BEAUTY: Painting--Sean William Randall

I am fascinated with the oblique, enigmatic narrative that runs through the work of artist Sean William Randall. Astronauts and space capsules interact with a Dairy Queen/Tastee-Freez ice cream stand that is severed from any context of place. It is a little eerie, as though, like Dave Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey," these men and women have been somehow plucked from where they should be and dropped into a construct based on their inner memories.

Top to bottom: Centre of Gravity; Either Way; I Feel Space; Lover's Light; Never Knew; Sail On Through; Stay With Me; Sun Machine; Thursday's Dusk; untitled; Where I'll Find You

https://seanwilliamrandall.com/home.html

BEAUTY: Painting--Scott Listfield

Despite the fact that painter Scott Listfield's Artist Statement emphasizes the present...

"I paint astronauts and, sometimes, dinosaurs.

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, well before I was born, so I have no firsthand knowledge of how it was received. I don’t know if people really believed we'd be living in space in 2001, if we'd have robot butlers and flying cars, geodesic lunar homes, and genetically reconstituted dinosaurs helping or eating us. But from Lost in Space to the Jetsons to Jurassic Park, it seems that popular culture has fostered this space-age perception of the future. Generations raised on these TV shows, movies, comic books, and novels are now grown and living in a future filled with mini vans, Starbucks, iPads, and Hip Hop videos. In many ways, the year 2001 failed to live up to expectations. And yet the world today is peculiar in ways unimagined in 1957, when Sputnik was launched, or in 1968, when 2001 was released, or even in 1994, at the dawn of the internet. The present is in fact a very unusual place, and it's strangest in the ubiquity of things we take for granted.

The astronaut in my paintings is simply here to explore the present."

...it sure feels like his narratives are post-apocalyptic (is it after a war? after a biological pandemic?). They feel like the last scene of the original "Planet of the Apes" film. A swamp has overtaken a Waffle House, a jungle has overgrown a Starbuck's, there's only a desert where there once was an airport, and The Monster's "Wall" has fallen, as all walls will (and it hasn't even been built yet).

Top to bottom: Animal Style; Billions and Billions; Cave Signs; Empty Palace; Krispy Kreme; LAX; Make America Again; Starbucks; The Bridge; Traffic; Underground; Waffle House

https://www.astronautdinosaur.com/

The Astronaut's New Boots

Well, here is a piece of information I did not know until now: the boots that are part of an astronaut's suit have not been updated or changed in the last 50 years! So athletic shoe manufacturer Reebok teamed up with aviation and aerospace headset manufacturer David Clark Company to design a new space boot. And the SB-01 is the stunning result. They look so good, I really want a pair to wear here on earth!

"Weight is a huge factor in space travel with just a single pound having big financial implications," says Matt Montross of Reebok Innovation. "Traditional space boots were made of rigid leather with firm soles and were not integrated into the actual space suit. Reebok Floatride Foam introduced three revolutionary elements to the space boot; it decreased the overall weight significantly, it brought the added comfort in a space boot and support that you would expect in a running shoe and it delivered a new level of sleekness and style."

https://www.reebok.com
http://www.davidclarkcompany.com/

Chirs Hadfield on The Overview Effect

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has flown a space shuttle to Mir and stayed aboard the International Space Station where he created a series of popular YouTube videos, including one in which he sang David Bowie's classic song "Space Oddity." Hadfield is now retired but recently gave an interview to BBC Travel's Jim Benning. The most moving part of the interview was when Benning asked Hadfield if his time in space looking down on the planet has increased his desire to see more of the earth by traveling and visiting far-flung locales. Hadfield's beautiful, heart-felt answer references The Overview Effect, something I have written about several times here on "Oh, By The Way" (most notably here and here).

Astronaut Chris Hadfield conducts a "fit check" inside the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft (Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov)

"It’s not so much my wanderlust that’s changed, it’s more a respect for the absolute commonality of the human experience. Yes, there’s a strong local influence – our own history and culture and sets of laws – but when you go around the world every 92 minutes, the sameness overwhelms the differences. The repeated pattern of human habitation. How we set up cities. How that pattern looks whether it’s a city in Alberta or Africa or Australia. You’re passing over Canada and in 20 minutes you’re over Africa. You see the commonalities much more strongly than you see the differences.

I think that is actually the reality of the world – the shared common nature of our experience. We tend to exaggerate our differences and become extremely used to our own set of biases. But travel teaches you the shared nature of being human. And it’s extremely important, because so much of our bad decision-making – at personal, business, national and planetary levels – is driven by myopia and a lack of understanding of anything beyond our normal confines. The more people can see of the world, the better their decision-making will be."

Read the entire original interview at:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150511-why-i-love-the-world-astronaut-chris-hadfield

The Overview Effect

A very worthwhile 19 minutes...

From the Planetary Collective description of the film:
"On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.

The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.

‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment."

http://www.overviewthemovie.com/
http://www.planetarycollective.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Jeremy Geddes

I am spellbound by these haunting images of cosmonauts and astronauts painted by the amazingly talented Jeremy Geddes. His near-photo-realism is breathtaking but the subject matter is so arresting, dream-like, and surreal. It is as if these astronauts beamed in from space; they clearly do not belong in these urban landscapes (and even more alarming is the absence of other people in these busy cities and the seeming lack of gravity). The astronauts seem lost, lonely, even in danger (or dead). The metaphysical aspect is undeniable as well with the presence of doves and the beatific postures and positions of the anonymous men in the suits.


Top to bottom: Adrift; Alley; Freeway; Heat Death; Redemption; The Street; There is Glory In Our Failure; White Cosmonaut

http://www.jeremygeddesart.com/index.html


Geddes' work reminds me of some photos I have seen floating around on blogs for a while now. I love them, but do not know who the photographer is. I would love to give credit to these marvelous images. Anyone know who created them? (I feel like they are all by the same photographer, but I should not assume!) Let me know.

From Above