Week 9: Space + Art


Human’s fascination for the universe is always so outstanding throughout history. Back to the times of ancient Greeks and Romans, people began to construe about the out world. The universe is given such romance that the stars are named after Gods. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the heliocentric system was first introduced by Copernicus, contrary to the church’s belief at that time. Despite such a systematic mathematical formulation of the solar system, our knowledge about the universe was nothing but too little. Hence mankind started to think about going into the space, and this was achieved in the 20th century. The most notable among the excursions to the space was made by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon. After that, the space has been extensively explored by the human race.



The beauty and mystery of the space has inspired artists a lot. Back then to the 19th century, Van Gogh created the famous masterpiece The Starry Night, which was an artistic depiction of the starry sky. As our exploration of the space increased, movies with the theme of space came into play. Among them, my favorite one is Avatar, which depict a different world on planet Pandora. The marvelous creatures and the spectacular scenes in the movie really blow my mind. It is in fact the mysterious nature of the space that allows artist to employ their imaginations. In the unknown realm, the deepest elegance must lie somewhere.
















References
Vesna, Victoria. Lectures in Space and Art Part 1. N.p. N.d.
       https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/684222/pages/unit-9-view?module_item_id=11226181
Vesna, Victoria. Lectures in Space and Art Part 2. N.p. N.d.
       https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/684222/pages/unit-9-view?module_item_id=11226181
Vesna, Victoria. Lectures in Space and Art Part 3. N.p. N.d.
       https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/684222/pages/unit-9-view?module_item_id=11226181
Unknown. Earth Planet Space. N.p. N.d.
       http://wallpapershome.com/space/earth-planet-space-10121.html
Unknown. RQE. N.p. N.d.
       http://cdn.drinkingcinema.com/uli/rQE.jpeg
Unknown. Avatar. N.p. N.d.
        http://theredlist.com/media/database/settings/cinema/2000-2010/avatar-/022-avatar-theredlist.jpg


Comments

  1. UnknownJune 5, 2017 at 1:40 PM

    Great post! I really liked the images you chose, especially the screencap from Avatar. I remember seeing that movie for the first time when I was in middle school and it blew me away with how beautiful the extraterrestrial scenery was. I agree that space is still really mysterious and unknown. Perhaps this is why we have so many different variations and ideas from artists about what other planets might look like. Still, it's interesting how a lot of these illustrations share the same motifs, such as huge, weirdly shaped plants and animals.

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