Space Art: The Impact of Space-Age Technology on Representational Art

Leonardo. Vol. 15, No. 3. pp. 210-212, 1982 Printed in Great Britain oO24-094X/82/0302 10-03$03.OO/0 Pergamon Press Ltd. SPACE ART: RESENTATIONAL ART THE IMPACT OF SPACE-AGE TECHNOLOGY ON REPMichael W. Carroll" 1. Introduction Throughout history. the arts and sciences have shared a common characteristic: they have served to expand the mind of man, helping him to look beyond his horizons as well as into himself. Never before has art been so drastically affected by science and technology as it has been in the past few decades. This great influence has its roots in the exploration of space and the resulting 'space-age' technology. During the Renaissance (1300-1600 A.D.). established artistic motifs and rules were challenged by a changing political. religious and technological atmosphere. Medieval feudalism gradually gave way to city-states with the beginnings of centralized governments. Past religious fanaticism was replaced by open theological debate and a more generous tolerance of curious exploration. The exploration of new continents outside of Europe was in full swing. Art was-as it is today-a reflection of the society which spawned it. As such. many Renaissance artists incorporated reports from distant lands into their paintings. This was the primary way that the general public learned about the science of their time. The role of art in modern society has changed somewhat. The general public is much better informed on all scientific fronts. We live in a time of rapid communication through the press. television and radio. Artists no longer need to fill the same niche that they did in the 15th century. The artist's role is not to inform. but t o enrich. This enrichment serves t o put modern technology into the context of everyday life for the common man. 2. The Space-Art Movement The tendency in modern art has been, in general. to push away from representational imagery. However. several recent movements involving representational accuracy have come into the forefront of the art world. These include Photo-Realism. the 'New Realist' movement in Pop Art. and, earlier. Precisionism. Out of this tradition has evolved a new school of art which combines the discipline of scientific accuracy with the philosophical and visual sensitivities of fine art. This movement is becoming known as the Space-Art School. A subset of this school-considered by some t o be its purest form-is Astronomical Art. Astronomical art takes the discoveries of astronomers, astro-physicists. planetologists. etc. and attempts to put this knowledge into a comprehensible form for all segments of society. It translates scientific data into concrete scenes. becoming an extension of those renaissance art forms which depicted strange new creatures and lands in Africa and the Americas. *Artist and illustrator, 3581RayStreet,San Diego, CA92104, U.S.A. (Received 24 September 1981) 3. The Execution of an Astronomical Painting To better illustrate this representation o f science in art. let us take a specific example. In 1979 Vo~.a,qc,r. I and I / . a pair of spacecraft launched by the (J.S.A.. gave mankind the first detailed look at the giant planet Jupiter. along with its four planet-sized moons. Much invaluable scientific information was beamed back to Earth. including thousands of inspiring photographs. The four largest moons of Jupiter (named the 'Galilean satellites' after their discoverer. Galileo Galilei). turned out t o be enigmatic worlds of beauty. But these alien worlds are difficult t o relate t o at a range of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. What if a human being could stand o n the surface ofa moon such as Europa (Fig. I ) and gaze across its icy landscape into the dark void of space? The proposition o f the viewer actually 'standing' o n this landscape is much easier t o relate to than a photograph taken from such a distance. and astronomical Fig. I , Jupiter's moon Europa. Photograph taken by Voyager 1. (Courtesy ,VA.Y,4/.lPl.. 1 ..Y, -1. ) 210 Space Art 211 artists can demonstrate the concept visually. To depict a scene on Europa, for example, some mathematical calculations must first be done. How large does Jupiter appear from Europa? How...