DESMA 9 Week 9 | Space + Art

Interest in space exploration and the developments surrounding it has always played a role in artistic expression. Whether it is literature, film, or music, space has always served as an inspiration sonically and visually. Professor Vesna highlighted some examples of this in lecture, such as Star Trek and Star Wars ¹. Further examples of the influence on space include music, where heavy orchestration of wide sounds and stretched synths in addition to effects like reverb and echo are used to sonically induce the idea of space. A great example of this is the outro to the song “Highest In The Room” by Travis Scott.

Travis Scott, the artist behind "Astroworld" has several songs that evoke the idea of space, with this song being one such example

It was also interesting to learn about how the space race influenced life and society in the United States. As Professor Vesna mentioned in lecture, the space race led to an increase in focus on the study of science and engineering related subjects, which perhaps helped foster the rate at which technological advancements have popped up in the last 30 years ². For instance, the earliest ancestors of today's microprocessors were developed during the space race by Texas Instruments with funding from NASA’s Apollo mission ³.

The video “Powers of Ten” was also pretty interesting to watch as it provided an understanding of the vastly varying scales of our universe ⁴. One thing that was particularly interesting in this video was the similarity between outer space, where stars are surrounded by planets, and the molecular level, where the nucleus is surrounded by an electron cloud.

Atom overlaid onto an image of space, illustrating some of the visual similarities


Lastly, Richard Clar’s Collision II project was something that stood out to me ⁵. The fact that Clar was able to use pre existing objects in the Earth’s orbit to create a piece of art that also highlights a growing problem is fascinating and reflects the impact and influence that technological abilities can have on art.

Illustration of space debris in the Earth's orbit


Sources:

  1. Vesna, Victoria. “Space Exploration + Art Part 6”. UCLA DESMA 9 Art Science and Technology Spring 2022. Week 9.

  2. Vesna, Victoria. “Space Exploration + Art Part 2”. UCLA DESMA 9 Art Science and Technology Spring 2022. Week 9.

  3. Roush, Andrew. “How the Space Race Changed American Education.” TCEA TechNotes Blog, TCEA, 12 Apr. 2019, https://blog.tcea.org/space-race/. 

  4. “Powers of Ten™ (1977).” YouTube, Eames Office, 26 Aug. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0. 

  5. Clar, Richard. “Collision II.” Art Technologies, www.arttechnologies.com/site-2005/projects/collisonII.html. 

  6. Scott, Travis. “Travis Scott - Highest in the Room (Audio).” YouTube, Travis Scott, 3 Oct. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWl9p3oFKgg. (Source for song by Travis Scott) 

  7. Sokalski, Igor. “Atom Space Science Stock Illustration. Illustration of Physics - 23543976.” Dreamstime, 1 Mar. 2012, www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-atom-space-science-image23543976. (Source for image of space and atom)

  8. Garcia, Mark. “Space Debris and Human Spacecraft.” NASA, NASA, 27 May 2021, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html. (Source for image of space debris)


Comments

  1. Kathryne_RomoDESMA9July 7, 2023 at 5:05 AM

    I think your post was very well worded. I think it important that you used your personal observation of space interpretations in Astroworld. I also really like that you connected our lecture to the video we watched "Powers of Ten." I think your post shares a great perspective of art and space.

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