Week 9: Space + Art

This weeks lecture on space was awesome, I find it all very applicable and interesting, and as Professor Vesna said, it encompassed all of our previous lectures into one that we're still discovering more and more about it every day. 

What I found most particularly interesting in this weeks lecture, is that science fiction had such a large impact and influence on scientists and exploring space. Although it goes vice-versa, I thought that it would be the other way around first. It goes to show how creativity and imagination of various artists can develop phenomenal ideas that will change the world and expand our knowledge of it as we know it. Roger Malina from the Leonardo Space Art Project claimed, "The space age was possible because for centuries the cultural imagination was fed by artists, writers and musicians who dreamed of human activities in space." For example, Jules Verne who wrote From the Earth to the Moon, described the idea of weightlessness and gravity, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first to describe and create the idea of the first space station in the novel Beyond the Planet Earth. Particularly, the idea of a monstrous elevator that would mankind to travel from Earth to space was created by Arthur C. Clarke in a novel called the Fountains of Planets, and is being made into a reality by David Smithman.

It is fascinating to think about how much mankind has discovered and accomplished in space over the span of 60 years, it is remarkable to think what else we can achieve as technology advances. The idea of creating an economy out of asteroids, comets, and various other extraterrestrial objects in space, that will that will make our global economy that much more competitive. To think that this all began from artists unleashing their imaginations from what was seemingly impossible to something possible and achievable, proves that there are no limits on what we can discover and achieve. It seems inevitable that soon mankind will be occupying and discovering various planets, life forms, and aliens. 

Vesna, Victoria. "Space + Art | Lectures." Lecture Part 1. 29 May 2016. Lecture.

Malina, Roger. "Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers." Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers. MIT Press, n.d. Web. 28 May 2016.

Verne, Jules. From the Earth to the Moon, and Around the Moon. New York: Heritage, 1970. Print. 

T︠S︡iolkovskiĭ, K. Beyond the Planet Earth. New York: Pergamon, 1960. Print. 

Clarke, Arthur Charles. The Fountains of Paradise. London: Millennium, 2000. Print.