Exploring Technology: An Artist and an Astronaut Look at the Future

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Exploring Technology: An Artist and an Astronaut Look at the Future

May 3-August 31, 2021

Part of the Vermont Curators Group Project: 2020 Vision: Reflecting on a World-Changing Year

For 25 years, Pat Musick, the artist, and Jerry Carr, the astronaut, worked together as a team collaborating on art that advocated an awareness of the fragile nature of our planet. It all began in 1990 when 50 cosmonauts and astronauts were invited to celebrate Earth Day at the United Nations. Six of them were asked to use their native language to describe their first view of Earth from space. The response was stunning. They all said the same thing. They used the same words to describe the same object far beyond them.

It took Pat 25 years to generate the images that would reflect this moment. Jerry assisted in the engineering and fabrication of the work.

The space program was arguably mankind’s most creative effort of the 20^th century. Spin-offs from digital computers opened vast new vistas in science and technology. From the lunar rover, which Carr helped design, came the electric wheelchair, and that was just the beginning. Propelled by a superordinate goal—to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade—men and women worked incredible hours with self-sacrificing dedication. Their efforts stand out in history as a model for what can be achieved by such a united spirit. Their work can serve as an example today as the world struggles to thwart a pandemic, redress centuries of discrimination, battle climate change, and bring peace to our fragile home.

Visit Pat’s website.

Pat Musick and Jerry Carr have released a number of books which are available for purchase on Pat’s website. Cover images of their most recent two are below.