OPEN SOURCE SPACE SCULPTURE - ALL IDEAS WELCOME!

摘要

Allowing the imagination to run free, all sorts of novel uses of the space environment come to mind, especially in the arts. Combining a passion for microgravity with a love of art can result in creating new and exciting art forms not possible on earth. Because of the two seemingly unrelated fields of endeavor — creative art and technical science — it would seem that little, if any cross-pollination occurs to put great minds together. In this world of social media, crowd-sourcing, and exploding creativity from all sectors, it is possible that an exciting collaboration is only a matter of putting the concepts "out there" in an open source way, attracting interested parties to share ideas and experience other meetings of the minds. Many space art concepts come to mind, but for the purpose of this poster session, one in particular is proposed: Space Sculpture. By using the microgravity environment, unique art pieces can be made from melting precious metals (silver, gold, possibly bronze,) allowing them to take the 'shape of space,' and then solidifying into a unique piece of art, even jewelry. Changing states of being - from solid, to liquid, and back to solid - provides creative tension, forming something entirely new and un-earthly. With limited access to space, however, this concept needs to be developed incrementally, first taking advantage of the short time periods of microgravity allowed by parabolic flights and/or suborbital lobs. Small-scale concept demonstrations could lead to larger-scale prototyping, and eventually rare works of art can appear. Special equipment, optimized for shorter periods of microgravity and safety issues of heating metals, would also have to be developed or adapted from existing hardware. Drawing from years of technical experience, collaborators could find optimal solutions together. Financing such experimental pieces would also need to be discovered, perhaps through crowd-sourcing or the time-honored benefactor system. As this is a unique proposal that bridges two worlds, perhaps a hybrid funding solution can be found. This author's wish is to spark collaboration between the art world and the space world, and to start an open dialog between interested parties. Hopefully by combining the technical expertise of the space industry with the creative experience of the artists present, an amazing new art form will be created. Any and all interested parties are invited to comment and/or contact the author for further exploration.