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About this event
Join us for a presentation by Kan Yang & Sarah Kendrew on their experience working on the James Webb Space telescope mission & on collaborating with artist Ashley Zelinskie for the "Unfolding the Universe" exhibition.
About Kan Yang:
Team Lead, Instrument Design Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Kan Yang is a technical manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He joined NASA in 2010 as a thermal engineer, designing thermal control systems for spacecraft with goals as varied as tracking hurricanes from Earth orbit & examining the dust environment on the Moon. Kan was the Lead Thermal Analyst for the James Webb Space Telescope's cryogenic vacuum test at NASA Johnson Space Center, helping to direct the effort to safely cool down the telescope to a chilling -420F to simulate its space environment here on Earth. In his current role as the Team Lead for NASA Goddard's Instrument Design Laboratory, he manages discipline & systems engineering teams in producing concepts for NASA's next generation of spaceflight instruments. He is a recipient of NASA's Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal & holds degrees from both the University of Michigan & the University of Maryland.
About Sarah Kendrew:
Sarah is an Instrument & Calibration Scientist with the European Space Agency at STScI, providing support for the science operations of the MIRI instrument on board JWST. She obtained her PhD from University College London, & has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Leiden, MPIA Heidelberg, & Oxford University. She has worked on a number of major international ground-based infrared instrumentation projects in her career, including interferometry & adaptive optics. Her research interest is in galactic-scale star formation, from the Milky Way to high redshift galaxies. Sarah is one of the lead organizers of the .Astronomy conferences & has organized numerous astronomy hack days.
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After the talk you can enjoy the exhibition "Unfolding the Universe: First Light" a solo exhibition by Ashley Zelinskie in coordination with the James Webb Space Telescope team.
About "Unfolding the Universe: First Light" :
ONX Studio in partnership with The Onassis Foundation, NEW INC, & Mozilla Hubs, is pleased to present Unfolding the Universe: First Light. This is a solo exhibition of work by conceptual artist Ashley Zelinskie, curated by Maggie Masetti in cooperation with the James Webb Space Telescope team of scientists & engineers.
Vallejo Gantner, ONX's Director of Creative Partnerships said, ONX is honored to host Ashley's sculptural & immersive video works, which come to us after her years in cooperation with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope team. ONX is a studio searching out & exploring new forms of artistic expression, finding inspiration from the unknown. As a product of the most exciting leap forward in our capacity to understand the universe in decades, this exhibition is a perfect expression of that quest.
The exhibition features Zelinskie's first VR artwork Unfolding the Universe: A NASA Webb VR Experience which includes animated sculpture & interactive portraiture of Webb team members. This work was created to commemorate the launch of Webb in December 2021 & has since been updated to include new elements reflecting the telescope's First Images data released on July 12th.
Unfolding the Universe: First Light will also feature sculpture & installation inspired by Webb's first images & created with the guidance of expert scientists in the corresponding fields. The work will reflect everything from exoplanet spectroscopy & infrared image processing to Webb's signature six-pointed stars.
Ashley Zelinskie said, The output of the Webb telescope is already awe-inspiring. It's a huge artistic challenge to make beautiful work out of photos & data that are already beautiful in their own right. To me, the work must add to, & try to transcend, already extraordinary scientific work, inviting a viewer to tap into something universal in both a scientific & artistic sense.
Zelinskie has been working with NASA for seven years on various projects & artworks, including works for the ongoing Osiris-Rex Mission & a collaboration with retired astronaut Mike Massimino on his Hubble mission. Her work with the James Webb Space Telescope team has led to artworks shown at the NASA visitor centers & internationally at art galleries.
To have artists translate science & technology into something people can connect with is so important, said Curator Maggie Masetti. As a science communicator for the James Webb Space Telescope, it's my job to share the wonder of what we are building & learning with the public. Art can make math, science, & technology accessible, & Ashley's work both interprets technical concepts & incorporates elements of the science into the art itself.
Exploration, a piece created by Zelinskie for the JWST Art + Science exhibit at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 2017-and now coming to ONX-used scans of the arms of scientists (as well as her own) reaching for the cosmos, all delicately rendered in the equations that describe relativity & telescopes.
Zelinskie's understanding & passion for science, along with her traditional & hi-tech skills, put her in a unique position to make such art. This has led to collaborations with other institutes such as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute & a growing reputation as a scientific translator,' able to convey scientific concepts not only accurately but beautifully.
Amber Straughn, astrophysicist & Deputy Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope said, "People sometimes think of art & science as separate endeavors, but I think they're intricately related - often, one informs & inspires the other. It's a beautiful interplay in both realms."
Holograms on display at Unfolding the Universe: First Light have been generously made possible by Looking Glass's innovative 3D holographic display technology.
About Ashley Zelinskie:
Ashley Zelinskie is Brooklyn-based conceptual artist utilizing a post-New Media approach, wherein the media employed are merely vehicles in service of underlying concepts, she is attempting the process of translating our vast history into an eternal & universal language, while focusing a lens on our place as a small part of a larger whole. Her works span a variety of media, from large- & small-scale sculpture to canvas & print works, each created using cutting edge technology such as 3D printing, computer-guided laser cutting, & satellite plating technology. Her work focuses on visualizing data in abstract forms & finding new & interesting ways to describe complex ideas.
Ashley's work has been featured in Vice, Brooklyn Magazine, The New York Times, & Hyperallergic. Her work forms part of the permanent collection of the US Department of State Art in Embassies Program, has been exhibited at Sotheby's New York & most recently the ArtScience Museum in Singapore. Ashley is a former resident of New-the New Museum's Art & Technology Incubator-and the Shapeways x Museum of Art & Design's Out of Hand exhibition residency. She is the director of The Active Space studios & gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a founding member of the Lady Tech Guild-a collective supporting women in STEAM-and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.
About ONX Studio:
ONX is both an extension of Onassis Athens' Digital & Innovation Program & a structure that supports New York & the international digital & artistic ecosystem. ONX exists as a hybrid production & exhibition space for XR artists-artists working to extend reality, not just in extended reality. ONX acts as a hub within a dynamic global ecosystem of new practices & ideas-supporting the development, execution & mobility of new work in the digital arena. In particular, ONX acts as an active bridge between NYC & Athens in the area of digital & XR practice. ONX focuses on supporting the work of artists, & their trajectories-with production support, presentation opportunity, & promotion in NYC & globally.
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Unfolding the Universe: First Light
ONX Studio, Gallery Level, Olympic Tower, 645 5th Ave, NY, NY. Oct 6-24, admission free. Studio Hours 12-6pm daily (closed on Mondays).
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