Objectives
- To illustrate how themes from Space and the Universe have made their way into our common global culture, through works of art that represent them.
- To help the understanding of those themes, driven by references in culture.
- To increase in society the visibility of the International Astronomical Union by taking advantage of its centennial anniversary.
Reach
The choice of a digital platform with contents in Portuguese and English facilitated the daily visits and enabled a wide national and international reach.
On December 2019, the website was visited by nearly 2,600 users that viewed more that 12,000 pages, with 28% of the visits coming from outside Portugal.
The project was endorsed by IAU100, a global initiative to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the International Astronomical Union throughout 2019, and benefited from its international reach.
Art inspired by the Universe is permanently accessible at http://calendariau100.iastro.pt
The Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) created the website “Do the stars gaze back? – Art inspired by the Universe”, a calendar of December 2019 that links works of art to important dates in Astronomy and Space exploration, another of the many initiatives with which IA joined the celebration of the 100 years of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Throughout December, the website “Do the stars gaze back? – Art inspired by the Universe”, in English and Portuguese, created each day links between art and astronomy, illustrating how this science and its discoveries have found echoes in artistic production.
Through a growing archive of works in painting, literature, music and cinema, the website links these works to a day in December in the past that was fundamental to our understanding of the Universe. The final archive of 31 publications gathers a diversity of artistic expressions and brief explanations of the mentioned astronomical phenomena and historical figures. The calendar is permanently accessible at http://calendariau100.iastro.pt
This project stemmed from a collaboration between IA and the MA in Communication Design and New Media of the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Lisbon. It was created, designed and developed by Sara Patinho Rodrigues with contents gathered and reviewed by IA.
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Website:
http://calendariau100.iastro.pt/
Scope:
International
Coordination:
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço
Partners:
International Astronomical Union (IAU)
