Kybalion II - Space Apps Challenge

Kybalion II| Putting the 'Art' in Artemis

Putting the 'Art' in Artemis

Your challenge is to create an artistic work to communicate, inform, or inspire others about humanity's road to Mars. Your art may be in any form, including (but not limited to): drawing, painting, sculpture, computer generated 2D or 3D, music, film, music video, written or spoken word, dance, and textile.

Our Land

Summary

Through the photographic exploration of our land in different parts of the world, we seek to establish a visual relationship between the Earth with the Martian surface, since it is the solid ground that gives us support, shelter and connects every one of us to the world we call home.Despite the differences, we are able to observe that their surfaces have obvious visual similarities; these aesthetic relationships are what we want to demonstrate, with the aim of connecting Earth to Mars and vice versa, reminding current and future inhabitants of both planets that despite the distance, there is still something under our feet capable to connect our present on Earth with our near future: Mars.

How We Addressed This Challenge

The project is presented through the Fanzine, a medium that allows us to propose a low-cost publication, created by fans of the arts and astronomy, aimed especially to those passionate about the same subject.

Through the photographs exhibited in this Fanzines series, we offer to the viewer the opportunity to appreciate the aesthetic relationship between the surface of the Earth and the surface of the planet Mars.

The appreciation of the topographic characteristics of both worlds, we expose the earth element as a unifying element of the human being, regardless of distance.

Thus we understand again the "terrestrial" surface as an essential element for the development of life and also as a reminder of our near future on other telluric planets, as well as a reminder of the original home for those who in the future may reach other distant surfaces of the universe.

Also, this easy-to-distribute publication series will allow us to spread part of what the Artemis project will be from an artistic perspective, adding the interest of other types of public besides the scientific one; It will also allow us to expose part of our work as professionals in the arts and design, thus demonstrating the possibility that exists to reconcile with harmony and coherence two areas that for a long time have been mistakenly considered as irreconcilable opposites: Art and Science.

How We Developed This Project

Taking this challenge represented for us the dare of uniting our professions related to art and culture with our fascination for the night sky, space projects and nature, giving us the opportunity to connect three different visions of the arts in the same project, focused on the conceptualization of the earth element through photography and design, based on an original thought of the hermetic philosophy: “As above, so below; as it is inside, it is outside” capable of covering his teaching from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

This project, in addition, was a distraction for us in this difficult moment in the history of the pandemic, allowed us for a moment to turn our gaze from fear and current chaos to a hopeful future, giving us the opportunity to create something beautiful and useful that allows all of us to look forward to the hopeful future of humanity.

We also united as Venezuelans and companions of the arts located in different parts of the world to create Our Land, show to ourselves the ability we have to create artistic projects independently, despite the distance, exposing new concepts and ideas successfully for the audience pleasure.

With Our Land being the initial seed of this new team for the creation of future artistic projects.

A general difficulty in all our cases was being able to organize our schedule with our respective jobs to be able to comply with the demands of the project, luckily communicating through a WhatsApp group gave us many facilities, especially with regard to our time zones differences.

Also, in Caracas, Venezuela, the “radical” quarantine restrictions still continue, for which Julia, at first, didn't know how to approach the photographic investigation, since she couldn't leave her house and the national parks where she could find the ideals shots were closed.

Even so, she spoke with the leaders of her community and by telling them about the Space Apps project, they gave her the necessary permission to explore the nearest mountain called “El Volcán”, so she could successfully take the photographs needed for the project (and a very needed fresh air and nature gazing!).

In the case of Leslie, she had to take in consideration the harsh conditions of the Mexican desert in the summer where temperatures can get very high so field trips have to be carefully plan. This was a necessary step since the mountains are the best spot in Tecate to take the photographs she was looking for, and temperature variations can be radical in the city of Tecáte, Mexico.

Finally, Ysabella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, had to struggle with a very limited window of time to work being the last one to start as the designer. She also had some difficulties with her equipment due to the resolution of the images and that caused the editing program to crash in the middle of the process, so she had to make the layouts of the Fanzines twice in the same day.

Used tools:

Julia: Iphone 4, Sony VAIO PC, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6.

Ysabella: Adobe Illustrator CS6, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Dell PC.

Leslie: CanonT3I Camera, Adobe Lightroom 5.6, Airbook MAC Laptop.

How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project

We focus on using several images from the NASA photographic archive, specifically the link Explore Moon to Mars and Mars Curiosity Image Gallery, since our project is based precisely on a visual analogy of the surface of both worlds and their topographic features: canyons, craters, mountains and volcanoes.

Thus, these photographs of the NASA (which by themselves are masterpieces) complemented the conceptualization of the project and established the aesthetic and chromatic bases of Our Land.