Art on Mars

5-7 July 2010 attended Electronic Visualation and the Arts Conference, London (EVA 2010)

See page UK Trip 2010.

20 May 2010

Telephone discussion with Michael Surcombe of BBC Radio, Cardiff, Wales.  He is putting together a program on time capsules and had read my paper ‘Messages for the Future’ published by the Mars Society from their national conference of 2008.  He was interested in my research and may use some of my material in the program.

13 May 2010

Augmenting our Realities – The Royal Institute of Australia, The Science Exchange, Adelaide

Roy Davies and Bruce Thomas

These well-illustrated talks showed the current technology of interactive computer imagery.  Augmented reality is described as a technology which inserts digital information and graphics over what can be seen in the real world.

3 May 3010

Human Spaceflight – the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and Beyond

A talk by Pamela Melroy, retired Astronaut Colonel, now Director and Deputy Program Manager, Space Exploration Intitiatves, Lockheed Martin, USA.  Adelaide University

A very informative and personal view of her work at NASA and as the pilot of two Space Shuttles.  She also had two tours of duty on the International Space Station and was mission commander in 2007.  She logged over 38 days in space.   Prior to the astronaut program she was a test pilot in the US Air Force flying over 50 different aircraft.

Thursday, 8 April 2010

This year Team Rodwell (Trevor Rodwell and Sue Rodwell) again participated as invited artists in the Palmer Sculpture Biennial 2010, Palmer, South Australia from 7 March to 21 March 2010.  We produced a work entitled Read the Wind which consisted of 49 polished aluminium and acrylic tubes with fused glass tips that interacted and swayed with the wind.  The Team were also this year’s official photographers of the event.  For more details and images see the dedicated page on this site.

Conferences, forums and lectures

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Lecture by David Malin of the Anglo-Australian Observatory entitled Galileo’s Legacy at the Science Exchange, Adelaide (Royal Institute of Australia).  David told the story of Galileo and the development of his own telescope which allowed him to observe the stars in a way never before seen.  This was to cause profound changes in the way humans think about our place in the universe.

Thursday, 29 October 2009

Submitting your Thesis at Flinders University, SA

Although this is more than a year away for me, there were some useful points that can be applied now.

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Editing your Thesis at Flinders University, SA

Some aspects of editing a thesis can be applied during the writing stage and can save time in the final edit.  I’m sure many tips will be useful as I write.

Thursday, 8 October 2009

Workshop at Flinders Uni – Thesis Writing for Humanities and Social Sciences.  A very interesting workshop with good discussions and practical advice from the tutor.

Thursday,  10 September 2009:

Workshop at Flinders Uni - ‘Seven Secrets of highly successful PhD Students’

This was an interesting workshop and reinforced many of the things that I’m already doing.  I think I may be able to add another couple of secrets to this list, especially writing detailed abstracts in Endnotes, which the lecturer described as distractions !

Mars Society Australia again had a presence during Science Week 2009 at SA Museum Science Tent.  For the third year I assisted on their stand where we were displaying the latest events concening Mars and promoting space science and education to the younger visitors as a potential career option as well as promoting membership of the Mars Society.

Our interactive component this year was the Space Glove Challenge – a small board with nuts/bolts/washers had to be taken apart and reassembled wearing bulky gloves to simulate gloves worn by astronauts in space.  This procedure was timed and, on completion, the participants did the same procedure without the gloves which was again timed.  On average the task was taking four times as long with gloves as without.  A clear demonstration of the complexities of working in space.  We could also explain to particpants why space-suits needed to be worn. 

An interesting observation was the amount of knowledge that children and many of their parents knew about space and Mars.  This is not a general topic of conversation and does not get covered well in the mainstream media yet many people engaged with us on the Mars Society stand and conversations were deep and extensive.  A couple of parents I spoke to were also school teachers and asked for details on topics of engagement for their students.  I passed on the NASA Send your Name to Mars initiative and also gave them details of the Victorian Space School.  Both said they would definitely follow up and it is nice to know how seriously the topic is taken in some schools.

Images show young participants in the Space Glove Challenge. 

Sunday, 23 August 2009 – public lecture by Paul Curnow at the SA Museum as part of Science Week 2009.

Paul’s talk entitled ‘Night Skies’ was about the observations of night skies by ancient people throughout the world an included a significant amount on Australian Aboriginal connections.

Monday 17 August 2009 – public lecture by Jon Lomberg, space artist, entitled ‘My work with Carl Sagan’ at The University of Adelaide, sponsored by the Adelaide Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  Jon worked with Carl Sagan on the records attached to the two Voyager spacecraft that have now left our solar system.  He also designed the astronomical animation for the film ‘Contact’ and has now built a Galaxy Garden in the Botanic Gardens of Hawaii.

• 17-20 July 2009 – The 9th Australian Mars Exploration Conference, Adelaide.  Eighteen speakers with topics ranging from the latest results of the Phoenix mission to Mars to subjects of planetary science, astrobiology, education and outreach programs and engineering and robotics.
• 9-12 July 2009 – Adelaide Festival of Ideas.  Attended eight lectures – of particular interest were talks by Rachel Webster on ‘New Directions in Astronomy’ and a panel forum entitled ‘Big Science, Big Bucks, Big Deal’.
• 8 July 2009 – Public lecture presented by Engineers Australia (SA Division) by James F Reilly, NASA Astronaut, entitled ‘Mission to Mars – engineerig challenges and the search for life’.
• 27 February 2009 – Public lecture by international artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on interactive environments and installations.  Part of ‘Double Helix: Art and the Moving Image Symposium’, University of South Australia, Adelaide
• September 2008 – Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, Flinders University, SA.  Attended primarily to observe how postgraduate students present papers.
• August 2008 – National Science Week.  Assisted on stand of Mars Society Australia, SA Chapter, at SA Museum.  Handed out information packs and answered questions on MSA and space generally including my research when the opportunity arose.
• 29-30 September 2008 – Flinders Postgradeuate Conference ‘Thinking Synergy’, Flinders University, SA
• 3 September 2008 – Public lecture at the University of South Australia by Professor Susan Petrilli, ‘ Intercultural Communication’
• 27 June 2008 – Public forum, Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre.  Artists Greg Johns and Gavin Malone ‘Towards the Land’.  Artists response to Land Art.
• 7 May 2008 – Astronomical Society of SA, The University of Adelaide.  Robert Purvinskis – ‘Space Industry in Europe’.  Robert works for EADS Astrium in Germany, one of the largest European Aerospace companies.
• 26 March 2008 – University of South Australia.  International Forum on Public Art – ‘Art, Community and Experience’.  Organised by the Society of Multi-Sensory Design, University of Nagoya, Japan.  This focused on the used of technology in art ranging from lighting, sound, the video game genre and the use of mobile phones.
• 10 March 2008 – Palmer, South Australia.  ‘Beyond Generations – Beyond Landscapes’.  Topics ranged from indigenous perspectives of the land, environmental sustainability, interpreting landscape, aesthetics of place and contemporary art in the landscape.  Run in conjunction with the Palmer Sculpture Biennial 2008.
• 10 October 2007 – The University of Adelaide.  Dr Mark Adler, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, organised by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  Dr Adler was the Mars Exploration Rover ‘Spirit’ Mission Manager at the JPL responsible for the Mission System of the Rover project and the operations of ‘Spirit’ en route to Mars through to the primary and first extended surface mission in 2004.
• 21 August 2007 – The University of Adelaide.  Dr Jack Bacon, ‘The Parallel Bang’.  Organised by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, touring as part of Science Week.  He spoke about his theory on the explosive growth of human understanding in the twenty-first century, especially relating to science and technology.
• August 2007 – National Science Week.  Assisted on Mars Society Australia (SA Chapter) stand.
• 5 - 8 July 2008 – Adelaide Festival of Ideas.  Attended 14 talks on various subjects.  Five were particularly interesting:  Paul Chadwick ‘What endures? Thoughts on discerning what to take into the future and what to discard’.  Jay Griffiths ‘Wild Mind: A Manifesto for the essential wildness of the human spirit’.  Panel discussion: Mirian Baltuck, John Campbell, Tim Radford and Duncan Steel.  ‘Still Exploring: the never-ending quest’.  Miriam Baltuck ‘Life beyond Earth’.  James Lovelock – ‘Gaia’.
• 2 July 2007 – Workshop at University of Canberra.  ‘Topic Development and Refinement’.
• 8 May 2007 – Public lecture, The University of Adelaide.  David Froning, presented by Engineers Australia.  ‘Launching to the Moon, Mars and Beyond’. 
• 14 March 2007,  Charles Lemert, USA, ‘Social Theory’. Flinders University, Adelaide Hilton Hotel

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