Week 9: Space + Art

This week we learned about the influence that space has on art. The portion of the lecture that interested me the most was the part of the Sudbury Buckyballs. These ‘buckyballs” shows us how organisms operate at the nano level in space. To understand the impact that these organisms from space influence art, I will not be using art in its traditional understanding. I am not referring to art in the form of painting, sculptures, or digital media. I will be talking about the creation/evolution of life on Earth as art in itself. To see all of these complex creatures emerge from nothing is art given to us by the natural order of the universe. These extraterrestrial particles came to Earth nearly 2 billion years ago by way of meteor and asteroid impacts.

 Elements that we once thought to be native to Earth are now discovered to have origins somewhere out in space. Even in contemporary accounts for evolution credit the Earth as being the source of single-cell organisms. We credit the early stages of Earth’s development as being a perfect environment for these simple organisms to thrive and evolve. What we don’t take into account is where these atoms that gave way to this life came from. Being that these meteorites came millions of years ago, it would be challenging for us to trace its points of origin.  By showing that the element Helium is not from this planet, this opens up the possibility that other elements are also from somewhere else. Knowing this information gives me a new appreciation for the human body. Knowing that our evolution was in part due to the introduction of new material is something special. One can take a step back and examine the life on Earth as we know it. We can realize that although we share the same living space, it might be the case that we each have distinct origins. The vastness of space is responsible for this intricate art form of life that exists. 

"Earth Was Buzzed by a Giant Asteroid This Weekend and We Didn't Even Realize It Was Coming." Inhabitat | Design For a Better World!, 16 Apr. 2018, inhabitat.com/earth-was-buzzed-by-a-giant-asteroid-this-weekend-and-we-didnt-even-realize-it-was-coming/.

Ghose,LiveScience, Tia. "Comet Strike to Blame for Canada's Iconic Sudbury Basin." Scientific American, 19 Nov. 2014, www.scientificamerican.com/article/comet-strike-to-blame-for-canada-s-iconic-sudbury-basin/?redirect=1.

Sipe, Cody. "One Organism." Medium, 5 Mar. 2018, medium.com/@cody.t.sipe/one-organism-11fc9958e573.

Vesna, Victoria. "8 Space Pt1 1280x720." YouTube, 29 July 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=218&v=6ZIqTR332l8.

"Voyager at 40: ‘The Search for Life in Space’ Puts Big Question on the Big Screen." GeekWire, 5 Sept. 2017, www.geekwire.com/2017/voyager-search-for-life-space/.