SPACE ARTS NEWS

FROM THE WRIGHT STUFF TO THE RIGHT STUFF: Aeronautical Design Wind Tunnel Vision Takes Flight at Pratt Institute Gallery

By Harold Egeln

New York City, October 7, 2005 (Courier-Life Newspapers) - Standing not only the test of flight design but the test of time are wind tunnel test models of airplane and spacecraft now on public display for the first time, thanks to NASA and the Pratt Institute.

An Exhibition Soars on the Winds of Time and Space "Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering from NASA's Aeronautical Research" is now on display through December 17 (the 102nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers 1903 flight) at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery. It is located at 144 West 14th Street, on the second floor, in Greenwich Village east of Seventh Avenue. The awesome historic exhibit, which opened on October 7, is free and open to the public. "Working with NASA to bring these important artifacts to the public for the first time ever is an honor for the Pratt Institute," said Pratt Institute President Thomas Schutte. "As an exploration of the connection between industrial design, archtecture, engineering and technology, this show emphasizes the significance of interdisciplinary thinking in creating innovative design solutions." The show's curators are John Zukowski, Chief Curator of the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum; Tony Springer, Director of NASA's Cenntennial of Flight Activities and Alliance Development Manager of the Aerospace Technology Enterprise at NASA Headquarters; and Tom Dixon, Director at Aerospace Design Exhibits for NASA. Springer also edited the magnificently prepared book "Aerospace Design: Aircraft, Spacecraft and the Art of Modern Flight" published by Merrell Publishers Ltd. of London and New York, avaialble through the Pratt Store. "The purpose of this exhibition is to demonstrate that aerospace design is more than a matter of nuts, bolts and rivets," said Zukowsky of the objects collected from NASA research centers. "Visual artifacts have had as much to do with the development and overall image of aviation and space travel in the last century as have aeronautical engineers." Zukowsky and Springer, who started to work together in 2001, explained the exhibition's purpose during a press preview tour of it. "We don't throw anything out at NASA," said Springer, who was a NASA resident manager for the X-34 project, as well as project test manager with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "Our goal was to find good homes for all these objects, some of which were stored away for years." "Alot of the models are Tinker Toys left on display at centers or warehouses, many of the earlier ones almost forgotten," noted Zukowsky, a specialist on aeronautical architecture and design history. The exhibit's concept harkens back to the famous 1934 "Machine Art" show held at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit's design itself is one that hints of flight, giving observers a sense of being in a wind tunnel or airborne without the wind, suspended as it were between the air currents. This is due to see-through, covex curveyed protectve vitrines which surround the displayed objects creating the illusion of an airflow-like boundary. "The exploration of invisible airflow is embedded into the space of every model on display," writes Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, who installed the objects. Zukowsky worked on the original 2003 exhibition for the Art Institute of Chicago with Gang. Wind tunnels are primary and essential to test these concept models. The first tunnel was built in 1871 by Francis Wenham of England. Today computer simulations of airflow is widely used for additional testing. There are models and artifacts from "The Golden Years of the Wright Brothers" and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a federal agency created in 1915, to the recent time of the "Right Stuff" astronautics of NASA, the successor to NACA formed in 1958, with other fascinating, eye-fillng sections such as "High Speed Flight and the Space Age," "Fllight Today" and "Future Flight." The early models include a large wooden airplane model from 1937. Models from the 1940s 1950s and 1960s include the Bell X-1 rocket plane which broke the sound barrier in 1947, flown by Col. Chuck Yeager; the X-15 suborbital rocketship which flew 199 missions, some just above the edge of space in the 1960s; the Dyna-Soar, a proposed Air Force space shuttle mounted atop a rocket, from the early 1960s; the Northup HL-20 Lifting Body designed to supplement the space shuttle; the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird; and the X-43A hypersonic scramjet in the 2000s, recently successfully tested in actual flight. The "Future Flight" section inclues a test model of an aircraft designed for flight in the thn atmosphere of Mars and a Crew Transfer Vehicle which is the basis of the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle under NASA's new mission to go beyond Earth orbit with crewed spacescraft to the Moon by 2018, Mars by 2030 and beyond. For aircraft on Earth, futuristic models include the Helios prototype which flies on solar power and a proposed "blended wing body" passenger jet. There is also a display on the effects of wind tunnel streamlined test models on cars andtrains, with a huge photo of the streamlined J3A locomotive from 1937 used by the New York Central Railroad for its 20th Century Limited. A stunningly beautiful and highly informative companion piece to the exhibit, as mentioned earlier, is the large, richly illustrated "Aerospace Design: Aircraft, Spacecraft, and the Art of Modern Flight" published by Merrell Publishers of London and New York. Going into great detail with fascinating facts and accounts, it was edited by Springer, with the Introducton by Zukowsky and a Foreword by former astronaut Neil Armstrong, who made the first historic Moon walk on July 20, 1969. There are seven chapters by various experts, including Springer, and, also, Michael Gorn, author of a new ook, "NASA:The Complete Illustrated History" set for release by Merrell. The "Aerospace Design" book cover shows NASA test pilot Bill Dana in 1969 walking towards a Northup HL-70 lifting body, which was launched from a B-52 mothership. "I see Bill Dana every once in awhile," said Springer. "He recently was awarded his astronaut wings, with other pilots, for his X-15 flight 50 miles above the Earth 40 years ago." Visitors to the "Aerospace Design" exhibtion may feel like they earned their own "asrtonaut wings" after enjoying this soaring show and then buying the book as a record of their "aerospace journey." EXHBITION TALKS There are two free talks, open to the public, in connection with the exhibit. The first is on Saturday, October 22 at 2:00 p.m. in the "Aerospace Design: More Than Rivet Counters" Symposium with the panel discussion moderated by William Meking, associate professor, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment" at Pratt. The second is on Thursday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. with a lecture on "Modernism On High: The Impact of the Airplane on Art of the 20th Century" by Anne Collins Goodyear, assistant curator of prints and drawings at the Natonal Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Both events will be held at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in Room 213 next to the exhibit. The Gallery is open Tuesdays through Fridays 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. For more information, call 718-636-3517. ********************************************************* NOTE: This article originally appeared in local neighborhood editions of "Courier-Life" weekly newspapers in Brooklyn, NY in October 2005. Copyright 2005 © Courier-Life Publications & Harold Egeln (Cosmic Ecology Media).

ASTRO-MUSICIANS: LAURIE ANDERSON & CHICK COREA

Beginning with the Feb. 2005 newsletter, this e-Journal started a section focusing on space art, music and the performing arts.

LAURIE ANDERSON SPACE TRAVELS IN NYC

Famed multi-media performance artist Laurie Anderson, NASA's first artist-in-residence, is making Metro-Space News in New York City.

In "An Artist's Year in NASA's Orbit," an article by Daily News feature writer Cela McGee in the NOW Entertainment section of the NY Daily News (Feb. 18, page 77) and in "NASA-Inspired Artwork at BAM" in the "Around Town" section of the "24/7" arts weekly published by the Courier-Life newspapers group in Brooklyn, the articles announce performances of Laurie Anderson's "The End of the Moon" solo show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Harvey Theater on Feb. 22-to-26 and March 1-to-5 at 7:30 p.m., and Feb. 27 and Mar. 6 at 3:00 p.m.. A BAM-dialogue by Anderson with the audience will be held after the March 1 performance.

Anderson, who lives in Tribeca, spent a year during 2003 and 2004 as NASA's first "artist in residence" as part of the long-running NASA Art Program (which included other commissions by the Kronos Quartet, Annie Leibvitz, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Elaine Walter, among others). As NASA's official artist, she toured NASA facilities and from her travels and experiences created "The End of the Moon," performed on a 36 city tour in 2004 and this year.

The New York Times published a feature story about this, "Inviting the Cosmos Onto the Stage: Laurie Anderson Explores Space at NASA's Behest" by Michael Joseph Gross, in "The Arts" section of Nov. 11, 2004 (pages E1 and E9) and more recently The New York Tomes ran a piece in its Jan.30, 2005 issue called "Post-Lunarism: The Performance Artist Talks About Spending a Year at NASA, what she loves About Space and What She Hates About Broadway" ("Questions For Laurie Anderson" by Deborah Solomon, page 21).

"Drawing from her NASA inspired travels to such places as the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, NASA Ames Research Center, and the Jet Propulsion Labratory -- as well as from impression-packed journals -- Anderson takes us on a performance journey, which examines 21st Century perceptions of beauty and time, and the stories we exchange to help us along." (-- from the "24/7" article)

Perhaps (who knows?) Anderson, 58, may be among one of the first performing artists eventually to make an actual spaceflight. For now, there's a chance to enjoy her space show on stage.

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AD ASTRA: CHICK COREA's "TO THE STARS"

In the same NY Times "The Arts" section of Nov. 11, 2004 about Laurie Anderson, there is a Jazz Review by Ben Ratliff about a Chick Corea Elektric Band performance of its new "To The Stars" album at the Blue Note in Grennwicj Village then.

The review, "The Cluttered but Valiant Sound Of a Space-Age Trip to the Stars," tells of the music and songs created by Corea base on L. Ron Hubbard's 1950 sci-fi novel "To the Stars."

This past Autumn The Times also ran a piece of The Kronos Quartet's performance in NYC of its space music it created under the NASA' Art Program. Corea created his independent of NASA. There is a link below about "To the Stars."

*** SPACE-PARTYTIME -- "THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT" Movie DVD Release Party was held in NYC on February 26 at the Crash Mansion, 199 Bowery at Spring St. in Manhattan. Space dudes partied on at this event celebrating the DVD release (the release was on Feb. 15) of this 2001 science fiction "space western musical" movie by Cory Mcabee (director, writer, star), first shown at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and at various movie theaters.There was a screening of the movie, a Q-&-A with Mcabee, and a performance by the NYC-based band The Billy Nayer Show, which provided the movie's musical score and has recently released its latest CD, "Rabbit." For more info: WWW.AMERICANASTRONAUT.COM

*** MUSIC OF THE SPHERES: "JEFFERSON FAMILY GALACTIC REUNION - JEFFERSON STARSHIP" Celebrated the 40th anniversary of Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Quick Silver Messenger Service & the San Francisco Sound in NYC on Feb. 20, 2005 at TRIBEC Performing Arts Center, BMCC 199 Chambers St., Manhattan.

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SPACE ART SYMPOSIUM IN SWITZERLAND

"SPACE: PLANETARY CONSCIOUSNESS & THE ARTS" - A Workshop and Symposium on SPACE and THE ARTS was held on MAY 19-21, 2005 at the Chateau and Museum of Yverdon-Les-Baines in Yverdon-Les-Baines, SWITZERLAND. It was sponsored by the O.U.R.S. Foundation, Leonardo/Oiatz, Maison d'Ailleurs and the International Academy of Astronautics.

For full details on this extraordinary annual SPACE ART show and the extraordinary work of the OURS Foundation, which flew the first art show in space aboard Mir space station a decade ago, contact: workshop2005@arsastronautica.com