Artist Team Chosen For Solar System Trek To Pasadena
Ron Baalke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARTIST TEAM CHOSEN FOR SOLAR SYSTEM TREK TO PASADENA
The Planetary Society
August 2000
The Planetary Society today announced the winning design for PlanetTrek, a
scale model of the Solar System in memory of Carl Sagan that will be built
in Pasadena, California. The winning design was submitted by a team
including lead artists Barbara McCarren and Jud Fine, with team members Ken
Price and Ned Kahn, all based in California. MIT Astrophysics Professor
Emeritus Dr. Philip Morrison is scientific advisor to the chosen design
team.
"The winning design proposal edged out a talented field of internationally
acclaimed artists that included finalists Carl Cheng of Santa Monica and
mathematical sculptor Helaman Ferguson of Laurel, Maryland," said PlanetTrek
director Charles Kohlhase.
PlanetTrek will engage the public in a unique experience through a blend of
art, science, and education. Ten prominent sculptures displaying the Sun and
its nine planets are proposed for seven public locations in Pasadena.
Visitors to the sites can appreciate the artistic beauty of the sculptures
while learning about the solar system shown to scale. PlanetTrek will be a
permanent monument fostering the spirit of "The Universe" celebration
scheduled to begin in Pasadena later this year.
The Sun is five feet in diameter, with planet diameters ranging from 1/10
inch for Pluto to 6 inches for Jupiter. At this scale Earth measures a mere
1/2 inch across. The distance from the Sun to the outermost planet Pluto is
about five miles. Proposed locations include the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth
and Mars in Central Park near the planned Blue Line hub; Jupiter near City
Hall; Saturn in Brookside Park near the planned Kidspace Museum; Uranus at
PCC; Neptune in Victory Park; and Pluto just south of JPL.
PlanetTrek will incorporate into its design 100 great questions of our time
inscribed on bronze plaques, a unique feature not previously done for other
solar system models around the world. The questions are meant to engage the
human imagination and intellect. Ten plaques, each containing one question,
will surround each sculpture.
Sample questions include: "Will computers ever evolve into separate life
forms or develop consciousness?"; "What conditions are necessary for human
happiness?"; "Was the beginning of the universe a chance event?"; "How are
art and science alike, and how are they different?"; and "What are the
greatest threats to our environment?". If a great question is ultimately
answered, its plaque will be ceremoniously retired and a new question
installed. The public can still submit great questions to the PlanetTrek web
site at http://planettrek.planetary.org.
The winning design incorporates a large imaginative sculpture at each site,
linked by a curved walkway to the scale model of the planet mounted on a
pedestal containing information about that world. The artists' proposal
describes the sculptures as "gorgeously tough jewels -- visually and
physically elegant imaginative representations of the ten celestial bodies."
The five-foot Sun model will be made of stainless steel, covered by several
layers of powder-coat enamel polished back to reveal brilliant coloration
suggestive of the shining Sun. It will be mounted on a 15-foot round
rough-hewn granite pedestal with surfaces containing information about the
solar system, planets, and the PlanetTrek project. Visitors will be able to
turn sculptures of the Earth, Venus, Neptune and Uranus around their axes,
but only in the correct direction. Mercury, Mars and Pluto will be set on
boulders formed at the beginning of geologic time.
Materials used for the sculptures will evoke characteristics of each
celestial body. Saturn will shine in laminated, milled limestone and marble
in buff, gold and beige, with stainless steel rings. The sculpture of
Jupiter will be uniquely stained and polished concrete with a surface
texture based on current images. The artists plan to cast the Red Planet
Mars in brightly rusted iron. Venus will be red glass and green verdigris
copper depicting the planet's volcanic activity and hellish surface. Our own
Earth is conceptualized as a rotating blue glass sphere with an overlaid
bronze map of Pangaea, reflective of Earth's plate tectonics and liquid
water.
Several community leaders have endorsed PlanetTrek, including: Dr. David
Baltimore, President of Caltech; Dr. Edward Stone, Director of JPL; Mr. Bill
Bogaard, Mayor of Pasadena; Dr. James Kossler, President of PCC; science
fiction author Ray Bradbury; Mr. Jay Belloli, Director of Gallery Programs,
Armory Center for the Arts; Dr. Bill Nye, the "Science Guy"; Ms. Ann Druyan,
writer and collaborator with the late Dr. Sagan, and many others from the
art, science and education fields.
The PlanetTrek planning committee is currently raising funds from
individuals, corporations and foundations to complete the project.
Tax-deductible contributions earmarked for PlanetTrek can be made to The
Planetary Society, either for general use or to sponsor a planetary
sculpture site. For further information including the artist renderings and
Great Question submittals, visit the PlanetTrek web site:
http://planettrek.planetary.org, or phone The Planetary Society at
(626)793-5100.
THE PLANETARY SOCIETY: Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded
The Planetary Society in 1980 to advance the exploration of the solar system
and to continue the search for extraterrestrial life. With 100,000 members
in over 140 countries, the Society is the largest space interest group in
the world.
Susan Lendroth
Manager of Events and Communications
The Planetary Society
Telephone:(626)793-5100 ext. 214
Fax:(626)793-5528
http://planetary.org
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PLANETTREK ARTISTS AND DIRECTOR
Biographical Description / Barbara McCarren
Barbara McCarren is an artist who exhibits site-specific works at
alternative spaces including in the public realm. Her work is in the
permanent collection of the L.A. County Museum of Art. Projects in public
spaces include Pershing Square in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Zoo and the
Modesto Civic Center. Her work focuses on unusual facts and presents itself
through a physical and visual clarity that disseminates into complexity upon
viewer consideration.
Biographical Description / Jud Fine
Jud Fine is a nationally and internationally recognized artist whose work is
represented in numerous museums and public collections. He has been working
in the public sphere for the last ten years. Examples of his efforts in this
area include the Los Angeles Central Library, Carnation Co. Headquarters,
Glendale, Sony Pictures, Culver City, Los Altos Market Center, Long Beach,
and the Ventura River Trail. He is a Professor of Art at the University of
Southern California.
Biographical Description/ Ken Price
Ken Price is one of the most remarkable artists in world. For almost 40
years his work has been characterized by its surface lushness, the
heightened membrane between inside and outside and its merging of material
and form into a pragmatic materialism conditioning a "window of fantasy".
His work has been called, "the inextricable mix of complex structure and
intense improvisation . . . and his remarkable grasp of color and surface
have fueled his invention of singular and intriguing forms." He is a
Professor of Art at the University of Southern California. Visit
http://www.kenprice.com
Biographical Description/ Ned Kahn
Ned Kahn has been creating interactive artworks for museums and public art
venues for eighteen years. Much of his recent work has been inspired by
astronomical phenomena. He recently installed a series of kinetic sculptures
at the new Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural
History in New York City. These artworks let viewers interact with fluid
models of convection on the sun, a spiral galaxy and bipolar jets. He has
just completed an exhibition, funded by the National Science Foundation, of
17 kinetic artworks suggestive of active planetary landscapes which will
open at the new Cabot Observatory in Oakland. In 1999, he installed a model
of a black hole at the Albuquerque Museum of Natural History and a
viewer-activated volcanic landscape at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
Biographical Description/ Charles Kohlhase
Charley Kohlhase is a planetary mission designer,
author, artist, teacher, environmentalist, and public outreach specialist.
In his four-decade JPL career, he led the mission design activities for
robotic missions to most of the planets, including the epic Voyager Grand
Tour, receiving three NASA special achievement medals. He teaches 3D
Modeling & Animation, produces fine art for galleries, plays a leading role
in many joint art and science educational projects, consults for NASA/JPL,
and is a member of The Planetary Society Advisory Council. Visit
http://www.artshow.com/kohlhase/bio.html and http://mmp.planetary.org.