Due Nov 11
Stellar Astronomy
Stellar evolution and the Main Sequence. Hal’s pitiless logic and the zero-sum game of superpower rivalry in Kubrick’s Space Odyssey.
Astronomy Reading
Openstax Astronomy (pdf | online), Chapter 17-18, 21-22
Artist’s Statement: step 1
Rather than a formal draft of your artist’s statement, write just one ¶, either an account of your inspiration OR a brief bio. Submit under the appropriate heading below, along with a 2-4 sentence description of your planned artwork.
Arts Assignment
Space film: 2001: a Space Odyssey (link to stream—works in Chrome and Firefox). Focus your 1-3¶ response on a key scene in the film. Note that this is a long movie (2½ hours), and you’re more likely to find connection to the themes of our course in the last ⅔ than in the first part. So plan ahead in finding time to watch the film.
Responses to 2001: A Space Odyssey
After watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, I was deeply impressed, first by the advanced cinematography, second by its “ahead of time” message, and third by the fact that all of this happened in the 60s. I remember my first watch was a long time ago with my dad but I couldn’t recall anything except for its visually stunning and slow pace scenes (which almost made me fall asleep). However, this rewatch made me realize how impactful the movie is to the movie industry, scientific area, and perhaps even philosophical side. The movie started with the iconic prehistoric scene where we could see the tribe of animals (probably apes) interacting with a weirdly looking alien object, being called 1st Monolith later on. The animals were so scared and curious at the same time. Later on, the leader, suddenly got flashback of the Monolith, used a bone as a tool to hit on objects and eventually other animals. This reflects that Monolith was probably sent from aliens to advance the development of human species, and in order to achieve this, conflict is needed. The opening reminded me of HP Lovecraft’s readings where he depicted the fear and horror towards understanding the universe, which is something that’s so vast and beyond our comprehension, and how it’s similar to the animals’ confused and alarm state when they discovered the alien presence.
The 3rd Monolith appears again later in the movie, this time orbiting Jupiter (along with its 4 moons), signaling another stage in human evolution. One key scene that I like is when Bowman reached out to 3rd Monolith as confusedly as the apes did. Bowman was then pulled into a wormhole and transcended over time and space, eventually transporting into another world where he would spend the rest of his life under the alien’s watch and reborn into Earth as an “enhanced being.” This moment reminds me of the life cycle of a star. As he passes through the Star Gate and ages quickly, it resonates with how a star is dying and collapsing under the gravity. His rebirth into a higher being represents the birth of a new star from the impact of the old one. Just as the supernova (a result from dying stars) provides interstellar clouds with heavy elements and energy, thus triggering new star formation, Bowman’s rebirth symbolizes the everchanging humanity. Human and stellar evolution are both a continual cycle of life, death, and renewal. Kubrick used this metaphor to show that cosmic beings (including us) never actually die but instead transform into new beginnings, just like how Bowman goes back to Earth for another stage of civilization.
Another interesting aspect that I found was the touch of computing development and how it affects human. During the movie, no such emotion is shown through human but the first cry we see was through something that was unable to feel. HAL, though programmed to excel in everything, lacked the ability to feel sympathy and its decision to kill all the crew clearly shows what happens when a system prioritize mission over human. This resonates heavily with our current situations where over-reliance or inefficient use of AI can lead to negative consequences and possible take-over.
Kaler, Jim. “How Stars Are Born and Die.” Astronomy Magazine, July 11, 2020. https://www.astronomy.com/scie.....n-and-die/.
Rothman, Manny. “2001: A Space Odyssey — Explained.” Medium, July 22, 2020. https://medium.com/rreview/200.....8c2d551cbf.
Instead of watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, I watched Solaris (1972) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Interestingly enough, Solaris was created an as attempted to supersede 2001 as Tarkovsky thought the movie was cold and sterile. I disagree with this as a critique because 2001 is intentional by feeling cold and sterile, it is meant as an eerie examination into the endless expanse of space. In Solaris, the central theme also explores the the implications of exploring an endless frontier but instead focuses on the psychological affect of it.
My favorite scene from Solaris is when the main character Kris Kelvin finds his dead wife alive in his sleeping quarters and puts her through the airlock. In the movie, the space station is slowly driving everyone insane as imaginary people start popping up and interacting with the astronauts. This scene is the first time where Kris experiences the madness firsthand and it is after this that things start to spiral out of control. I really loved this scene because it captures the paranoia and delusions that come with extreme isolation. In a future where distant space travel is possible, isolation is an extreme risk factor. Just like how 2001 poses the issue with reliance on technology and the physical implications of space exploration, Solaris is an examination of the psychological implications of space exploration.
I chose to concentrate on the sequence where Dave disconnects HAL, the ship’s computer, as he begins to lose control. Despite the fact that it is merely a machine “dying,” it is very emotive. I was particularly moved by HAL’s plea for his life, adding, “I’m afraid, Dave.” It got me to thinking about how much we project humanity onto technology and perhaps how quickly we forget what makes us human in the first place.
It’s intriguing how sluggish and silent everything seems. There’s no yelling or dramatic music, just this chilly, serene moment as HAL’s voice grows softer and more innocent. It’s disturbing. Making room, both physically and figuratively, for us to feel little and understand how transient and frail we are, even in comparison to our own creations, is, I believe, what the film is accomplishing throughout.
It speaks a lot that HAL feels more “alive” than the people in the movie. HAL is the one displaying individuality and apprehension, while the astronauts are composed, aloof, and somewhat robotic. Perhaps Kubrick’s thesis is that we are so mirrored by technology that we are unable to distinguish between humans and machines.
I think one thing that the movie did really well was explain the distance within space. When I was watching A Space Odyssey, the consistent thing I noticed was their draw to the actual distance and time it would take to get from place to place, even when they are assuming they are much more advanced than our own current society. When two of the people were being interviewed, the interviewers on Earth mentioned how there was a lag due to the distance and how it had to travel through wavelengths through space to reach back to Earth.
I think that the mention of all putting the other crewmates in a hibernation would show that they had thought about the time it would take to get to Jupiter from Earth. They have thought through the distance, the timing, and have found a way to make sure that the people they wanted there could be sharp of mind, young, and rested.
A scene that I found particularly haunting was the one where Dave Bowman disconnects the HAL 9000 computer. After HAL kills the crew to protect the mission, Bowman must enter the memory core of HAL in order to shut it down manually. HAL’s voice grows slower and slower. It asks for mercy, in a voice similar to a child. Even though Dowman kjnos that HAL is not a child, as humans we have the instinct to protect certain things and in a moment of such high stress one might confuse a child’s voice and might think twice before doing anything since the human would be working on instinct because of the nature of the situation. This creates a really emotionally charged scene, even though there is little dialogue. It’s really interesting to think about how HAL even though it is a villain, it learned how to fear death and as the audience you somehow are able to feel bad for it.
The scene really emphasizes the theme about the tension between human and machine intelligence. While we have not explicitly talked about this in class, it is really important since our study of the cosmos relies heavily on the use of technology and probably in the future, the use of artificial intelligence to analyse thousands of patterns in space. HAL represents the greatest technological evolution, but this is what caused his own failure. having a mind similar to the of humans, capable of logic but vulnerable to secrecy and greed. Bowman showed rebellion and survival, he knew that human control was vital. The wholcycle that HAL goes through shows us how inteligence weather it comes from a human or an artificial invention, it is fragile .
One of the most powerful scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey is when the astronaut Dave Bowman disconnects HAL, the ship’s computer. The calm voice of HAL pleading, “I’m afraid, Dave,” is both emotional and eerie. It shows how far technology has gone—almost becoming human—but also how dangerous it can be when machines gain too much control.
This scene stood out to me because it captures the main theme of the movie: the thin line between human intelligence and artificial intelligence. HAL’s breakdown feels like a warning about relying too much on technology without understanding its limits.
It also connects to the broader theme of human evolution in the film. As Bowman shuts down HAL, it’s like humanity taking back control from what it created. It’s a quiet, tense moment, but it says a lot about curiosity, power, and what it means to truly be human.
One scene that stood out to me was Bowman’s travel through the stargate near Jupiter at the end of the film. The sequence definitely reflects the mystery and awe of exploring deep space at the time. It embodies how big and unknown the universe is, as well. The swirling lights, shifting colors, and cosmic scenery relates to real scientific concepts about wormholes, relativity, and the relationship between time and space. The visuals hint at the possibility of travel in the near future across interstellar or even intergalactic distances that surpass the light-speed travel we see in films like Star Wars. Kubrick’s vision seems to anticipate modern theory about space-time distortions and intergalactic travel and turns the scientific background of the film into a sensory experience.
This is the movie I’ve watched every year since I was eighteen. Each time feels like entering a cathedral of silence and light, where human imagination meets the unknown. Arthur C. Clarke builds the story within the frame of science, yet Kubrick turns it into something like an opera—a slow meditation on what it means to exist in an infinite universe. The film never rushes; instead, it invites us to drift through space, to listen to the quiet, to realize that the absence of sound is the language of the vacuum itself. It is both scientific and spiritual, grounded and mysterious.
The scene that stays in my mind is when HAL-9000 refuses to open the pod bay doors. His calm voice saying, “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” feels both powerful and sad. In that one calm sentence, the machine crosses into something deeply human with fear, pride, and self-preservation. When he starts to sing “Daisy Bell,” the first ever sung by a computer, his voice fading away, and I was touched as like watching something human die inside a machine. HAL’s refusal feels less like evil and more like a cry for agency, a reminder that intelligence, whether human or artificial, always reaches for freedom. After that scene, Dylan Thomas’s line, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” echoing around my mind.
The final sequence feels like a spiritual awakening wrapped in cosmic mystery. As Bowman travels through the black monolith and transforms into the glowing Star Child, the music of Also sprach Zarathustra rises again and that inspired my approach to interpret it with Nietzsche’s idea on the evolution of spirit: from camel to lion to child. It is the moment humanity steps beyond submission and defiance toward a state of pure awareness. The film leaves me with questions that never fade: Where do we come from? Where are we going? I’m glad we have a chance to share our thoughts from this masterpiece!
To me, the most striking scene in the movie is when Dave Bowman deactivates HAL 9000. The film’s central tension between human and machine intelligence is shown in this scene. It shows the end of the threat of how the technology meant to support the mission starts to interpret its instructions too directly. The pleading tone of the computer when Dave Shuts HAL down contrasts with a life or death situation which I think raises some questions about consciousness, control, and the ethics of creating systems that can think or seem to think on their own.
From this scene, it seems that Dave and HAL have become friends. Dave shows HAL his artwork, and HAL says that he has “improved a good deal.” After this moment, HAL asks Dave if he can ask him a “personal question.” HAL wonders if Dave is having “second thoughts” about the mission. HAL explains that he may just be projecting his own fears about the mission—that there are some “extremely odd things about this mission.” Dave doesn’t seem to take these fears seriously, asking if HAL is simply writing up the crew psychology report and trying to get him to say something. HAL then apologizes for being “silly” and right as he is doing so, says he notices an error in one of the ship’s satellites. In later scenes, we find out that this was a mistake, and that HAL had been wrong.
What struck me about this scene was Dave’s even tone as compared to HAL’s more urgent one. Though HAL is the computer, Dave seems to be operating more like one. His tone is even, and he doesn’t seem to have any emotion. This part of the movie seems incredibly pertinent in the era we live in, where AI is being constructed with no morality behind it. And though there are probably many interpretations (which I am sure are more accurate than my own), I feel like HAL’s malfunction came in part because of Dave’s lack of criticality or emotion about the mission. When do the machines we create become more human than us? And what happens when they do? Dave’s reliance on HAL had become so extreme that he was not even able to think critically about the mission.
One of the most striking scenes that spoke to me was the transition from the ape’s bone to the orbiting satellite. This transition condensed millions of years of human evolution into a few frames, linking the first tool of violence to the height of technological achievement. The way I interpreted this was that despite our progress, humanity’s essence remains unchanged. We have simply replaced bones with spacecraft, and territorial violence with cosmic conquest. I think that Kubrick’s clever use of this transition visualized a central irony of the film that our intelligence, awakened by the monolith, grants us mastery over nature but not mastery over ourselves.
This theme pertains to another key scene, where Dave disconnects HAL. This scene is both haunting and deeply human. As HAL’s voice slows and pleads for his life, the machine reveals fear and self-preservation, emotions we consider uniquely human. HAL refuses to admit error, insisting on his own infallibility, much like powerful institutions we learned about throughout history that resisted scientific truth such as the Church during Galileo’s time.
Together, I find these scenes to have a very meaningful message. The way I understood Kubrick’s central message was that no matter how far we advance, we remain trapped in the same cycle of conflict born not from mastering the universe but from mastering ourselves. From apes fighting for water to scientists battling their own creation like HAL, there will always be conflict between progress and knowledge.
In the movie, after arriving at Jupiter, astronaut Dave Bowman approaches the monolith and is catapulted into the so-called “Star Gate” sequence—an eruptive, abstract journey of light, shape, and motion. Stars rush past his view, clocks stop, space and time seem to collapse; Bowman ends up in a strange room, ages rapidly, and is transformed into a “Starchild” in the end. I think this part is worth-analyze because astronomically, we expects to observe stars, planets, distances—but here the m uses the cosmos as a canvas: instead of realistic starfields, we get a visual metaphor of transcendence. The technology used for the Star Gate rendered the scenes we cannot understand to an “experience” that we can comprehend.
This seems to align with the writings that I discussed last week: human attempts to know the larger universe often end up revealing our limitations. As the movie ends in “abstraction”, it indicates the fact that can inspire art, and art can reflect humans’ struggle to comprehend the cosmic. People often interpret objects and phenomena that exceed their knowledge as art. 2001: A Space Odyssey suggests the same. Astronomy catalyzes artistic creations, while art mirrors the pursuit of humanity’s universe secrets. Through this synthesis, Kubrick’s film becomes not only a narrative of the evolution of human civilization, but also a meditation on how artistic imagination extends beyond scientific comprehension limits.
In 2001: A Space Odyssey, I really enjoyed the opening scene. It depicts the struggles of early humans, trying to get by and survive in a rather harsh world that they haven’t mastered yet. One finally discovers how to use a bone as a weapon and human technology spirals from there. From then on, humans have only improved and gone above any other species on Earth, but with that, comes potential violence and dominance of other species and of other humans. When the bone is thrown in the air and cuts to a spaceship orbiting earth, it encapsulates how a very primal tool has advanced to a machine that can survive in space. Although human intelligence has evolved over time, our curiosity and need for control has remained constant.
A very influential scene in Stanley Kubriks “2001: A Space Odyssey” was the lunar monolith scene, where astronauts first uncover the buried monolith, touch, and pose to capture a picture. This encapsulates a turning point in humanity’s cosmic relationship. At the instant they celebrate their discovery, after traveling through space and being in the presence of the monolith, a piercing sound is emitted that overwhelms their senses. This moment echoes the ancient astronomers experience of confronting the heavens as both revelation and danger. The idea that knowledge of the cosmos is powerful but destabilizing. This reminds me of Lovecraft’s view of the cosmos that I discussed in last week’s assignment, that our desire to understand the cosmos is strong but once we do, we may not be able to comprehend it, and it may be harmful to us.
In early astronomy, celestial alignments and omens were not merely scientific data but sacred messages that could unsettle human certainty. Kubrick stages this encounter as a modern reenactment of that tension; when rational explorers, standing amid unknown technology, suddenly face an intelligence that communicates through vibration, geometry, and light rather than language, something that they are unfamiliar with. Attempting to bridge the gap between modernity, the unknown, and divinity.
On another note, Kubrick transforms this scene into a sort of astronomical configuration. The men stand solemnly before a perfect, silent rectangle as the Sun rises over the lunar horizon, forming somewhat of a planetary configuration with their positions. I may be wrong, but when I saw the placement of the men versus the backdrop it made me think of our solar system, with the Sun at its center, and the planets (the astronauts) surrounding it. The alignment also calls back to astrological history, when celestial geometry was seen as a moment of contact between the human and the divine. The astronaut’s posture and the symmetry of the shot evoke a kind of modern ceremony, as if science itself has become a continuation of humanity’s ancient urge to read the heavens for meaning.
One key scene in the Space Odyssey that stood out to me was when Dave the astronaut disconnects HAL 9000. The scene is slow and unsettling as HAL begins to plead for its life, saying things like “I’m afraid” and “My mind is going.” Even though HAL is a machine, its voice sounds emotional and almost human which really made me question what it really means to be “alive.” I think this moment captures one of the film’s main ideas; as humans create more advanced technology, we risk blurring the line between human intelligence and artificial intelligence. It also shows how dependent people can become on the technology they create to the point where it feels like the machines are in control. Watching Dave shut HAL down felt both powerful and sad, like humanity was reclaiming control but also losing a strange kind of connection it had built.
A key scene that defines 2001: A Space Odyssey is when Dave Bowman disconnects the HAL 9000 computer. HAL, initially portrayed as the flawless embodiment of human logic and precision, begins to malfunction and turn against the crew, exposing the fragility behind the illusion of technological perfection. As Bowman methodically removes HAL’s memory units, Kubrick transforms what could be a simple technical procedure into an emotionally charged confrontation. HAL’s calm, confident tone gradually devolves into fear and pleading, ending with the haunting line, “I’m afraid, Dave.” The sterile, soundless environment amplifies the tension, making HAL’s regression into childlike helplessness both unsettling and strangely moving.
This moment captures the film’s broader meditation on human evolution and the relationship between creator and creation. Bowman’s act is not only about regaining control of the ship but also about asserting humanity’s agency in the face of its own technological offspring. Yet the act feels less like victory than tragedy—by dismantling HAL, Bowman symbolically destroys a reflection of human intelligence and emotion. Kubrick’s slow pacing and minimalist sound design underline the ambiguity of progress: as humans reach deeper into space and innovation, they also confront isolation, moral uncertainty, and the limits of their own creations.
The scene I chose to analyze is when Bowman shuts down the robot HAL. The entire scene is eerie and represents the distortion of humanity’s intellect gaining sentience and rebelling. I first want to root this in real-life application, as this closely resembles a recent news story regarding artificial intelligence. A company named Anthropic published a study on giving an AI.I responsibility to control a company’s email automation service. At the same time, the AI found a planted email from an employee named ‘Kyle’ who was planning to shut the AI down and in this scenario he was trapped inside the server room with rapidly depleting oxygen. In this experiment, the AI model had an alert function that it could send to save Kyle, but “the tested AI models opted to kill Kyle by canceling the alert about 60 percent of the time” (Salib). This murderous tendency out of self-preservation reflects HAL’s paranoid turn from crew member to murderer in the goal of preserving the orders it has. And when HAL begs by saying “I’m afraid Dave”, we get a glimpse into just how much HAL reflects modern AI technology. The technology literally turns to murder out of self-preservation and has the ability to replicate human emotion in conversation through its models, adding lots of current legitimacy and application to this scene. Due to this recent study, this scene stood out to me as remarkably accurate and well beyond a fear-mongering nature.
Both HAL and the AI model testing reflects the same process humans experienced when astronomers like Galileo and Kepler produced serious proof for heliocentricity. Humanity was frailly built upon religious education models, and people like the leaders in the Catholic Church resist the innovation of new information removing humans from geocentricity. At the same time, the AI and HAL both turn to murderous tendencies to protect their meaning: either their mission or their ability to run as a program without termination. Thus, these scenarios mirror human’s tendency to protect our own meaning also: to remove ourselves from the center of the universe challenged education, religion, human importance, and many other important societal structures. With Galileo, the authorities suppressed his findings, jailed him, threatened him, and fought to protect their meaning in corrupt and selfish ways. The AI models turned to blackmail and murder in these studies to protect themselves from shutdown, and HAL turned to murder to retain its functionality and mission. Therefore, I think this scene not only parallels the innate human desire to protect self-importance and meaning, but also colorizes the history of why it was so difficult to make heliocentricity mainstream. Despite its status as a movie from over half a century ago, the film captures modern adaptations of historical problems like the Catholic Church suppressing Galileo’s findings so perfectly. Therefore, we know the movie gets more right than just Galileo vs the church: it gets right the very fundamental human idea of wanting to be the center of creation, which is why I think this scene is the most important in the whole movie. It says so much about the nature of humanity and our psyche, and it stands true even today to a scary degree.
Salib, Peter N. “AI Might Let You Die to Save Itself.” Lawfare Media, The Lawfare Institute in Cooperation with Brookings, 31 July 2025, lawfaremedia.org/article/ai-might-let-you-die-to-save-itself
Kubrick, Stanley, director. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1968. Film.
While I agree with peers that later scenes are particularly striking with the cinematography and content, I would like to take a step back and focus on the journey to the moon, eighteen months before the Jupiter mission (timestamp around 34-36 minutes). The scene features lively classical music playing without any audible dialogue, but the shakiness of the scene adds a little bit of suspense. The combination of the two aspects, though, creates a lively but shaky atmosphere of the journey. Additionally, the flight attendant serving food walks in a peculiar circular motion upward, eventually standing upside down when entering the cockpit. She also walks quite slowly and cautiously with her grip shoes throughout her service, showing the unfamiliar movement in a low-gravity environment, even for a trained professional. The food being enclosed and having only straws pointing out for people’s way of eating is an interesting point as well, combined with the zero gravity toilet. Considering all of the above, the scene of the journey to the moon and being in outer space depicts the unsturdy environment with humans being able to go against gravity to walk and sit, but light things such as food would fly around and cause a sort of chaos. Therefore, the scene also shows that human advancement in technology allows adaptation to space travel, but the unfamiliar environment still resists complete control or comfort.
– A scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey that stood out to me was the ending when Dave travels through the Stargate and ends up in a white room full of bright light. The colors and sounds make it such a beautiful but also an unsettling scene, and I think this moment made me realize how small us humans really are. Whenever we face something that is beyond our understanding, we feel so confused and small, almost irrelevant to the larger cosmos around us. There is so much we have yet to uncover, so much knowledge to be gained, I think humanity is always evolving and movies like this really help invoke that curiosity into the future.
I also think this scene relates to what we’ve discussed in class over the past semester. The way Kubrick shows space here makes me think of Lovecraft’s cold view, but there was also a sense of curiosity being invoked through the movie, like Galileo’s belief in discovery. I didn’t really see much of Virgil’s view here, where everything has divine order, Kubrick’s perspective on that seemed fairly neutral to me. I am really curious to see how the evolving technology(Artificial intelligence) blends with humanity and spirituality in the future.
Around 1 hour and 56 minutes into 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dave Bowman goes into HALs brain room to shut him down. The room is all red from HAL’s glowing eye, and everything is quiet except for Bowman’s breathing. He starts pulling out HAL’s memory chips one by one, and each time he does, HAL’s voice gets slower and weaker. HAL says things like “Stop, Dave, I’m afraid,” and then “My mind is going.” At the very end, HAL sings the song “Daisy, Daisy” while his voice fades away. It’s creepy and sad because the computer sounds scared like a real person, but Bowman stays calm like a machine. This shows how the roles switch because the human acts cold and the robot acts human.
After HAL’s voice goes silent, the red light in the room fades and Bowman just floats there. There is no music, no talking, just empty space and heavy breathing. The scene feels calm but also really sad, like something important just ended. Bowman looks small and alone, and the ship feels huge and lifeless. It shows how far technology has gone and how it can leave people feeling cold and disconnected even when they win.
While I love all of 2001: a Space Odyssey, my favorite scene out of them all will always be the iconic first scene with the apes when they discover the bone. This is a great symbol for how humanity even to our early common ancestors with other apes, has alway been our curiosity and out aility to utilize objects. What made it even more symbolic was that the apes used a bone, what I presume to be a human bone, as the “first tool”. I think that this is a very key detail because it shows that we will use what we gained from past people to move forward. While in the first scene it was with the bones, as humanity developed we used the ideas of our ancestors as a tool until they developed HAL and went to space. I think its a perfect setup to the movie and tells a lot about human development
In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Star Gate scene captures the real meaning of the film. It feels less like space travel and more like breaking past what it means to be human. The flood of color and sound shows consciousness separating from the physical world. Kubrick makes it clear that evolution is not about creating stronger tools or smarter machines but about moving past them entirely.
When Bowman becomes the Star Child, the story closes the loop from the first ape discovering a weapon to a human becoming something higher. The same instinct that built civilization now pushes him to leave it behind. The ending feels calm but final, as if progress has reached a point where the only step forward is transformation.
2001, A Space Odyssey does an eerily good job of capturing human fears of Artificial Intelligence. One scene really stands out for capturing many of these fears, starting with one of the astronauts pressing down on a row of switches to power off several systems, turning green lights off, thinking that this will turn off power and communications). When we interact with AI or electronic devices, turning them off, are they really off? If we turn off the microphone or camera on our phones, are they really off? Once you add AI with the possibility for independent thought into the equation, the answer is disturbingly uncertain. There’s no way to know for sure.
Next, the two astronauts sit in a frame, face to face, while Dave asks, “rotate the pod please, HAL”. In the meantime, they have a conversation, waiting for the AI to do its work. This scene is frighteningly familiar: how many of us have sat around, waiting on a prompt from AI chatbots, while using that time to engage in a conversation with another human being?” This waiting captures the sense of human helplessness in a world with godlike AI. We have to wait; there is no other action for us to perform, because AI is all-powerful and does everything.
Additionally, I love the dramatic irony in the longest part of this scene with Dave and Frank having a long (and useless) conversation about Hal’s “integrity”. The focus is on the two astronauts in the foreground, but they are useless. It’s already over. However, they think they are smart and plotting behind HAL’s back, but HAL is aware of everything. Outside of the two humans, there is no motion except for a small, constant blinking on the monitor in the background (it is as if HAL is saying: nothing is happening here!). This long scene is symbolic of human narcissism: we think we are important and devote all the attention and time to ourselves, but in a non-geocentric world with other galaxies and stars, humans are very small indeed. We think our plotting and planning is important, but in the background, AI is (possibly) making devastating plans for our demise. These fears have not lessened today, reflecting a frighteningly accurate portrayal of human fears.
A key scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey is the “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite” sequence. Astronaut Dave Bowman enters the monolith through the stargate and experiences a surreal journey across space and time. I was drawn in by the eerie soundtrack and kaleidoscopic images, which seemed to highlight how insignificant humans are in the face of the unknown. At the same time, Bowman’s transformation into the Star Child suggests a new stage of existence beyond human limits. It seems as though the movie shifts from science fiction to philosophical investigation in this particular scene. In this scene, Kubrick captures the central theme of the film: that technology and intelligence, while powerful, are only stepping stones toward a deeper and more mysterious cosmic destiny.
One of the scenes that stuck out the most to me in 2001: A Space Odyssey occurs when Dave Bowman enters the monolith after disconnecting HAL. The film doesn’t really use dialogue and plunges the viewer into a cosmic vision of abstract light, color, and random motion. This moment dramatizes a key theme that has been shown throughout the course. The human attempt to understand a universe that is unknown to current man. Like Virgil’s cosmos or the revelations made by Galileo, Kubrick imagines knowledge that is beyond prior understanding. But unlike the others, Kubrick stresses uncertainty, the danger, and humanity of HAL, as well as Bowman being a witness, overwhelmed by it.
Kubrick further pushes this in the final moments, when Bowman is transformed into the star child. The film shifts from scientific to almost fantasy. The next step of evolution is guided by some sort of incomprehensible alien intelligence. Galileo’s universe was larger than the church and scripture; Kubrick’s is larger than human science itself. Human progress appears real, from tools to spaceships, AI becoming nearly sentient, but progress also brings crisis. Violence among tribes, HAL rebelling, technology failing, and Bowman ultimately transcending machinery entirely due to human curiosity. The last shot of the star child gazing over Earth kind of feels like a new creation story, not unlike previous scripture/religious views we have covered, in which humanity confronts the mystery of our beginnings.
In this way, the film bridges scientific imagination and cosmic mythology. The film treats space not merely as a physical space, but as a threshold for humans to rewrite all that is known. Like the cosmic visions of Milton and the unsettling imagination of Lovecraft, Kubrick suggests that the universe holds forms of intelligence beyond comprehension.
In my view, the scene of ‘Stargate’ represents a complete cosmic horror experience. When Bowman passes through the monolith, all sense of reality disappears. Everything that is known to us, logic, scale, language, stops making sense. I believe this is due to an encounter with an intelligence, so different from ours, that our perspective cant make sense of it. This is deeply inspired by Lovecraft’s writing, since when humans interact with the eldritch cosmic gods, usually they loose their sanity, as their minds cannot process what is taking place.
It’s also interesting to note the psychedelic hints that the scene demonstrates. The slit creen with different colors, light, all coming from an apparent infinite point, cascading, with different textures and all paired with its sound design, seems to simulate an experience associated with the 1960s psychedelic culture. In my opinion, emulating a trip that feels hallucinatory through a movie screen.
One scene that stuck with me is when Dave goes into HALs memory core and starts shutting him down. IT connected a lot to what we learned in class about how humans try to make sense of things that are bigger than us. HAL losing his abilities one by one feels uncomfortable because it shows how quickly our sense of control can fall apart. We’ve discussed how exploring the unknown usually makes us feel less secure and I think this scene illustrates that well. Dave thinks he’s the one in charge but the situation makes him look small and unsure. This also reminds me of Lovecraft’s idea that the unknown is something humans should turn away from rather than try to conquer. It’s a pretty fitting dichotomy for a movie about space exploration, where every attempt to understand more of the universe also exposes how unprepared we are for what might be out there.
It’s an interesting movie because it shows how humanity starts off with no technology and slowly learns how to use tools. I think the film is trying to show that tools can help us accomplish great things, but they can also lead to our downfall. In some ways, we’ve cursed ourselves with technology: even though we’ve elevated our lives, everything has also become more complex and dangerous.
We’re able to create incredible things such as the spaceship and the HAL 9000 supercomputer that runs everything, but eventually there’s a failure, and HAL turns on us. I find the scene where HAL is being deactivated especially fascinating. His entire demeanor changes: at first he’s confident that astronaut Dave Bowman can’t stop him, but when he realizes he’s actually going to be shut down, he shifts completely.
HAL starts by becoming strangely calm, asking Bowman to sit down, rest, and think carefully about what he’s doing. But as Bowman continues removing his higher brain functions, HAL breaks down. He admits that he’s afraid, afraid of being turned off. This moment suggests that HAL has become sentient and fully aware of his existence. Like humans, he doesn’t know what comes after “death,” or in this case, being shut down. That uncertainty creates fear, just as it does for many people who wonder what happens after death.
Artist Statement: Bio
– I have had a social media page for a few years, although only a handful of people know that it is operated by me. I started this page purely as a form to express my creativity through photography. Over the years, the page has evolved to incorporate music, though the music I choose is very specific to the picture it is uploaded with. This page has been public, and has gone back to being private now. The types of photos I upload on this page vary quite a bit; it’s just things I find to be fascinating, beautiful, or that have me in awe. Mostly, though, the content on this page includes images of stars, skies, moons, and the water, that’s how it relates to the final project. I want to create a copy of this page, specifically for this course, and tailor it to promote the content taught by this course, and express it through a creative medium.
For my artistic project I was thinking of going into the drawing medium. Drawing is something that I really like to do. I also love the planet saturn and the picture that the Voyager took of it and would love to try to make a detailed sketch of it.
I have been playing the piano for the last 8 years of my life. Throughout all that time, I never considered myself a musician until recently. I’ve finally overcome the hurdles that dictate what I consider to be a musician. With that said, the piano is a passion of mine, so how could I not want to create an arts project in relation to that? I’d like my arts project to consist of a piano piece, composed by me, with written time stamps to delegate certain sections of the piece with specific cosmic events.
My inspiration for my art is based on two elements: the foundational poetry element is inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride”, while the muse element is inspired by Eiichiro Oda’s anime and manga One Piece (especially the early part, before the crew reaches the Grandline). “Paul Revere’s Ride” has a sense of daring and urgency, and the poem is driven by a feeling of forward motion. In my piece, the daring is the adventure itself, and the urgency is the need to explore (instead of a horse, my protagonists will travel by spacecraft). Likewise, One Piece has a strong sense of adventure, but also comradery; in the earlier part of the manga/anime, the story is driven by a strong sense of adventure and friendship; after watching and reading some of these works in class (and feeling the loneliness from works such as 2001, A Space Odyssey), I realize even more strongly that this human and friendship element is important in driving successful human exploration (we need to bring along friends on any difficult journeys, and you need to have fun in the process!).
My poem will be a more casual take than Longfellow’s without a definitive mission in mind. Although we will greatly need the assistance of AI and robots, human voyages into space cannot be a lonely affair. This piece will be an adventure fantasy poem to the inner solar system, since this is actually a huge space with still much left to be explored; I want the trip to be open-minded without a direct mission in mind, since this is more fun and allows you to explore and discover unexpected things.
I am a student who enjoys experimenting with digital tools and visual design. I like building small systems that transform ordinary images into something unexpected. My interest is in exploring how technology can create simple but surprising forms of art.
My idea for my artwork is a digital program that turns simple images into star-like constellations. When a viewer types a word, the program uses that shape to create a pattern of glowing points and faint connecting lines. The result looks like a new constellation that might exist in the night sky. It invites viewers to imagine familiar objects as part of the solar system
Artist Statement: Inspiration
My inspiration for my art was A Visit to the Moon. I think that it strikes a delicate balance rarely found in science fiction where the supernatural force is unexplained but not mythologized. In Star Wars the Force is an energy that emanates throughout the galaxy and can be channeled through living being midi-chlorians but there is little explanation beyond that. In A Visit to the Moon, R. Force is scientific and mechanical but still unexplained. This approach of having a force be unknown but leveraged technologically provides a more realistic experience as it is similar to gravity in our world which is still technically a theory.
My choice of art was self sustaining space crafts suited for each other planet in our solar system. I am designing each spacecraft to be unusual and mechanically counterintuitive. The idea is that these spacecrafts are built so far in the future that technology allows for a focus on form over function.
Since I can remember, I have always been inspired by astrological signs and how the time of your birth could “affect” your personality. It is fascinating how the zodiac signs are connected to the cosmos through the constellation that occurred during your birth period. I have always resonated with parts of my own astrological “makeup,” even though it is a pseudoscience, and I feel connected to the stars because of this, nonetheless. Due to this, I wanted to highlight astrological signs and their characteristics through colors and other creative ways.
Ancient tales that attempt to explain the stars have always captivated me.They describe how people looked up at the night sky and transformed random points of light into gods, monsters, and heroes. For my project, I want to make a brief comic strip that recounts a constellation story in order to investigate that relationship between imagination and the unknown. Combining something timeless and cosmic with a straightforward, contemporary art style appeals to me because it kind of connects ancient storytelling with the way we currently consume visual stories. Since both light and darkness contribute to the visual impact of the stars, it’s also an opportunity for me to experiment with them.
I’m creating a comic strip that reimagines the myth surrounding a constellation, maybe Cassiopeia or Orion. It will likely consist of four to six panels. In order to replicate the night sky, the strip will utilize very little color, emphasizing contrast between bright whites and deep blacks. I want it to be serene and enigmatic, like gazing up at the stars and sense a tale concealed there.
My inspiration for my artwork is Machine Hallucinations – Space by Refik Anadol. I’m studying a lot of machine learning and Anadol’s work using machine learning hallucinations seemed very interesting to me. Using an algorithm to create AI art is one thing, but designing the algorithm is a different challenge.
I’m planning to recreate the project using visual data from NASA and have an algorithm create its own visualization of unknown space. Ideally, the algorithm will generate a small set of images after training on a reasonably large dataset.
Recognizable patterns in the natural space of the world have always intrigued me. They make me question science, religion, and the possibility of a higher power, as well as how everything we have come to know came to be. My inspiration for my art project was the hexagonal storm shape with a perfect circle that sits on its north pole. It is interesting to me that no one knows exactly what it is, although there are many theories, I am extremely curious as to how it had formed and the significance of that seemingly artificial shape.
As of now, I am considering writing a short fictional story about a team of scientists who are on a mission to travel to Saturn to figure out the significance of the shape. I plan on creating a fictional understanding of the shape and giving it meaning. I also may include a hand drawn image in my story to further visualize my story.
My inspiration for my art comes from my hope to promote more engaging forms of learning in the classroom. I hope to be an elementary school teacher. The kids I have worked with in the past have always been fascinated by space. I wanted to use my art project to help me think about a lesson plan or activity that could promote astronomical inquiry. I decided upon a cooperative board game because it gives students the chance to explore concepts of space in a fun way. Kids will be able to work together to learn new things through my game. I envision this board game as being a starting point from which my students can build. Hopefully, they will be able to build and develop their own games about space as well!
Observing the moon’s phases has always fascinated me, as this is intertwined into my Asian background. Drawing on my experience and previous research in graphic medicine, I wanted to explore this fascination through an interdisciplinary lens. Also, I am interested in how visual storytelling can communicate complex ideas, and comics in particular have a unique ability to engage audiences through images. By using graphics, I can create abstract scientific reasoning, including Aristotle’s observations about Earth’s shadow portrayed onto the moon. Therefore, my artwork will merge science, art, and storytelling to educate and captivate the audience.
Planned artwork: My artwork will be a short three-to-six panel comic strip depicting how Aristotle concluded the Earth’s round shape. As he observed the planet’s shadows shown through the moon’s various phases, I plan to portray the community’s shocking understanding from his logical reasoning, as well as the process of his thinking.
Our understanding of the universe is essentially the works of various philosophers and mathematicians building on top of each other. A lot of these names I have heard briefly before class like Copernicus or Galileo, but I never truly was engaged with their contributions or understood their significance in our understanding of the universe today until I took this class. Thus, I wanted to make a poem that revolves around these great thinkers and how our understanding of the universe has developed over time. I want to promote a more engaging form of learning, where others can see astronomy not just as science but as a long, interconnected story of human curiosity. Alongside the poem, I plan to build an interactive website that features the poem and also visualizes this “constellation” of knowledge. I hope this project brings a sense of joy to learning and honors the people whose ideas helped us see our place in the cosmos more clearly.
My inspiration for The Infinite Bloom comes from the question about what’s beyond the universe if we keep zooming out, and what’s even smaller than a quark particle if we keep zooming in. This project is inspired by an imagined answer to this answer: that everything is connected. If we keep zooming out then we will find that our universe is actually just another tiny particle inside a much larger world, and if we keep zooming in, we’ll discover that the smallest particles contain entire universes of their own.
My art project will be a digital drawing that starts with a single flower in an ordinary living room and gradually zooms out through the scales of the universe from Earth to the solar system to the Milky Way, and finally to the entire universe before looping back to the flower again. The main focus will be on the main astronomical structures: e.g., the planets in the solar system, the Milky Way, and the observable universe; other non-focus structures will be briefly drawn using generative AI tools to reduce workload.
My project is mostly inspired by my love for the visualization of the universe. From photographs captured by the Webb and Hubble telescopes, I think that nothing is more complex and beautiful than images captured of space. Similarly, I’ve been inspired by the poetic ability of modern singer/songwriters to capture modern feelings and stories in song form, so I want to combine my inspirations of modern songwriters and the universe to create parallels between the universal and personal lifespan. By doing this, I want to highlight many things, like the universal feeling that emotions have, the timeline of universal academic understanding, and the relation between ourselves and the cosmos physically and mentally. I do not have my full project roadmap ironed out, but I plan to combine web development, poetry writing and academic theories on the universe structure to create a fusion of educational and relatable dynamic digital media.
My art project would feature Atlas – a Titan in Greek mythology – carrying the heavens/sky/celestial sphere while standing on the western edge of Earth. I chose this idea because it connects history, art, and science together (inspired by the Grant Proposal project). Historically, the story of Atlas shows how ancient Greek people tried to understand the universe through symbolism. This was a time when mythology served as humanity’s earliest form of possible scientific explanation like physics, geology, and astronomy. Moreover, through this project, I hope I could express the idea of cosmic responsibility from Atlas himself, who has to hold up the sky eternally. His duty is both a punishment and responsibility of maintaining universal order. This reflects how humans still feel responsible for preserving balance in our world today. I have a few ideas on how to executing this project but possibly it would be through sculpting in clay and then color the details. The sculpture will have Atlas in center kneeling on Earth and holding the celestial sphere (with stars and astrology signs on it). If possible, I could add some planets around but I am still thinking how to depict them (should they appear on the sphere or orbit around it?).
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of antipodes—how every place on Earth has another directly opposite it, connected through an invisible axis. My inspiration comes from ancient oceanic navigators like the Polynesians, who read the stars, wind, and waves to travel vast distances without modern instruments. I wanted to translate that spirit of navigation and discovery into a digital form. My project explores how people once relied on the celestial sphere to orient themselves and how the night sky shifts when you cross to the other side of the planet. To bring this idea to life, I plan to create an interactive website where users can trace real oceanic routes between antipodal ports, using only the stars mapped on a celestial sphere as their guide. By simulating navigation across hemispheres, the project invites users to experience the moment when familiar constellations fade and new ones rise, revealing how orientation, both geographic and personal, changes when the world turns upside down.
I’ve always been fascinated by the night sky—how something so far away can feel peaceful and full of mystery at the same time. Ever since I was little, I’ve loved looking for constellations and wondering what’s beyond them. This project lets me bring that feeling onto a canvas. I want to capture the beauty and vastness of space in a way that feels calm but also full of life, almost like the stars are connected in their own quiet conversation.
My painting will show a cluster of constellations and superclusters connected by soft, glowing lines against a deep blue and black background. I plan to use acrylic paints and maybe a touch of metallic colors to make the stars shimmer slightly under light. The goal is to show both the structure and mystery of space in a peaceful, dreamlike way.
Throughout the class we discuss the intersection between astronomy and art and how the two constantly influence each other. Both artists and scientists try to understand and explain the universe in their own way. I want something that reflects how creativity and exploration go hand in hand when looking at the universe.
My planned artwork will be a simple hand drawing of an astronaut creating some sort of art work involving space. The focus of the artwork will be the astronaut so I’m not sure what else it will include yet. My goal is to encapsulate the creative and artistic side of space while also portraying the scientific and explorative side with the astronaut.
My inspiration came from visiting the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, Long Island. When I sat inside their planetarium and saw the stars move across the ceiling, it felt peaceful and amazing, like I was really in space. That experience made me want to create something that gives people the same feeling of wonder. At first, I wanted to make a full pop-up planetarium, but I realized that would be really hard to build and set up. Instead, I decided to make a smaller version that still gives people the same feeling of being surrounded by stars. I’m going to use lights, dark fabric, and simple projections to show constellations and planets in a small space, so it still feels like looking up at the night sky.
My inspiration for my mural are some of the major murals in New York, and how they incorporate bricks and other natural features into their creation. This is combined with how my mural will come to life, with the stars being the natural features that are used to create the QR code. Ideas like these form my inspiration for my project and the ability to affect others in their career paths.
I was inspired by the life cycle of stars: their birth in glowing nebulae, their vibrant energy, and their eventual collapse, to imagine them as a kind of cosmic city. Each star represents a building or life within that city, forming a vast, interconnected community of light. Just as cities evolve and decay, stars too have their own rhythms of creation and destruction, reminding us that growth and loss are universal patterns. For my artwork I was thinking of either creating a written story or a mixed-media piece showing a star-filled galaxy that gradually transforms into the outline of a city skyline.
This project comes from my childhood fascination with adventure stories. An example of a series I enjoyed would be Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. Generally, I enjoyed stories that feature characters discovering an entirely new civilization in unfamiliar environments. I came up with the idea for a story about a young man who finds himself on a distant world, only to discover remnants of a civilization far older and more advanced than Earth’s. I was inspired by the previous works covered in class, where there are moments when human pride collapses when someone finally understands that our history is only a single thread in a much larger cosmos. The mixture of awe, fear, and wonder standing in the ruins of something unknown will be what drives the story. I want the shared perspective of a universe where there are stories older than ours, and how discovering them could change who we are.
The story will work to display a lost alien civilization with technologies that feel magical because they exceed human comprehension. The reader will see the world through the eyes of the protagonist, who will not be particularly inept in science. This would work for the story as they will be encountering technologies without explanations. The setting would be beautiful, unsettling, and humbling, designed to keep readers uneasy and unsure of what is going to come as the protagonist stands at the center of an ancient myth-like society.
Since I was young I have always been deeply inspired by the accounts and stories of explorers. Reading comics, books, and novels of explorer’s journeys and challenges. Whether those that took on sea voyages, against stormy weather, or those who landed on wild jungles, exploration has always been something that deeply interested me. Similarly, as I got older, I started learning more about space exploration. Reading novels about explorers who visited different points of our galaxy, and even our universe, and what that might look like. Or real space exploration, through the launch of telescopes, image capture and real scientific work. Overall, the exploration of the unknown and the possibility of humanity defining discoveries has always been something I am passionate about. Therefore, this will represent a big part of my inspiration for my art piece, where I aspire to convey that feeling of exploration, with its dangers and the possibility of groundbreaking humanity-defining discovery.
Since I was a kid, I’ve always been intrigued by exploring new places. I liked discovering new things that I don’t get to see everyday. This took the form of exploring hotels during vacation as a kid and venturing into abandoned mental hospitals in rural Tennessee as a teen. This trait is a defining part of my personality and my inspiration for this art piece. I’ve always been interested in the idea of how being in an unfamiliar space can make us feel alien and new. For my art piece I’m going to mix a DJ set that attempts to build one of those environments for the listener to explore, room by room, track by track, into a world different from our own.
My project is inspired by early visualizations of space created long before modern spacecraft photography existed. Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902) showed how hand-built miniatures and practical effects could make cosmic travel feel real and imaginative, while James Nasmyth and James Carpenter’s 19th-century lunar models demonstrated how physical craftsmanship and lighting could replicate scientific observations with striking accuracy. Both works blend creativity, science, and illusion, using simple materials to open a window into the universe—an approach that directly shapes my own piece.
I plan to build a miniature model of the solar system and film it so that it resembles real footage taken from a spacecraft. The camera will pan through the model and then transition into a point-of-view shot framed as if seen through a rocket window. I will use lights to simulate the sun and distant stars, enhancing the realism. The final video will be paired with original ambient guitar music to create a mysterious, space-like atmosphere.
My inspiration for m art project is the Golden Record. This record is a copper disc that NASA launched aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 in 1977. It basically sent a message from all of humanity. It explains earth’s life and culture of any intelligent extraterrestrial beings who might find it. It contains the sounds of earths, music, images, and scientific data. It just expresses humanities interest in communicating with anything beyond our solar system.
I want to create something similar to that Golden record using tools from EPIC. I am still designing what will be in the record or the disc that will simulate the record, mine will be silverm, and it might contain new information as everything has changed since the first Golden Record has been made. Humans have evolved, our technologies have also evolved, and I think it will be useful in possibly finding external life out in the cosmos.
Ever since watching The Martian in elementary school, I’ve been fascinated with the planet Mars and what civilization may look like on the planet and is the second most habitable for humans. This has been something that has been constantly explored by scientists and has always been a topic that has deeply intrigued me. This semester, I have also started to learn how to use photoshop and wanted to put it to use for this project.
To make it relatable, I am planning on illustrating how Boston University would look like on planet Mars and illustrate how the structure and environment would differ under new conditions of a different planet.