ASTRONOUGHT - SCOTT KELLY

One of the subcategories of diagrammatic art that Michael Whittle exclaimed was focused on astronomy, when he began to explain of his interest in astronomy, astronaut Scott Kelly immediately came to mind. I have been following astronauts prof Scott Kelly on Facebook ever since he landed after his year-long expedition in the international space station last year. I remember seeing it on the news the day that he landed, that he had set the record for the most total accumulated number of days spent in space by an American astronaut, which was 520.

I’ve always had an interest in astronomy, astronauts in particular but Scott Kelly is by far my favourite. He wasn’t originally supposed to be picked for his trip into space, you’ve actually picked because he was twin and they wanted to study the effects of space on twins. Scott Kelly when Interstate for a year and his twin stayed home, after the expedition the chart the changes between him and his twin. Scott Kelly a total of 2 inches in height while in space! he quickly went back to normal a couple of weeks after he returned home. But I just thought it was amazing that our bodies actually expand when we go to space, he looked so different from the photos of him first returning home to the photos from a few weeks later.

I began following him because of this, but he soon started posting pictures of his artwork from his year in space, pictures of the earth from space. But not as you’d imagine these pictures look like images of another alien planet, not the one we call our home.

He posts lots of images, from his year in space and compares it to being at home, remember one of the photos from Christmas Day shared folders Christmas dinner at home and his Christmas dinner in space.

The first photo he shared after his year in space when he got home with a photo of his lunch which was quite amusing compared usual photos he was sending while he was in space, of his high-tech equipment and images of the Earth.

I recently found out by walking home, that an astronaut lived in Alnwick. On a side of a house that I’ve walked past 1000 times before I noticed a plaque, saying that an astronaut had lived there. I’ve never heard anything about before. They can’t seem to find anything on the Internet about him. His exit hidden hero that nobody knows anything about, and I want to try and find out more about him and make him one of the key part of my exhibition. I would also like to use the image of my retinography scan as part of this piece, as it does look like some sort of spacey image or planet. And all ties in with the things that we learned from Michael Whittle’s talk.

A plan to create an image using an astronauts suit, my retinopathy scan and the street and house that I walked by, where I found out about the hidden hero. I plan to use my background drawing and technical lines as part of the piece. This is something I can bring to the attention of the people of Alnwick, something they might not have noticed before.

I also plan to incorporate some of the style of Scott Kelly’s artwork from his year in space, mixing both romantic art, with scientific objectivism in a way that is fairly new and original.