Artsy to Marsy| Putting the 'Art' in Artemis
Putting the 'Art' in Artemis
Artsy to Marsy
Summary
We think that a great way to connect art in such forms as painting and music with history -by a determinate type of narrative- is through a video game; it is a resource that everyone connects with since it brings our competitive skills out of the dark and represents a great challenge to get into the next level.With that in mind, a video game seems like a great tool for active learning if used correctly.Artsy to Marsy (a nice sticky name, we know), therefore, will be an interactive way to show the great and long process of humanity getting to Mars by means of visuals and music made by us inspired in those that were popular during the specific period of time developed in that level/mission.
How We Addressed This Challenge
We developed the conceptual approach of a video game as a solution to the education about history in this matter. Everyone can agree that the best way to learn is experiencing, hence Artsy to Martsy does a great job by carrying the player over the past and guiding them through the path humankind has taken until today, this way all of the events that led us to this point in history will be easily retained into the player’s mind and, hopefully, inspire them to share it with friends and family, creating a new atmosphere of scientific dissemination.
Our videogame is based in a 3 levels structure, these being:
- The Earth
- The moon
- The arrival to Mars
Each one of these levels have their respective missions that the players must complete, so they can move forward one big step at a time, such as landing on the moon. The goal is for the player to immerse in this journey through history with the artistic twist that envolves the aesthetic of the game.
How We Developed This Project
All team members are enthusiasts of art in its different ways; music, painting, literature and so on. So, while checking out the various challenges, we all agreed almost immediately once we got to this one. The idea of transmitting something as interesting as the history behind the next step for humanity -getting to Mars- through something as vast as art was just really exciting.
Since we did not seem to get somewhere about which kind of art develop, the brainstorming began, until we started wondering, why not some instead of just one? That was when the video game idea suddenly appeared; The narrative will help with telling the history or path to follow, the game aesthetics would be inspired by the artistic movements that comprise the time period at that level / mission and musically it must present an instrumental track of the representative genre of the time.
One of the tools we used to show the demo was Figma because it allows you to interact with your mobile and pretend that you are in an app. Another one was Adobe Premier for video editing.
When it comes to software, Neural Style Transfer algorithms helped us convert images into a specific artistic movement.
The first problem we got was that we were not aware of videogames requirements, it took a little bit of research to figure out what things needed to be done by whom; specify the stages to create a videogame and try to accommodate each one according to their skills. We did that by using a common video game - design framework. Once that was clear, everything started coming together very smoothly.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
We took data from https://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Mtimeln2.htm to be aware of the right chronology and be able to choose the scientific discoveries and missions that would define the different levels into the game (once done we could define the different artistic currents to develop material of).
Also, we used the following photos as auxiliars to the aesthetics:
https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA05102/PIA05102~thumb.jpg (Supposed arrival to Mars).
Audio for different events into the game:
https://www.nasa.gov/mp3/590331main_ringtone_smallStep.mp3 (Arrival to Mars)
https://www.nasa.gov/mp3/574928main_houston_problem.mp3 (Mission failed)
https://www.nasa.gov/mp3/663784main_SLS_Audio_D.mp3 (Takeoff)
https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/features/halloween_sounds.html (Sun Sonification)
Project Demo
Our Project Video: https://youtu.be/zxKy3IOGSEw
View the App Prototype at: https://www.figma.com/proto/9IVbiHsqRm5jlnorMF5QO3/Artsy-to-Marsy?node-id=12%3A2&scaling=scale-down
Our Web Page: https://www.artsytomarsy.co/
Data & Resources
[1] Apollo 11 Mission image - Astronaut Edwin Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag that has been placed on the moon [Digital image]. (2010, July 16). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/AS11-40-5875
[2] Cronología de la tempranas épocas de la Astronomía, Mecánica y Vuelo Espacial. (n.d.). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Mtimeln2.htm
[3] Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment. (n.d.). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/diviner-lunar-radiometer-experiment-dlre/
[4] First Image of the Moon taken by a U.S. Spacecraft [Digital image]. (2008, December 08). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/NIX-PIA02975
[5] In Depth. (n.d.). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/ranger-7/in-depth/
[6] John Glenn Portrait [Digital image]. (2011, May 18). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/S64-36156
[7] La nave Stardust se encuentra con una sorpresa. (n.d.). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://ciencia.nasa.gov/science-at-nasa/2004/16jan_stardust
[8] Mars 2003 [Digital image]. (2009, October 30). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/PLAN-PIA04591
[9] Mars Science Laboratory Briefing (201111100001HQ) [Digital image]. (2012, June 15). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/nasahqphoto-6332896370
[10] Moon Color Composite [Digital image]. (2009, October 14). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/PLAN-PIA00113
[11] The moon's global temperature [Digital image]. (2012, January 26). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/542283main_diviner_01
[12] THE NEW OCEAN MERCURY [Digital image]. (2018, August 27). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/S67-19620
[13] Opportunity at El Capitan [Digital image]. (2009, October 14). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/PLAN-PIA05442
[14] Sojourner, Barnacle Bill, Yogi, & Couch [Digital image]. (2009, October 30). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/PLAN-PIA00685
[15] Spirit is Out the Gate [Digital image]. (2009, November 02). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/PLAN-PIA05081
[16] Stardust Capsule Return [Digital image]. (2009, November 02). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/PIA03668
[17] Summary. (2019, August 01). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/timeline/summary/
[18] Whole Earth [Digital image]. (2009, December 1). Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/324327main_4_full