The Australian researcher has shown the cooperation of scientists and artists in the NASA Exolanet Tourism Department project that has been able to change the awareness of science and make complicated astronomical data easier to understand for the audience. The research was published in the Journal of Science Communications.
In 2015, NASA launched a campaign to attract attention to the planet, providing classic posters, virtual results, coloring and even travel books. For example, a poster about Expler-16B Explanet, revolves around a double star, reading the rest rest on Kepler-16B. A place where your ball always has a company!
Scientific popularity, author of films and books from South African African Keridven Davi presented analysis of the results of effective cooperation between scientists and artists.
The researcher has collected information about the project development process, about the obstacles that NASA's creative team faces and the way they can overcome them. First of all, the research team faced the approach to visual materials about aliens. Scientists do not always manage to get a direct image of an open planet, because usually the existence and its position in the space are determined on the basis of analyzing a large amount of astronomical data. Moreover, in case the image is still managed to get, it does not impress the public in general. The second problem for artists is the harsh nature of aliens observed. In most cases, they are not suitable for everyone, this complicates the group's work of the representative of the planets in attractive form.
The team decided to use the visual style of the 1930s, inspired by the Placas Retro of Yosemiti and Yellowstone National Parks, in order to attract tourists and wake up romantic, especially from visiting these places and meeting with nature. The purpose of the artists is to describe the planet as if they were completely close and could become the next vacation. It also encourages the audience to represent these planets themselves, making them more realistic and the lives of Muslims.
In the course of working, the project participants also shared their own ideas and visualization with each other, which created an interesting creative process of continuous interaction between scientists and artists. Keridven Davi noted that scientists also made a lot of effort and imagination to turn abstract astronomical data into a more specific thing. Creating images will help the public see the subjects of their scientific research, astronomers thus inspiring public and financial organizations in general to support further research. In this case, cooperating with artists can be very important.
Artists, directors, writers and visualists can be really useful for scientists: they not only enrich research projects by creating intuitive images, but also helps to rethink the way the world works.
