Week 9 | Space + Art

 "Powers of Ten (1977)". YouTube, uploaded by Eames Office. https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0

The vastness of space inspires awe, curiosity, fear. The apparent absence of life in that vastness is something so foreign and unfamiliar to us inhabitants of Earth that we can't help but fantasize about alien civilizations lurking behind our blue sky, perhaps occasionally visiting us in the form of UFOs. With the development of adequate technologies to probe space and the resulting scientific knowledge about space, it is now easy for us to imagine seeing our home planet as a pale blue dot against the backdrop of darkness sprinkled with glowing dust. Despite more than 70 billion fellow human beings populating this planet, contemplating the possibility that we may be alone in the solar system, the galaxy, or the visible universe as intelligent life induces something that might be called cosmic loneliness. 

 "Arrival Trailer (2016) - Paramount Pictures". YouTube, uploaded by Paramount Pictures. 16 Aug. 2016 https://youtu.be/tFMo3UJ4B4g

We have many movies like Starwars, Star Trek, and Guardians of the Galaxy, where our imaginative renderings of alien populations feature heavily in the movies. Since we don't have access to any actual alien population, we can only rely on our imagination to create oftentimes anthropomorphic foreign creatures. In this regard, I think the movie Arrival, based on a short story by Ted Chiang, was very interesting in that it portrayed a convincing picture of aliens far from being a replica of human race, thinking and communicating in a totally foreign way that is probably impossible and only allowable in a work of fiction but still very fascinating. Not only that, their way of thinking and communicating touches on time travel, which is just a step away from space travel in our imagination.


"Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Spaceflight". YouTube, uploaded by Virgin Galactic. 12 Jul. 2021 https://youtu.be/ZPrB3WvnZpE

I think now more than ever, space travel looms large in the public's imagination. With multiverse and time travel a constant theme in movies, space travel almost seems relatively mundane. Soon SpaceX and Virgin Galactic will take us to space if we have enough money to pay for the travel. Nevertheless, we must not forget the importance of our home and the presence of others keeping our company. The plot of Interstellar and Wall-E were interesting, but to live through such reality would be harsh. We should not make escape plans to Mars while destroying our planet. Besides, alien-like octopuses are fascinating creatures with high intelligence that are worthy of our attention more than their fictional intergalactic counterparts.


Carroll, Sean M. Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. Oneworld, 2021.

Chalmers, David J. Reality+ : Virtual Worlds and the Problem of Philosophy. W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.

Gleick, James. Time Travel. HARPERCOLLINS Publishers, 2017.

Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.

Hoffman, Donald. Case against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.

Ord, Toby. The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.


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