Space and Art


One of my earliest memories of the bridge between space and was the constellations.  I was fascinated with the story of Orion, his belt, and how the goddess Artemis placed him among the heavens as greek mythology was a childhood interest of mine.   A number of the constellations had religious reverence (Mullen, 2011).  Even in Christianity, there was a link between the space and the divine and the book Paradiso (part of the Divine Comedy by Dante) uses celestial spheres to outline the path a soul takes when ascending to God (Alighieri, 1952).


I’ve come to learn that farmers were some of the first people to appreciate constellations as they used them to tell the time of year in areas that did not have much of a differentiation between seasonal weather, which can effect agriculture (Dolan, 2018).  But I have a vivid memory of my second grade teacher explaining how the Big Dipper was used for navigation and its link to black history (Gooley, 2018).  Slaves created a negro spiritual called “Follow the Drinking Gourd” (or “Follow the Big Dipper”) as the northern star was apart of this constellation and allowed escaped slaves to maneuver the underground railroad (Hartcourt, 2018). 
 

References:

Mullen, Leslie. Space.com, 20 Jan 2011. < https://www.space.com/10656-astronomy-religion-cosmos-intersection.html>

Dante, Alighieri, and Laurence Binyon. Dante's Paradiso. London: Macmillan, 1952.

Dolan, Chris. What Are Constellation? < http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html>

Gooley, Tristan.  How to navigate using the stars. < https://www.naturalnavigator.com/find-your-way-using/stars>

Harcourt, Houghton Mifflin. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” – African American Spiritual. < http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/nyc/books/bke/sources/bkc_template.jsp?name=spiritual&bk=bkc&state=ny>

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Art and Robotics

Image
The industrial revolution changed the way in which goods were produced and the way people worked.   The emphasis on efficiency was considered counterintuitive to the rules of nature.  For example, the film Modern Times (1936) showed Charlie Chaplin so focused on his task on the assembly line that he lost perception of what his socket wrench could be used on.  He began to see human body parts as nuts that needed tightening.   Although, this was a comedic play on the difference between the mechanical and the natural, the film Metropolis (1927) had a bit of a darker take of this phenomenon.  The scene called “Maria’s Transformation,” was an eerie view of how mechanization can completely void an individual of their humanity.  The concern with the lack of authenticity was explored in Walter Benjamin’s essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936).   His criticism focused on the film industry as the r...
Read more

Two Cultures and Me

Kevin Kelley argues the conflicting framework between art and science are two cultures colliding. He articulates in his essay, The Third Culture , that "[t] he purpose of science is to pursue the truth of the universe [and] the aim of the arts is to express the human condition." The notion of truth and human condition can often work against one another but Kelley argues that the competing foundations have birthed a new culture that embraces the rigor of the scientific method and the arbitrary nature of the creative community.  This third culture can concern itself with the the dynamics of pop culture while use technology as a medium to engage it.   For instance, back in 2014, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival used hologram technology to "resurrect" one of hip hop's most influential figures, Tupac, for a "performance".  Hologram tech was not intended for this purpose but the third culture saw it's potential to be used in this manner.  ...
Read more