Re-Invention: My Life as an Astronaut | Artwork by Ellen Levy

This exhibit is part of an art project called Re-Invention. My experience with augmented reality (AR) prompted me to update scrolls I had made soon after 9/11. I built up genealogies of related inventions by tracking patent drawings from data-base references in the US Patent Library. Many of the patents included those I had located during my art commission from NASA (1985). In my youthful fantasy of becoming an astronaut, I imagined the physical and technological obstacles I faced to be able to succeed. These works now speak to my own reinvention as an (older) artist engaging AR technology. When viewed through a tablet linked to an AR program, the designated patent invention within the scroll (a flight simulator related to coping with gravity acceleration) triggers a video that is virtually superimposed onto its space in the artwork. The video explores “Who Owns Space?” in light of such ongoing developments as the International Space Station and SpaceX. Related digital works on paper will hang nearby. Feminism is alive and well; the animation also asks, “Who Cleans Space?”

—Ellen Levy
www.complexityart.com/EKLevy_space.mp4

Ellen Levy is a New York-based artist and writer whose research centers on complex systems and is informed by collaboration with scientists. She was Special Advisor on the Arts and Sciences at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the visual Arts and Past President of the College Art Association before earning her doctorate (2012) from the University of Plymouth. Levy’s solo exhibitions include the New York and National Academy of Sciences; she was represented by Associated American Artists and Michael Steinberg Fine Arts (NYC) that are now closed. Honors include an arts commission from NASA, an AICA award, and a Distinguished visiting Fellowship (Skidmore College). She has taught at Brooklyn College and the New School and published widely in the US and internationally. She was twice an invited participant at
Robert Wilson’s Art and Consciousness Workshop (Watermill, New York). With P. Olynyk, Levy co-directs the New York art and science forum in conjunction with Leonardo/ISAST, now in its tenth year.
www.complexityart.com

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