2. Art Inspired by Space
27.December, 2023 - Reading time 6 min.
Hello out there!
Saying hello is a colloquial way of approaching one another. The history of Art basicly starts with first humans raising their hand as a sign or signature and leaving its print on the walls of the caves. In many cultures or languages the term “hello” is replaced with a direct question of how is one doing. Funny enough a direct response to that question is not expected. Noone actualy wants to know if you say: “Hi, how are you?!” It´s just saying hello in a different way.
So how about first “hello´s” in Science Fiction? There are uncountable examples of saying hello being a big deal when it comes to an encounter of civilizations. I really enjoy watching Steven Spielberg`s “Close encounters of the third kind” or Roland Emmerich´s “Independence day”. Those two movies give you an idea of how a clash of civilizations might look like. Saying “hello” is actualy being expressed in a very similar manner in both of the stories. The “hello” sequence in the Spielbergs movie is a set of visual lights connected to audio tones. In the movie “Independence Day” the “welcome” vehicle is a helicopter with an array of lights attached to it. These lights are emiting and animated sequence of lights being turned on and off to serve as a communication signal. One way or another these “hello” or “welcome” sequencres a in these two movies are met with a quiet a different response.
There are bloggers and podcasters like Nick Loper or Jered Robinson that have their own casual greeting that turned into some kind of a trademark over time. I naturally thought of my own and I definitely wanted to find a way of connecting it with the Universe. No, I am not planning to use the morse code or create the next golden plaque. I just thought it´s worth thinking of since I am planning to build up this Blog into something more regular.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967 thought of being said hello to from outer space! The actual signal from the space turned out to be a discovery of a pulsar. I´m not planning to make a Universe exploration breakthru antime soon, but still…it´s enough if I´ll find a way of relating it to what inspires many of us. So it´s about “out there”…Hello out there! Does that work? It´s pure Mulder and Scully throwback but what´s wrong about that?
Something “out there” is what brings many of us to reading about Universe If it´s Astrophotographers, Artists or Science Fiction Art fans. So I´ll stick with that. Doesn´t matter what opening phrase you use, important is the signal has been transmitted!
Peter Von Hauerland
