I’ve been spending the last 3 months working on a completely new project, a project that expands my work past jewelry. I love making jewelry and will continue to do so, but I wanted to express myself in more ways. Below is a preview of what’s coming. The new pieces will be launching November 23.
Available in the store, one of my most popular pieces, the Mars Rover necklace. The Mars Rover was my first design when I started making jewelry, one of the first pieces I sold, and has always been my most popular design. What is it about the Rover that made we want to put it one a necklace?
First, I’ve been following news of the Rover since the nail-biting, and ultimately successful, landing sequence. The photos broadcast back are so detailed and engaging photos, I feel like I’m there. I wanted to honor our Earth’s ambassador on Mars. And the design of the Rover is (can I say it?) cute and fun.
Second, it’s hard to find science- and space-themed jewelry with a modern design. Most of the pieces I found on Etsy have a more traditional jewelry look. I wanted something more modern in design, something a little sleeker, something that emphasized the image in the jewelry and not the jewelry itself. So I decided to make it myself.
Soon there will be more and more robots as technology advances, and the focus of VC funding moves toward robotics and AI. But how should we treat these creatures? We know they can’t think or feel (yet). Humans have such a strong desire to anthropomorphize objects, that it’s going to be very difficult to not treat them as pets, children, or even companions.
And how we treat them tells us more about ourselves than about robots. It tells us something about empathy and what it means to be human, how we choose to treat something with no power when we have all the power.
Robots will learn from you; this next wave of machines coming are not just dumb terminals designed for data input, but will be learning how to act in society based on what they see and hear in the real world. What you say and the way you act will be reflected back to you, as machines learn how to act according to your behavior. How will you feel when you own irritation, anger, or spite is reflected back? Will it make you feel proud or embarrassed?
Hint: anyone with children knows the answer already.
The future of wearables are robots that cling to your clothes. They can move around as necessary and even store themselves in your pocket if not being used. You could have your own robot army, albeit a very small and harmless army.
If you have a few thousand extra Euros, an art gallery is selling vintage NASA photographs. While originally taken as science and research photos, framing these photos and selling them through a gallery casts them in a different light. It’s interesting that these photos have the look of mid-century photographs, because of the technology available at the time, that reminds me of the look people are trying to achieve with Instagram filters. It shows us what we value: that we value photographs of a certain era because they remind of us something, not necessarily that they are, or were ever intended as, art. And by doing so, these photos reframe the conversation of what is art.
One of my favorites is the close-up of Gemini 6 & 7. The focus is on the spacecraft, but what is more important is what is seen out of focus in the background: the Earth and the surrounding darkness of space. These photos invoke a sense of awe, but also loneliness; the things of man, while seeming so significant on Earth, look so small when put against the backdrop of space.
http://www.vintagenasaphotographs.com/
First this article caught my eye because I love the phrase “when art and science were friends.” It does feel to me today, as an artist, that art and science aren’t friends, and that technology and art are also often not friends. I love bringing these 2 disciplines together; I think in the fast-paced world of science and technology, art is being left behind; it feels old fashioned, inaccessible, and out of touch in the days were increasingly complex technologies make use of the newest scientific discoveries. In today’s VC funded world, art doesn’t bring in the Big Bucks; even President Obama dissed Art History majors by saying that you can make more money learning a trade than studying art history. He’s implying you’re not contributing to society if you’re not studying specifically to make money. (He later apologized.)
I hope my work shows that we still need art; we still need visual ways to express and process what is going on in society and culture. Art is not just for cold galleries and stern museums; art is something happening all around us right now that helps us understand and mirror back the culture that we’re building with all these new discoveries. If we charge ahead without considering what we’re building, we’re stumbling in the dark.
Second, the author has examples of Art Deco tiles, which is actually one of my favorite historical artistic movements, partly due to the fact that so much inspiration was taken from nature and animals. Houses were decorated with art,housewares, and wall coverings that depicted animals, insects, flowers and trees.
Lastly, there is something called the Chicken’s Wedding. Not only is the chicken getting married, but she is being attended by monkeys. And there is never anything wrong with that.
Andrea Vickery 