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JPL Visit 2

On our second trip to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus, the majority of the day was focused on the tree of life project being run by the arts team. We had many of our questions answered about the project, and witnessed first-hand the process the team takes in generating and refining their projects based on the research and findings of the NASA scientists. My main question in regards to the tree of life dealt with how the team planned to create a cube-sat which had the ability to last the duration of the project, 200 years, since no such thing has ever been done before. My favorite brainstorming session activity was writing down every question we had about the project on sticky notes and putting them up on the wall. I wish our questions had all been answered because I think the project is still very early on and a lot of people had really great questions to ask. We briefly viewed a few of the things we had seen during the first visit, including the clean room with the more-develop...
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JPL Visit 1

On our first visit to JPL, we saw so many amazing things! Starting with the observation deck of a clean room where engineers worked on the 2020 mars rover, we were able to see the process the rover will take in landing on the moon. I thought this was very interesting in particular, how the carrier would bring the rover close enough to the surface to lower it to touchdown on a cable. It was awesome to see the difference in how the rover for 2020 will land versus the last one in a giant sort of bubble cushion. Throughout the day we moved to see the metalworking lab, with water-cooled metal saws and hydraulic presses. One of the engineers showed us the similarity in weight from a huge piece of low-density aluminum and a high-density sort of steel. We saw a hydraulic garnet drill that used high pressured water and pulverized granite to laser-cut sheets of metal in half. We talked briefly with the woman in charge of the tree of life project about her plans for attaching antennae to trees ...
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BLOG #8 - Makayla Gallimore - Treeios - FINAL PROJECT

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Blog #8  Final Project  by Makayla Gallimore  Treeios                                                                 The Tree of Life project was inspired by Julia Christensen. When I was challenged to experiment and be imaginative with this concept I was super enthusiastic. The questions of longevity, culture, funding, and keeping the public reeled in for 200 years is still unanswered. This raises the question of how will this project be able to keep up with our fast evolving planet and technology. That is what makes this project exhilarating because so much to be discovered. There are many challenges that will be faced but once the answers of this project are found it will be very successful and so unique. It will be a mission like no other. The idea of seeing how the planet evolves through this s...
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ART 384A:  Art and Science Artwork Statement on the Tree of Life 12.11.19 Josie Tiffany The subject of the piece is the “Tree of Life”, a present project of NASA that attempts to create a natural antennae to sonify the changes on Earth.  The project’s intended purpose is to promote longevity so that future, inquisitive generations to come can observe changes and listen to the songs of the Earth.  To reiterate once more, the ideology of building a system that can endure time in space as well as a lifetime of continuously supplying information about our surroundings is vastly crucial.  Thus, the motivation behind this specific art piece is to convey the Tree of Life’s principle of longevity by visualizing itself against the unknown future. The acrylic work performed on canvas displays a negative of a pear tree in full blossom.  The subject of the piece was not only inspired by the project’s first tree sample, a pear tree, but was also prompt...
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BLOG POST #8: IZZIE PANASCI TREE OF LIFE

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Discussing the Tree of Life project with the team at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Lab was an experience that ignited my curiosity and led me to ask many more questions than I had initially prepared to. What initially struck me about the project was that there was a co-dependent “duet,” collaboration between nature and technology. I have never really seen a collaboration of the sort, especially one that harnesses the power of life. The piece would not have the same meaning or importance if it were purely human-made, and it would not be much of a project for NASA with just a tree alone! Integrating these two ideas into one experimental project at first felt new to me. Still, after some reflection, I came to see it was not utterly irrelevant to my practice as an artist. Artists learn to integrate their work into the environment, regardless of whether or not that thing that they’ve created has a function. I think that the team working on this project must have to make similar considerations wh...
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Blog Post #8 - Dang and Grimes

Blog Post #8 The Tree of Life             This project, taking inspiration from the Tree of Life by Julia Christensen, is about both longevity and public interest. Through exploring and understanding the Tree of Life project an important challenge stuck out; how to keep public interest for a project spanning 200 years. The Tree of Life project is faced with many challenges and obstacles stemming from the longevity of the project, but this issue seemed important because of the public funding that this project will rely on. The Tree of Life is both a global endeavor that will face and overcome many obstacles in both the art and science world.             One of the biggest challenges that NASA has faced over the years has been time. The current longest running missions at NASA are Voyager I and II. They were launched in 1977 and have been active for more t...
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Bagge and Feller Tree of Life Statement

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Created for JPL’s Tree of Life project, we focused on making a piece that could be used as promotional material for the project. One facet of concern that came up during the meeting with the A-Team was how to keep the project relevant and exciting for the average person. Therefore, we made a poster that communicated artistry and mystery in order to engage the viewer. The aspect of making art that can be reproduced and relevant was important to us. Much like Dan Goods of JPL explained about his Vintage Travel Poster project, NASA is a government organization. Creating a work that allows all usage rights is a way to give back to the community that funds the projects. We wanted our poster to be an addition to the shareable body of work. Additionally, since the Tree of Life project is not set to launch for another fifty years, we wanted our contribution to be in a form that will remain popular. Poster usage dates back centuries and we predict will be around for centuries more. One asp...
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