NASA JPL Scientists, Engineers Collaborate With Artists for Exhibition
The universe is vast and filled with countless worlds, but a new exhibit at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California, aims to shrink time and space. For "Blended Worlds: Experiments in Interplanetary Imagination," artists collaborated with scientists and engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create cross-disciplinary works that help illuminate the universe by bringing art and science together.
On view from September 21, 2024, to January 4, 2025, the exhibition is part of "PST ART: Art & Science Collide," an event presented by the Getty and involving more than 70 exhibitions from museums and institutions across Southern California exploring the intersection of art and science. The Blended Worlds exhibition is one of three separate projects being led by Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA, as part of the Getty's landmark arts event.
"The magic of art is that it enhances our experiences and interactions with the world — and in this case, our universe," says Laurie Leshin, Caltech vice president and director of JPL. "We're honored to work with great artists to bring the wonders of space to our community through this exhibition, which invites us all to be part of a grand journey of exploration and discovery."
David Bowen's installation "tele-present wind" features grass stalks attached to tilting mechanical devices that move in response to Martian wind data previously collected by NASA's Perseverance rover mission. Helping make the effort possible were Rishi Verma, a data systems architect at JPL, and José Antonio Rodríguez-Manfredi, the principal investigator of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system on Perseverance.
For "Seismic Percussion," artist Moon Ribas creates an interplanetary drum score by translating seismic data from Earth, the Moon, and Mars. For Mars data, JPL's Verma worked with Nobuaki Fuji of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, who collaborated on NASA's now-retired InSight lander. Ceri Nunn, a JPL planetary scientist, assisted with moonquake data.
Also featured is a handwritten version of U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón's "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa," the poem she dedicated to NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which is targeting an October launch and will make multiple flybys of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. The poem has been etched onto a metal plate on the spacecraft and will ride with the orbiter on its long journey.
Additional works allow visitors to experience Earth's wonders through scents, use sound to convey the vast distances between our planet and those beyond our solar system, and blend heartbeats and other Earthly sounds with sonified data from Europa's magnetic field.
"We were looking to create imaginative opportunities for people to connect with each other as they connect with the awe-inspiring science being conducted today," said David Delgado, a cultural strategist and the project lead at JPL. "I know this experience has really opened the eyes of everyone collaborating on the project, and we hope it does the same for people who come to see ‘Blended Worlds.'"
As part of PST ART, a number of public programs and community events will also accompany the "Blended Worlds" gallery exhibition, including "Blended Worlds: An Evening of Art, Theater, and Science" hosted by Reggie Watts at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on October 5, and "Earth Data: The Musical," an original musical developed by Theater Arts at Caltech exploring the challenges of climate research and science as a human pursuit at Caltech's Ramo Auditorium November 1 to 3.
To learn more about all of Caltech's exhibitions and performances and to reserve your seats for "Earth Data: The Musical" and other performing arts presentations at Caltech, including a series of dance, music, and theater arts presentations by touring, international artists, visit pst.caltech.edu.
Artists' collaborations with JPL and the display of their works at Glendale's Brand Library were made possible by the generous support of the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission and the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust.