A show about the cosmos would not be
complete without the Cosmos king himself,
Carl Sagan. Michelle Hartney’s mixed media
sculpture Dark Matter tells the story of
NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, launched in 1977
and equipped with the “Golden Record,”
a phonographic recording intended for
extraterrestrials that may one day stumble
upon these spaceships. While working on the
Golden Record, creative director Ann Druyan
and scientist Dr. Carl Sagan fell in love—on
the record is a recording of Druyan’s brain
waves made in the early days when the couple
were first courting. According to Hartney’s
artist statement, Dark Matter is a “visual
representation of Druyan’s brain waves made
tangible—pulsing with love, heading for what
Sagan describes as the ‘great wide open sea of
interstellar space.’”
“The Cosmos,” the 15th international SciArt juried
exhibition at the New York Hall of Science, is open
through March 2, 2014.
Cube (Tight Expansion) by Jesse Ng (2013).
Oil on canvas. Photo credit Danielle Kalamaras.
techniques to stage a mock-environment of
Jupiter, filling a water tank with mixed paints,
dyes, and condensed milk in order to stage the
planet’s atmosphere. She backlit her Jupiter
with LED lights to mimic the effects of geysers
setting off on Jupiter due to the collision of
liquid and solid metallic hydrogen.
Beyond our planets and solar system is the
real unknown. One may believe our world
begins and ends with Earth, or at the other
end of the spectrum, that Earth is a minuscule
point in the blueprint of the universe—and
that we may not even be alone. Venzha Christ’s
sound installation Area51 is based on recordings
during the artist’s travels to the U.S. military
base, Area 51, in Nevada, the site of top-secret
research. Christ’s installation uses an ultrasonic
frequency receiver to convert imperceptible
noise (frequencies above 20KHZ) to sounds
perceptible to the human ear. In his installation
people are able to hear sounds never heard
before, creating a connection between humans
and the unknown world.
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Dark Matter by Michelle Hartney (2012). Mixed media,
wood, pearls, sequins, beads and acrylic poms. Photo credit
Danielle Kalamaras.
SciArt in America February 2014