The Art Institute of Chicago 2001: Building for Space Travel March 24-October 21, 2001 The purpose of this exhibition is to show that cultural influences have shaped our ideas about architecture and design for space. In so doing, we hope to illustrate the contributions that architects and designers have made to one of the most important accomplishments of the twentieth century-space travel and exploration. We have organized the exhibition into three groupings that are, in a sense, extensions of life on Earth The Cosmos: Perceptions of Space Humans have always built structures with some relationship to the cosmos and the cycles of life, from ancient stone circles to modern observatories and planetaria. Beyond these structures that relate to the stars, science-fiction writers, artists, and illustrators have created visions of distant worlds that have inspired us to imagine what life might be like on planets other than Earth. In the 20th century, film directors and set designers for TV shows have contributed as much to our concepts of the cosmos as have views from the edge of our universe transmitted by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Conflict and Conquest of Space Rockets as weapons go back as far as medieval China and as close to our time as the German V2s of World War II (1939-1945), however, it is rocketry that propelled man into space and led to the vast architecturally designed structures in the former Soviet Union and the United States where these late-twentieth-century rockets were developed and launched and where they continue to be developed today Exploration and Inhabitation of the Wilderness Space as the ultimate frontier is among the concepts most familiar to us, conditioned by images from film, television, and science fiction. Reality and imagination intermingle as space travel envisioned in 2001: A Space Odyssey, for example, is replaced by the actuality of Mir, Skylab, and today's International Space Station, along with the plans that designers, architects, and engineers have proposed for space missions in the not-too-distant future. These three themes are explored in an exhibition space designed by architect Douglas Garofalo. Architect's Note on the Installation The exhibition design is conceived as an interpretive framework for the works on view, meant to transport visitors from their normal surroundings, subtly suggesting the experience of leaving earth. Instead of trying to literalize and represent outer space, the design conveys certain qualities of outer space: continuity, lightness, reflection, and formlessness. To allude to outer space as an immersive experience, both materiality and sound are utilized. One of the curving gallery walls is treated with a membrane from which sound patterns emanate. This membrane, a stretched metallic fabric, is supported by a series of spheres that modulate to correspond to the curator's thematic sections. A progression of morphing metal ribs creates the illusion of a large armature suspended in gravity-free space. Computer-milled pedestals are distributed as a collection of floating shapes that populate the space of seemingly unknown origin. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
