Space Cadet Girl

If you’re in the neighborhood (Orchard Street, NYC), swing by the Nicelle Beauchene Gallery and check out Satellite Son:

Details:

Brock Enright
Satellite Son

October 25 – December 6, 2009

Opening reception Sunday October 25, 6-8pm

Performance at 7pm

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new sculpture by Brock Enright.  For Satellite Son, Enright presents a series of assemblages culled from the obsessive mining of his art and personal history.  These collections, presented throughout the gallery on low pedestals, contain elements and ephemera amassed from his performances, props and locales.

Alluding to curio collections of the early 16^th and 17^th century scientists, Enright anachronistically juxtaposes seemingly unrelated objects and phenomena in order to institute interconnectedness. Rather than defying aesthetic orders and values as in work past, this new series reveals the artists’ control on both his world and his practice through the undefined categorical boundaries he establishes in each piece.  In a way that combines the formal austerity of constructivism with the theatrics of the sublime, Enright’s tessellations create a platform to merge documentation and fantasy.

The sculptural facets within each plinth of Satellite Son are considered to be in a transitory state representing a trajectory of past, present and future.  Enright concedes his work to be in a constant state of flux, and by placing an object on view he essentially pauses or freezes the works. While in still placement, yet maintaining their kinetic integrity, the individual and collective components create an active site into which the viewer is invited.  Acting as catalysts, these objects collide psychological traumas with contemporary myths.

Brock Enright graduated in 2001 with an MFA from Columbia University.  Enright has shown internationally in exhibitions at Vilma Gold, London; ZKM, Germany; Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; The Moore Space, Miami; COMA, Berlin; PERFORMA 07; The Royal Academy of Art, London; P.S. 1, New York; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York. Enright lives and works in New York City.

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery
21 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

My friend James Bower reviews movies.

Here’s his schtick on Moon (UK 2009, cert 15. Dir. Duncan Jones. 97 minutes. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey):

Moon. Once in a blue one, we get intelligent, considered, beautiful science fiction movies.

Sam Rockwell rattles off a virtuoso performance as Sam Bell, a lone space-miner stuck in a small moonbase. Sam’s mind-numbing job is to keep track of the base’s largely automated systems, with only GERTIE, the base’s motherly artificial intelligence, for company. Unsurprisingly, Sam starts to go a little bonkers and winds up crashing his lunar rover. And then things get weird (I refuse to spoil this clever little movie).

Rockwell’s Bell is an endearingly optimistic guy who makes the most of his lousy lot, but he’s clearly getting a bad case of the space-crazies. Sam’s due to return to earth in two weeks’ time, desperate to reconnect with his wife and a daughter he’s never met. The base is plastered with photos of his loved ones, and Sam has spent interminable hours whittling a model town that sits proudly on some upturned crates. He’s a guy in a vacuum, desperately trying to populate his alien environment with something familiar. It’s sad, funny and touching, and Rockwell plays it magnificently. There’s a breathtaking loneliness to every sequence in which he climbs into his lightly soiled spacesuit and trundles off into the darkness. Is there any wonder the poor guy turned to whittling?

There were moments when I worried that the film was going to turn into some kind of 2001 pastiche – there’s ornate furniture sitting in a bleached white room, a bright yellow quilted spacesuit that’s straight out of Kubrick’s wardrobe and a computer that just won’t open the bloody doors. But Moon is bold enough to follow its own trajectory, with a plot that’s fascinating, creepy and moving. And Sam Rockwell… wow.

This is what science fiction is supposed to do.

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For more reviews, check out Critical Instant.

SCICAFE EXOPLANETS AND THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

Featuring AMNH Astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer

SciCafe presents Exoplanets and the Search for Life in the Universe, featuring AMNH astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer. Science enthusiasts are invited to enjoy the Museum after hours with music, drinks, and thought-provoking conversation at the kick-off of the new monthly series SciCafe. Surrounded by magnificent rock and mineral specimens in the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, guests will have a chance to mingle as AMNH astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer discusses exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, as well as his search for a hypothetical Earth-twin and signs of habitability in nearby planetary systems. Oppenheimer will also explain his role as principal investigator on the Lyot Project, which aims to reveal how planets and solar systems are formed. The American Museum of Natural History’s new after-hours series SciCafe features cutting-edge science, cocktails, and conversation. SciCafe takes place on the first Wednesday of every month.

WHEN:  Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm WHERE Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth American Museum of Natural History

ADMISSION: Free Admission with cash bar, must be 21+ with ID

I wish I could attend this event, but I’m still in Australia. If anyone is going and would like to blog about it on SpaceCadetGirl please send your review to talpage (at) gmail.com.

Have Fun!

Nick Sudthisa’s fifth and sixth graders are preparing for their school’s first fashion show: Project Runway.  All of the finalists created impressive designs, but I would like to personally endorse the galactic getup pictured above. Here’s a bit more information from Mr. Sudthisa:

Our fashion project is about the FUTURE. Jittrin ‘Frank’ Pancharoen and Patcharapol ‘Tle’ Polvanich are both 5th grade students from Bangkok, Thailand. As co-leaders of their design team, ‘The Mighty F&T,’ they decided to tackle the issue of  global warming and its affect on everyday fashion. To them, everyone will soon be sportin’ the ‘man on the moon’ look. In order to survive in the future, everyone will have to wear an Ultraviolet  Mobile Protective Unit (UVMPU). Users will be able to wear regular civilian clothing underneath the suit. The UVMPU uses highly reflective material as part of its cooling system, is especially designed to be lightweight and can be easily transformed into a convenient carrying bag to be worn as a shoulder strap or a backpack.

In their prototype, they used a plastic shower curtain material to simulate the reflective suit, zippers for pockets and various plastic tubes, located strategically in different areas of the suit, to rid of waste.

Currently, ‘The Mighty F&T’ are working hard on a life-size version for a school fashion show set to take place on October 30, 2009.

Good luck Frank and Patcharapol!

Pictures courtesy of this guy.

I knew the STS 119 Launch scheduled on March 12 at 9:38pm was a shot in the dark both literally and figuratively-speaking, but at 3am I jetted from the John F. Kennedy Airport to the Kennedy Space Center just in case. When Louella, the Astronaut Relations Manager at Virgin Galactic gave me tickets to see the launch at Banana Creek, which is only 3 miles from the launch pad, I was ecstatic. 3 miles may sound a bit far, but anyone who scootches much closer is at risk for death by fumes, flames, etc. After the launch was scrubbed, I went back to the Space Center to hear a few speeches.One retired astronaut confessed, “I remember the first time I went to space….we were strapped on to that big explosive manufactured by the lowest bidder and everyone else got into their trucks and drove miles away to watch us from a safe place. It’s a good thing they give us astronauts diapers. Just in case you literally sh*t your pants.” Ah to be an astronaut…ahhh to be human! I wonder, since there is a market for poop as art or collectibles (see Piero Manzoni’s canned crap: “Merda d’Artista,” or Celebrity Stools for reference), if perhaps NASA could stop pleading with Congress for more funds and start selling astronaut diapers on E Bay to help pay for the cost of future missions? Besides, spending tens of thousands of dollars on biodegradable items like poop is very environmentally friendly. But I digress!

Since the launch was delayed, my friend Cameron and I had time to visit the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The most amusing relic of all was not a set of complicated machinery, but a plain old tin container. I like to guess what things are before reading the labels, and this one seemed pretty easy. It was obviously used for storing some equipment, right? Nope– it was a make-up container for female astronauts! I’m pretty sure that there is a cost of thousands of dollars per pound launched into orbit…but I guess lipstick is an essential. Personally, I would want my green mascara, just in case of a run in with aliens (assuming they like green…).

The Hall of Fame also boasts some fun rides. My favorite was the 4G Experience. The jolly fellow who operates the machine reassured me, “People puke in here a few times a month, but you can’t smell a thing, can ‘ya?” The janitors deserve due credit in the Hall of Fame too: I would have never known the 4G ride was vomit-vehicle had I not been told.

The thought of losing my lunch reminded me that I was hungry, so my next stop was to Lou’s Blues, a hamburger and beer joint on the beach– or so I thought. There must have been a misspelling– I’m sure the locals know it as “Lou’s Booze and Bras” or “Lou’s Crib of Death.” Old people in Hawaiian shirt danced under a chandelier tangled in a mass of dusty, deteriorating bras, and life-sized skeletons popped out of every corner. It seems there are two types of people in Florida: those who are waiting to become astronauts and launch themselves 60 miles up, and those who are waiting to be put 6 ft. under ground. There’s not a whole lot in between.

To top off the trip, Cameron and I were run out of town by an alligator. We had stopped by a nice grassy patch and were munching on bagels when a rather large lizard (see him in the back left of the picture) slithered out way at full speed. We bounced like a pair of frightened bunnies and took off for New York. I’d rather be snuggled up next to a psychopath in the New York subway than snacking by a swamp in the Sunshine State. Florida sure is a freak fest, but I would love to go back and see a launch if ever the opportunity crops up again.

Sharing is caring right? Well, collaboration may be cool at school, but cross-corporation communication is a concern to many. So, is open science good for research and/or good for researchers? Then answer is what answers nearly always are: it depends.

My friend Bora Zivkovic was on a Columbia University panel to discuss this issue, along with Barry Canton (founder of OpenWetWare wiki and  Gingko BioWorks ) and Jean-Claude Bradley (Associate Prof. at Drexel and founder of UsefulChem). Ultimately, each panelist agreed that in most situations open access to information is a good way to move forward in the sciences.

Bora  pointed out that “There are enemies of open access because there are people making a lot of money on keeping things closed... I think in science, years from now, people will be asking, ‘why weren’t you open, why were you hiding?’” Of course, Bora and the other panelists recognized that when it comes to concerns like research related to security, patents, future Nobel Prizes etc., those doors do need to be closed. It’s common sense, not rocket science (except when it is rocket science, of course).

One audience member’s concern was how the shift towards open research may affect professional credentials. After all, many science careers are based on peer reviewed publication, not blogs. Bora replied by asking us to think about the long-term. The shift will take some time, and some aspects of the move (like this one) will be clunky. But imagine if people could have left comments and questions about the work of great scientists who lived long before the internet? This would be a wonderful resource for us today, and future scientists will certainly find this kind of resource incredibly valuable.

I’m delighted that most everyone acknowledged that open is awesome, and that it’s OK for scientists can come out of the closet– though no one is expecting a marriage between private companies and open research anytime soon (well, maybe in Canada…).

* On a side note, if you’re interested in science blogging, you will probably enjoy The Open Laboratory: The Best in Science Writing on Blogs

People who help Space Cadet Girl rock…they’re all stars in my book. And it just so happens that Daniel Lang, who is helping design the Space Cadet Girl logo, is genuine rock star!

“Wildfire Chronicle” is a Rocumentary by Kevin Lang about “Wildfire,” the debut record of Daniel Lang, coming soon to a computer -right in front -of you.

(Published in the February Space Generation newsletter)

I grew up in Colombia Missouri, which is not far from a typical, small mid-western town named Marshfield. Have you heard of Marshfield, Missouri? Until recently, the town was just a humble speck on my Missouri highway map. As soon as I was old enough to leave the state on my own, I moved to New York to discover something….anything. After all, though astronomically impossible, it does seem as if the world revolves around New York City. If one is hungry for an up-close and personal view of renowned feats of art and science or looking for a hub of energy and opportunity to test out grand (or just plain crazy) ideas, New York City is the right place to be. Now that I am here, I am pursing my current passion for journalism and space. Every month I review a new book and write a few articles; this month, I researched the history of the telescope. Lo and behold: Edwin Hubble, for whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named, was born in Marshfield, Missouri—a short drive from my supposedly unremarkable hometown. It’s not a place of options and opportunities like New York, but nearly everyone has a backyard and a fantastic view of the sky. The Alanis Morrisset-esque irony of leaving home to write about space from my cramped Brooklyn apartment (which boasts no backyard and pulsates with light pollution) is starting to sink in…

For those that do not follow telescope history, Edwin Hubble was the first man to demonstrate the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way. He also discovered that the degree of observable redshift from a galaxy increases in proportion to the distance of that galaxy from the Milky Way (this established that the universe is expanding, and is know as Hubble’s law). It is appropriate that the grand telescope created through collaboration between the ESA and NASA was named after the man whose insight gave shape to our portrait of the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided us with some of the most detailed images of the most distant objects within our scope of the universe. Not surprisingly, this has lead to a number of major breakthroughs in astrophysics by providing scientists with accurate data that can determine the rate at which the universe is expanding. To most of the population, such discoveries are no more than facts that are out of reach. In this case however, the technology developed for the Hubble has brought forth more than awe-inspiring insights to unreachable universes for it has also provided practical uses on Earth that save lives on a daily basis.

For example, not long after the billion-plus dollar Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990, it began producing out-of-focus pictures: one of the main mirrors was the wrong shape. This was bad for the budget, but great news for breasts. Luckily, a team at the Space Telescope Science Institute came up with a new image processing system by using computer algorithms that filled in the gaps that were making the Hubble’s images appear blurry. This same process is now applied to routine mammograms and is especially useful for identifying early signs of breast cancer.

A few years after this discovery, astronauts visited Hubble to install a high-resolution digital detector in order provide even clearer resolution of small, dark objects that astronomers were keen to study. Once again, this proved to be a boon for breast cancer patients. This technology is now used for relatively inexpensive, nominally invasive procedure for breast biopsies. There is something funny about a gigantic, phallic-looking object in the sky that has some difficulty in its mission but somehow manages to save breasts worldwide. My male colleagues are sure that this is proof that if there is a God, or a Creator of some sort, then he is surely a man.

There has been quite a hubbub about the decision to service the Hubble again. After all, it is expensive and it has already outlived its 15 year life-expectancy. But despite the budget squeeze, an astronomical number of women have outlived their own life expectancy as breast cancer patients, and they even have breasts left to squeeze. So I am delighted that we have found room to milk the budget for the sake of pictures of galaxies beyond the Milky Way, and I can’t wait to see what the astronauts come up with when they visit the Hubble on May 12, 2009. And next time I go back to Missouri, I perhaps I’ll start a new business selling “Honk for Hubble” bumper stickers at the local hospital giftshops.