How to Paint Space - Illustrated Presentation by Lois Rosson

How to Paint Space: American Astronomical Illustration and Cultures of Scientific Visualization – Illustrated Presentation by Lois Rosson

For much of the space age, the fastest way to produce a high-resolution image of an alien landscape was to have someone paint it by hand. This lecture by noted science and technology historian Lois Rosson is a history of American astronomical illustration, a genre of image-making that functioned simultaneously as scientific visualization while reshaping the look of outer space in popular culture.

But how do you paint a realistic-looking picture of a landscape you’ve never seen? In the second half of the twentieth century, artists had a remarkable influence on the appearance of the space environment. The history of astronomical illustration spotlights how the creation of accurate or trustworthy images is often a deeply human process. The lecture spans Chesley Bonestell’s collaborations with Werner von Braun in the 1940s, lunar mapping efforts at the USGS Branch of Astrogeology during Project Apollo, and the formation of the International Association of Astronomical Artists in the 1980s. This is many ways a story about Southern California, and the special triangulation between government funded spaceflight, commercial aerospace, and the Hollywood special effects industry.

Lois Rosson is a historian of science and technology based in Los Angeles, where she is a field historian for the NASA History Office. At NASA, Lois is working on a history of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and supporting the agency's next flagship science mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Her current book project traces the impact of Los Angeles' art and special effects industry on the look of the space environment in planetary science and popular culture. She has held the Guggenheim Predoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, and the Octavia E. Butler Fellowship at the Huntington Library. Her work has been supported by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Berggruen Institute, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.

Special Thanks to: Bernardo Rondeau

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Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States