Unfolding The Universe w/ NASA Goddard | NYC Tech Events - GarysGuide

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Unfolding The Universe w/ NASA Goddard Popular Event

With Naomi Rowe-Gurney (Research Assoc., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Vallejo Gantner (Dir. Creative Partnerships, ONX).

	ONX Studio, 645 5th Ave, Lower Level
	Oct 16 (Sun) , 2022 @ 07:00 PM
	FREE

DETAILS

About this event
Join us for a presentation by Dr. Naomi Rowe-Gurney on how the James Webb Space Telescope is looking at our solar system & some of the recent pictures & science, the work she has done during commissioning, & her work supporting solar system science, specifically ice giant research.

About Dr. Naomi Rowe-Gurney:

Naomi is a JWST GTO postdoctoral research associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center employed by Howard University. She is a solar system ambassador for the JWST working with Dr Stefanie Milam & Dr Heidi Hammel. She obtained her PhD in 2021 from the University of Leicester working with supervisor Dr Leigh Fletcher. Her thesis used archived data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to study the thermal structure & composition of the middle atmospheres of the ice giants, Uranus & Neptune. She used the retrieval algorithm NEMESIS & built a consistent retrieval framework for the ice giant planets ahead of the launch of the JWST. Throughout the PhD, Naomi used her teaching experience to partake in significant outreach & public engagement work. Naomi also engaged in considerable equality, diversity & inclusion work & was an active member of university committees, as well as promoting science to underrepresented groups. The majority of the engagement work she focused on was for the JWST & promoting its use for looking at our own solar system, especially the giant planets.

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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).