PLL project

Art in Space

In partnership with OK Go, we conducted a contest called “Art in Space” for middle and high school students to design an art project that could only happen in space, receiving entries from countries worldwide such as Azerbaijan, the Philippines, Australia, and Romania. Sponsored by Cognizant, Lab members and Blue Origin engineers designed and constructed the two contest-winning ideas to be sent as payloads on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft in December 2019. The first payload, named “Cosmic Song,” aimed to create music and splatter paint art that represented a journey in space using the elements of chaos and unpredictability of microgravity in space flight. The second, “Dark Origin,” focused on magnetism by modeling the creation of a planet in microgravity using a suspended magnet and ferrous debris. Built into both payloads was equipment to bring their data and visual displays back to Earth. This project emphasizes partnerships between groups of multiple disciplines, ages, and genders and seeks to erase the line between what is defined as art and what is defined as science.