 planet, moon, comet – or close-ups of it, as it looks from space. Only artists can visualise what it would look like for someone actually standing on the surface. Of course, we heard the same sort of comments when photography was invented, when digital art became available, when the Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first amazing images of distant stars and nebulae. . . But let\u2019s take a look at the history and background of space art.<\/em><\/p>\n []<\/a> **\u00a0A Space Odyssey: Making Art Up There – The New York Times<\/a><\/strong> – French astronaut\u00a0Thomas Pesquet<\/a>, currently lives on the International Space Station.<\/a>\u00a0In February, he took a break from his usual work load:<\/p>\n … there was a more unusual item on Mr. Pesquet\u2019s agenda. Working with the earthbound artist Eduardo Kac<\/a>, he created an artwork in space. It was a simple piece: nothing more than could be done with two sheets of paper and a pair of scissors. \u201cSince the goal was to be born in space, it had to be created with materials that were already in the space station,\u201d Mr. Kac (pronounced katz) explained in a telephone interview from his home in suburban Oak Park, Ill. Transporting art materials by rocket ship was not in the plan.<\/em><\/p>\n The artwork \u2014 a piece of paper cut into an M, and another piece of paper rolled into a tube and stuck through the middle of the M \u2014 might look a bit silly on Earth<\/a>, where gravity would accentuate its flimsiness. But floating weightlessly in the space station, it looks fragile, even magical \u2014 not unlike the planet beyond.<\/em><\/p>\n Viewed with a certain amount of imagination, the paper construction can be said to spell \u201cmoi.\u201d Mr. Kac, a professor<\/a> of art and technology at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, means this not as an individual \u201cme\u201d but in the collective sense: His \u201cmoi\u201d stands for all of us. The piece itself is called \u201cInner Telescope,\u201d for reasons that become clear only when you look through the O formed by the paper tube and view a tiny portion of Earth. \u201cWe point a telescope to the stars,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this is a telescope that from the stars we point to ourselves.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The project was supported by the\u00a0L’Observatoire de l’Espace<\/a>\u00a0(The Space Observatory).<\/p>\n Here is a video about the project. (It is in French but you can obtain rough translated captions via Settings -> Subtitles\/CC -> Language selection. Then click on the CC control.)<\/p>\n
\n“From Moon To Mars” by David A. Hardy<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/26KAC1-superJumbo-v21-300x169.jpg\")
<\/a>