The Intersection of Art and Science Fall 2017

I was originally inspired by the Starshade project because I was fascinated in its function and in the idea of furthering discovery. The gold foil aluminum used on the Starshade definitely influence some of my material choices for the final including the silver mylar and orange vinyl. Even the idea of the Starshade as a two sided shape that acts as a barrier between the telescope and the star correlated to my decision to make the paintings two sided. The paintings are done with acrylic on wood panels shaped like ovals. The oval references space and time as well as voids and cosmic shapes. Solar systems operate in circular formations and I felt an oval would best reference solar landscape and imagery as well as telescopic perspective. The three paintings differ from each other and were inspired by research on exoplanets and looking at artist visualizations of what these planets may look like. One of my favorite things that the art department did at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were...

I began my final research on a topic that struck my interest during our class trip to the Mount Wilson Observatory. While our hosts brought us through the 100 inch telescope dome in the last hour of our visit, the telescope operator named Tom Mason directed our class group to the control center of the telescope. The panel and table which contained all of the controls was no wider than two school desks and the buttons and knobs seemed to be straight out of a vintage science fiction movie. Tom began explaining what each of the buttons do and he even rotated the dome above us so that we could observe how he operates the mechanics. As he turned back to the control panel, looking at the blank computer screen, he explained how he goes about locating various objects in the night sky to study with the telescope. Tom spoke of the basic longitude and latitude calculations he has to make and how these coordinates can be picked out of the night sky, and he then explained how the sky is split up a...

The medium I am most comfortable in, is photography. For my final project I decided to photograph optic illusions using mirrors. The majority of my work is usually colorful tending to focus more on portraiture or the human form. There is always some form of balance in my images, whether it is the picture itself or in post production. I enjoy a sort of rhythm within my images. I did a project similar to this a couple weeks before but, focused on using one mirror, by trying to confuse the audience as to where and what they were looking at. For this project I decided to work with multiple mirrors and use a different perspective while shooting these images. The idea behind my final project was to create photographs that formed a natural optical illusion by using mirrors. I added color by use of location and clothing that my model wore. The process behind the work varied throughout my time photographing this project. In one image you may notice that the model herself was holding the mirr...

The exploration of space has led to more discoveries that have just lead to more questions. Marie and I both throughout this class have both have been interested in learning more about our exploration. During the class, we have both gone through different forms of exploration and found different ends to a mean in these explorations. At first our bodies of work had seemed to be in completely separate categories until we looked at the main drivers behind the works. Exploration and space.    We decided to meld our two ways of expressing these interests into one. In Marie's project's she has focused on knowledge. What people know versus what they don't know and if they even know what they don't know. She has focused on the obvious and played with the hidden, and melded the two together in her previous projects. In my own work, I have focused on time and the shift in perspective on simple objects. I did this in several different ways, but the most succe...