Week 9: Space and Art




Courtesy of: CNBC.com

This week’s topic of space and art was set up in a timeline of events, and it really helped me understand how and why certain events happened. For example, in lecture one, Victoria Vesna talk about how “from the beginning of time we have been fascinated by the sky, stars, and planets.” It started with a curiosity of the unknown and our knowledge evolved with this curiosity. For example, the old belief was that the sun revolved around the planets, but when an astronomer named Copernicus discovered that it was the other way around, our knowledge evolved.



Courtesy of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT1p2an-DzE

Once we had some knowledge about outer space, it became our mission to get there. The way we got there though was kind of funky. It all started on July 16, 1945 when the United States set off an atomic bomb to end World WAR II and to take control of foreign policy. That control quickly ended when the Soviets set off an atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, thus for launching The Cold War. The soviets were the first in space with their satellite called the Sputnik in October of 1957. It was no larger than a beach ball and sent meaningless information back to the earth. The Russians wanted to make sure everyone saw it so they made it visible and audible. This launched the space race. The US’s attempt to catch up was initially a failure. It resulted in a lot of explosions. Finally, the United States caught up to the Soviets in the space race with Apollo 11 being the first manned mission to land on the moon. Lectures 3 and four also break down the space race explaining how the soviets were the first nation to have a living being, a dog named Laika, and the first human, Yuri Gagarin.

Courtesy of: www.spaceanswers.com

The Powers of Ten video shows how far we have come in our research of space. It takes us so far outside our galaxy and then so close to our human skin to really give us perspective on how little our planet really is in the scheme of things. Lecture 6 talks about how we are still fascinated with space, even though we already know a lot. Countless movies have been based on other planets in space, some in made up galaxies, some on other planets. Movies like Star Wars have launched even more curiosity about our galaxy, and continues to make millions each time a new movie comes out. Movies are a form of art in themselves, but when directors and have to get creative with the setting is art on a different level. With these space movies comes make up, back drop, language and movement of different characters from different planets. Takes a wild imagination to create a movie with characters audiences have seen nothing similar. With constant discovery of life forms on other planets, and information coming back to satellites, our curiosity continues to grow and out knowledge continues to evolve.


EmesOffice. “Powers of Ten (1977)” Youtube. Youtube, 26 Aug. 102. Web. 16 May 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. "8 Space Pt1 1280x720." YouTube. UC Online Program, 29 July 2013. Web. 25 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8>.

 Vesna, Victoria. "8 Space Pt2 1280x720." YouTube. UC Online Program, 29 July 2013. Web. 25 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZMDpoP-u0>
 Vesna, Victoria. "Space Pt3." YouTube. UC Online Program, 30 May 2012. Web. 25 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ClKO6AJPo>.
 Vesna, Victoria. "Space Pt6." YouTube. UC Online Program, 30 May 2012. Web. 25 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ClKO6AJPo>.



Vesna, Victoria. "8 Space Pt4 1280x720." YouTube. UC Online Program, 29 July 2013. Web. 25 May 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8>.

Comments

  1. elenaMay 30, 2017 at 6:42 PM

    I really enjoy that you bring history into the discussion of space. It is also very cute that you include a dog in your second image. I think that the fascinations about space will never stop. For example, there are always stories about aliens. Since the space is so enormous, everything is possible to happen given the countless probabilities.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJune 7, 2017 at 4:45 PM

    The history you mentioned are really interesting, and it is a good opening for starting to talk about the space. I also like what you pointed out from the video, The Power of Ten, that the video "really give us perspective on how little our planet really is in the scheme of things." Such the same perspective is mentioned by Carl Edward Sagan from his work "Pale Blue Dot," we see the planet is appearing as a tiny dot that against the vastness of space in that photo.

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