Due Nov 18
Planets Orbiting Other Stars
For centuries astronomers hypothesized that planets must orbit other stars. The first hard evidence, though, didn’t arrive until quite recently. In class we tell the story of how extra-solar planets were first detected. Arts HW: the hard Sci-Fi of Larry Niven.
Grant Proposal Due
Your Grant Proposal is due the Saturday before class. Email Dr. Henebry if you need a 24-hour extension.
Astronomy Reading
Openstax Astronomy (pdf | online), Chapter 23-24
Artist’s Statement: step 2
Write a second ¶ as part of the upcoming artist’s statement. If you submitted your inspiration last time, write a brief bio this time—and vice versa. Submit under the appropriate heading below, along with an updated 2-4 sentence description of your artwork.
Arts Assignment
Read Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star.” Write a 1-2¶ response to one of the following prompts:
- “Neutron Star” was first published in 1966, at the height of the Space Race. Yet (like many science fiction writers of his era) Niven sets his story in the far future, in a time of galactic exploration. Reading this story, do you hear echoes of the Cold War? Or does this far-flung future have more in common with some other historical era? Point to a particular moment to exemplify your point.
- I mentioned Niven a few weeks back as a practitioner of “Hard” sci-fi, stories which prize scientific accuracy. Does this story teach the reader science? a scientific frame of mind? Point to a particular moment to exemplify your point.
- Niven originally published this story in the same sort of Sci-Fi pulp magazine as Lovecraft published in thirty years earlier. How do Niven’s style and outlook differ from those of his predecessor?
“Neutron Star” and the Cold War—or other relevant real-world history
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In the “Neutron Star” the story shows hints to the cold war. The characters have to deal with a lot of secrecy, control an dfear of the technological race. It was like a sort of competition, where the 2 superpowers involved were competing to show supremacy by being more advanced than the other. The space race happened in the 1960s. General Products is terrified that someone will discover a weakness in their “unbreakable” ship hulls, just like countries in the Cold War feared falling behind in science and weapons. The agent Sigmund Ausfaller places a bomb in Shaeffer’s ship to make sure he obeys orders, and this just emphasizes the governments need to keep their knee on the people’s necks. Even with aliens and hyperspace travel, the nervous atmosphere feels very familiar to the Cold War era. The story also imagines a huge galaxy filled with many alien species and groups. Humans are not the most powerful species anymore. It just makes the problems in the 20th century seem really small and unimportant compared to the vastness of space.
While reading “Neutron Star,” I kept hearing echoes of the Cold War, despite the fact that the novel is set in the future. It has the feel of powerful groups exploiting lone individuals to push perilous boundaries for them. The entire setting, in which the puppeteers practically force Beowulf into taking on this mission, reminds me of Cold War countries sending pilots or scientists into dangerous circumstances “for the good of the nation,” only this time it’s for the good of a massive corporation. There’s also a sense of fear and secrecy, as if they’re afraid that someone would discover that their purportedly impregnable hulls aren’t so invincible. That kind of information control feels very Cold War-ish to me.
Shaeffer also describes how he can’t just refuse the work because the system surrounding him provides him with no safe option. It reminded me of stories of people stuck between superpowers, when the pressure isn’t explicit aggression but rather a subtle threat looming over everything. Even the neutron star suits the Cold War vibe like it’s an invisible, almost metaphorical threat that appears harmless until you get too close, at which point it rips you apart. So, despite the fact that Niven set it in the distant future, I could sense 1960s tensions buzzing beneath it.
I think it is interesting that, although the article’s setting is in the far future, it still echoes the anxious uncertainty of the Cold War, especially regarding nuclear weapons and deterrence. When agent Sigmund Ausfaller confronts Shaeffer in the bar, he explains that a remote-control bomb has been hidden inside Shaeffer’s skydiver and will be set off if Shaeffer fails to report back within a week or attempts to sell the skydiver. We can see that the rationale here is not just for security, but the fear that “a single entrepreneur, if he were sufficiently dishonest, could do terrible damage to the reputation of all human beings everywhere.” This scene is very similar to the Cold War fears that a single uncontrolled superweapon could destabilize the balance of power and endanger the entire country or world.
Niven’s Neutron Star reflects themes of the Cold War beneath its futuristic setting. Though it’s set in an era of interstellar travel, the story focuses on themes of secrecy, competition, and pushing the limits of science, similar to the political tensions between the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War era. Beowulf Shaeffer, the main character, is sent on a mission by the Puppeteers, an alien race that conceals its motives and technology from humanity, similar to the arms race during the Cold War. Both the US and Soviet Union pursued technological and military supremacy under intense secrecy, mutual suspicion, and the looming threat of mutually assured destruction. The way the Puppeteers manipulated human explorers for risky experiments paralleled the way nations used test pilots and astronauts as both scientific pioneers and propaganda mascots.
Although “Neutron Star” takes place in a distant future of interstellar travel, it strongly echoes Cold War anxieties. It especially mirrors the era’s obsession with secrecy, deterrence, and coercive power. A clear example comes when Sigmund Ausfaller installs a bomb aboard Shaeffer’s ship and tells him that if he tries to escape, it would be detonated before he reaches another planet. This moment mirrors Cold War logic: where individuals are expendable, powerful institutions wield hidden weapons, and threats, not trust, ensure compliance. Even though the story is set among alien races and neutron stars, the political atmosphere resembles the mid-20th-century tensions far more than a utopian future.
The story reminds me of the Cold War due to the tone of story which mostly shows distrust, anxiety, secrecy, and dominant political power. Throughout the story, the Puppeteers behave like Cold War nations such as the US and Soviet Union because they hide all information about themselves and treat science as a military resource rather than a step to civilization development. Another detail I noticed was that the mission itself basically feels like a “test flight” that usually happened during Cold War. Beowulf Shaeffer is sent into a deadly situation and even himself doubted he would survive. Moreover, it is not for pure scientific purpose, but because the alien government wants answers and is willing to risk human lives to control the information, desperate not to let other species know about the Neutron star. This reflects back in Cold War where the US and Soviet were afraid of falling behind from each other, especially in Space Race or nuclear weapons. The story also reminded me of the disastrous NASA’s STS-51-L mission, in which the spacecraft exploded due to a failure, killing all the crew members. Importantly, this happened during Cold War; the pressure of the Space Race might have pushed NASA to release the mission as soon as possible and neglect a fatal mistake during the process. This shows how politics sometimes outweighed human safety.
Throughout the story, we also saw characters constantly blackmailing each other. For example, after Shaeffer returned back safely, the Puppeteers feared the rumors and offered cash to Shaeffer to control the narrative through interviews. However, knowing that the aliens’ world doesn’t have a moon, Shaeffer blackmailed them back. The Puppeteers again was scared not just at the danger, but at the possibility that this knowledge could spread. Here, information becomes a weapon and whoever has it rules the game. Cold War was full of political strategy where politicians used information sharing, propaganda, or blackmail to control people’s fear or stories.
I found the story Neutron Star to relate very heavily to the Cold War. In a war of appearances neither side wanted to appear weak to the other which obviously lead to problems. For example, during the Chernobyl incident Soviets routinely ignored warnings and flaws until their negligence caused one of the deadliest explosions. This was from both the engineers needing to meet expectations and the supervisors needing to provide results, such lack of incentivization towards truthfulness allowed Chernobyl to happen. Throughout the story, Shaeffer continuously raises concerns about flaws and damage to the ship only to be disregarded.
A prime example of a passive disposition that brought ruin to the USSR is when Shaffer sees the damage to the hull. Shaffer questions the damage but dismisses its possibility due to his naivete about General Product’s manufactured image. When he eventually finds out the cause to the damage of the hull, the puppeteers initially meet him with doubt, showing the extent of their hubris. Just like the shortcomings in misrepresentation that plagued the Great Leap Forward, any movement predicated on appearance is almost always bound to fail.
Despite Neutron Star being set in the distant future, the time period is clearly reflected in the tone of the work. In other words, the paranoia and urgency felt in space travel and the innate competition of the field is palpable throughout the story. The Cold War between the US and the USSR was heightened by many political factors at the time, and the frantic rush to achieve space control in the time was an area of great concern, with fearmongering and political language increasing the exigence in the race. I believe this tone is heavily reflected in the work more than other historical periods, so I do believe the work contains echoes of its time period (The Space Race) strongly.
Beowulf Shaeffer was sent on a journey that was surrounded by fast-approaching deadlines built into an urgent mission: he was pressed into a very intense scenario quickly, mirroring the palpable tension surrounding the entire era of The Cold War. The repetition of the “X hours to fall” language in the text, where his paragraphs are split by the time remaining, echo the Cold War directly by emphasizing urgency and time in the way it felt like a race against time in the Cold War. Additionally, the bomb planted inside the ship to ensure his return reflects the colonial themes of the Cold War. In the way that countries fought to reach space first and claim parts of it for themselves, they were equally possessive of the technology needed to reach these milestones. Hence, the bomb in the ship to ensure his return reflects the possessive nature of the Cold War and the Space Race at the time. It also adds to the urgency of the mission knowing there is a remote-controlled bomb, inherently building a timer into his mission and ensuring his hastiness at all times. Therefore, even though the story is set far in advance, the themes of possession and urgency littered through the tone of the story reflect heavily the time period that it was written: the height of the Space Race in the Cold War.
I do see strong connections to the Cold War in “Neutron Star,” despite the difference in setting and situation. The most obvious parallel is the way power is enforced and policed through threats and deterrence rather than trust; very much like nuclear politics in the 1960s. A perfect example is the scene where Sigmund Ausfaller, the Earth government agent, casually reveals that he has already installed a remote controlled bomb inside Shaeffer’s ship and will detonate it if Shaeffer doesn’t report back within a week. That’s pure Cold War logic. Assume people will act in bad faith, assume they will defect, and maintain control through mutually understood terror and pressure. It’s basically a less severe version of “do what we want, or we’ll destroy you,” similar to how nuclear powers tried to control smaller actors and prevent any rogue behavior that might destabilize the system, as the whole system was built on fear, so at the time they figured in order to keep it going the fear must continue and increase.
At the same time, the story also feels a bit like the late colonial or early imperial era, where private companies and governments held enormous power across many frontiers. General Products and the puppeteers act like a mix of superpower and mega corporations. Outsourcing the risk to humans, hiding vulnerabilities in their technology, and using economic leverage, like paying off Shaeffer’s debts, to push an individual into a deadly mission. That blend of government surveillance, corporate dominance, and expendable individual’s makes Niven’s future world sound less like an exact chunk taken from history but more like a sci-fi remix of both Cold War espionage culture and earlier eras of empire and chartered trading companies.
Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star” definitely teaches the reader a scientific way of thinking, even if the reader doesn’t understand every detail of astrophysics. Throughout the story, Niven shows how Beowulf Shaeffer solves the mystery of who killed the previous explorers by using logic, observation, and deduction, not guesswork. For example, when Shaeffer realizes that the enormous forces near the neutron star aren’t pushing him outward but are actually pulling different parts of his ship with different strength, he starts reasoning through the physics of tidal forces rather than panicking. This moment teaches the reader how a scientist approaches a problem: by examining evidence, forming a hypothesis, and testing it through careful thought.
Because of scenes like this, the story encourages a scientific frame of mind. Instead of treating space as magical or mysterious, Niven shows that even extreme cosmic events follow rules that are understood clearly. The thrill of the story comes not just from surviving danger, but from figuring out why the danger exists. In that way, “Neutron Star” trains the reader to think analytically, just like a scientist would.
The story is set in the future, but it feels like the Cold War. The pressure, secrecy, and the fear of losing advantage are in everything. A clearest moment is when the puppeteer president tells Shaeffer that they need him to redo the Laskins’ mission because “We must find out what it is that our hulls cannot stop.”
They already know the last crew died, but they send him anyway. They hide the risk to protect their position. That is the same logic you see in a world where one power is being exposed or tested. It is not exploration for curiosity, but because someone is afraid of being behind.
The Scientific Accuracy of “Neutron Star”
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Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star” teaches the reader a scientific way of thinking by making the main aspects of the story based on scientific mystery, not fantastical. When Shaeffer is investigating why the earlier crew died, he forms guesses, rules them out, and uses evidence in his surroundings to eventually reach a conclusion just like any scientist would. When he realizes that the gravity from the neutron’s star is pulling the ship to one side rather than the ship itself malfunctioning, it is a key feature in his survival that he understood the effects of gravity and to adjust the ship’s position. Throughout these aspects of the story, Nelven shows that science is a main tool to solve issues and keep the characters alive.
I went into reading the story without a clear idea of what a neutron star was. I heard of them before but was not sure if I should picture a regular bright star or instead something different. As I begun reading, the book presented it like a dangerous object, speaking about it like if it had its own persona, remaining unseen and just being able to be observed by the distortions it causes on its surroundings. Also by giving it a name (BVS-1) and speaking of what happened to the Laskins. In addition, the book gives physical characteristic of the star, such as its age (more than a billion years) and its size (eleven miles across). In particular, when Beowulf and the pupeteer discuss how the star penetrated the hull of the ship, they include a lot of characteristics that really helped me understand what a neutron star was. For example when they mention ‘A mass that large can distort space by its rotation’. Therefore, I do believe that this story does teach science to an extent, since after reading the story I had a much clearer perspective on what a neutron star was.
I would say that Larry Niven’s story does teach the reader about science. There’s a sense of mystery as you’re reading, and it actually reminded me a bit of the Lovecraft story we read earlier, the mystery, the haunting atmosphere around someone’s death. But Niven’s story is much more grounded in scientific reality. The puppeteers who hire the main character seem genuinely worried, and the mysterious force that supposedly penetrated the ship’s hull and killed the first two explorers makes it feel like there might be some otherworldly creature involved. But the pilot who goes exploring stays level-headed and grounded in science.
Throughout the story he keeps returning to the fact that nothing can get through a General Products hull, and even when he personally experiences the force beginning to tear at him, he never spirals into madness or panic. Instead, as he says at one point, “I wasn’t panicking. I was thinking.” That single moment captures his entire approach. He works through the situation logically, eventually figuring out that it’s the tidal forces created by the neutron star, not a monster or supernatural threat, that are ripping him apart. Because he keeps a scientific frame of mind, he realizes exactly how to survive: by moving to the center of the ship, where the tidal forces cancel out.
I think the story teaches the reader that frightening situations can be reduced to scientific realities. There are no mysterious monsters or cosmic horrors in space; things that seem impossible can be broken down and understood if you think clearly and put in the effort. This contrasts strongly with Lovecraft’s perspective, where space is full of horrors beyond human comprehension and where curiosity leads to madness. Niven almost flips that idea on its head by showing that everything, even the seemingly supernatural can be explained through science.
Larry Niven’s story feels like hard science fiction because it makes the reader follow a scientific way of thinking rather than just watching an adventure. The main character does not know what killed the earlier crew, so he pays close attention to what is happening inside his ship. A small moment shows this clearly: the cigarette pack shoots backward and hits the wall hard, while the lighter drops much more gently. He realizes the danger is not a creature or a machine. It is the tidal force of gravity itself, acting differently on different parts of the ship.
The story teaches science by letting the reader learn alongside him. Niven explains neutron stars and tides through the character’s observations and fear, not through a lecture. When the character understands he must get to the center of mass to survive, the reader reaches that idea with him. It shows that science is not just information but a way of noticing patterns and solving problems when everything feels strange and dangerous.
As peers mention above, I agree that Larry Niven’s Neutron Star teaches the audience some science. For example, Niven pauses the story on pages fourteen and fifteen to explain three different types of matter, including normal, degenerate, and a third type. He goes on to discuss astronomy, electrons, explosions, and a star in detail, such as comparing a star’s mass to that of the sun. These two pages provide relevant background information for the audience by teaching scientific information, as Olivia and Nikollas note in their responses. Additionally, his explanations strengthen readers’ trust in his story by grounding it in real science. Overall, the story shows Niven incorporating accurate scientific detail to help readers grasp essential concepts while staying engaged.
Larry Niven’s hard science-fiction work, “Neutron Star”, educates readers on the power of scientific deduction as a scientific frame of mind. Towards the end of the short story, the protagonist, Beowulf, enters into a dialogue with the Puppeteer to discuss his findings. Beowulf uses a series of questions, employing the Socratic method, to reveal his deductions from his mission (and beyond). In a series of questions and answers, we see that gravity played an important role in the previous explorer’s death – it tore her apart. Furthermore, we learn, through a tricky example presented by Beowulf, that the Puppeteer does not understand the concept of a “moon” and “tides”. Using this information, Beowulf can accurately deduce that the Puppeeters live on a world without a moon, showing the power of questioning, deductive reasoning, and understanding things from a scientific frame of mind.
In retaliation, the Puppeteer tries to do the same back to Beowulf, but fails. Without asking a series of questions (and going through a long line of deductive reasoning), he immediately jumps to the conclusion that Beowulf is “molting”. This failed attempt at deduction also shows the power of the scientific frame of mind, by showing the failure that happens when you don’t approach things this way. Without asking more questions (and understanding the subject, human anatomy), the Puppeteer failed to reach the right conclusion. In the end, knowledge (provided through the scientific frame of mind) is power, and Beowulf enriches himself with the frighteningly insightful deduction that the Puppeeters live on a world without a moon. In a hint of the Cold War, the Puppeteer does not have the nukes (knowledge) to balance out Beowulf’s nukes (knowledge derived from the scientific frame of mind).
Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star” exemplifies the characteristics of hard science fiction by utilizing its plot not only to entertain but also to foster a scientific frame of mind in the reader. Rather than treating the neutron star as just an atmospheric setting, Niven builds the entire mystery around it using somewhat real physical principles. One to highlight tidal forces. The key moment occurs when Shaeffer realizes that the previous explorers were not killed by radiation or sabotage, but instead by the intense difference in gravity that stretched their ship and pulverized their bodies. Niven walks the reader through his logic step by step: how gravity increases with proximity, how the pilot had a “blind spot” hiding the approaching danger, and how the ship behaved under acceleration and the x forces. Shaeffer’s conclusion emerges scientifically, through observation, hypothesis, elimination, and inferences from previous knowledge, such as the moon.
In doing so, the story subtly teaches the reader what scientific thinking feels like. It models science, with close attention to detail, but is willing to insert false information to fill in gaps of understanding. The thrill of the story comes from the moments of logic snapping into place, as when Shaeffer experiences the forces on his body towards the star, ultimately a demonstration of tidal forces. Niven turns extreme physics-based science into the engine for the plot, inviting readers to inhabit a mindset where the universe is understandable through reason. This also distinguishes Niven from earlier writers such as Lovecraft. Lovecraft used cosmic forces to emphasize human insignificance, Niven used them to highlight human understanding and science.
I think that it does reflect the idea of “Hard” science fiction since it teaches the reader to think scientifically while at the same time following the story’s mystery. Niven has the narrator go into concepts such as degenerate matter, Chandrasekhar’s Limit, and tidal forces. It also is done in a way that feels like mini-lessons woven throughout the plot. One clear example of this is when the narrator describes how the star’s gravity would tear objects apart by tidal forces, comparing it to “two rocks on the moon” that would drift apart if gravity didn’t hold them together. I think that this moment shows a perfect example of how Niven uses real physics not only to build the world but also to solve the mystery of what killed the earlier crew, encouraging the reader to think like a scientist.
I can tell how seamlessly Niven integrates scientific accuracy into storytelling from the sequence where Shaeffer experiments with objects in the ship to the final explanation of tidal forces. Niven layers real physics throughout so leading readers to think through problems alongside the protagonist. The tone set starting from Shaeffer’s refusal to accept mystery as an answer, as when the X-force starts pulling him apart, he doesn’t resign himself to dying from some unknowable cosmic horror. The background explanations of neutronium formation and Chandrasekhar’s Limit provide real astrophysics context. The blue-shifting of starlight falling into the gravitational well teaches about frequency changes. These aren’t decoration. They’re functional details that make the solution possible. I especially valued how his survival depends entirely on understanding the physics. He positions himself at the ship’s center of mass not through luck but through reasoned analysis of where tidal forces would cancel out. By the conclusion, when Shaeffer explains to the puppeteer how orbital mechanics creates differential gravitational pull using the moon analogy, I realized I’d internalized a genuine physics concept.
Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star” feels like it is trying to teach the reader how to think in a scientific way even if the actual physics are confusing. One moment that really shows this is when Shaeffer notices how small objects in the ship start drifting in strange directions as he falls toward the neutron star. He watches how the lighter and cigarette pack move, and instead of assuming something supernatural, he slowly works out that the force acting on him must be tidal gravity pulling different parts of the ship with different strengths.
I am not very knowledgeable about neutron stars, but the story makes the thinking process feel accessible. It shows how a person can observe what is happening around them, look for patterns, and try to explain them logically. It does not feel like a science lesson. Instead, It feels like trying to understand a problem along with the character.
Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star” teaches not only a set of scientific facts but, more importantly, the mindset of reasoning through evidence under pressure. Niven slips scientific explanation into the narration， such as Beowulf Shaeffer’s discussion of how a neutron star forms and why its gravitational well bends starlight into “a tiny circle which flashed once” when a star passes behind it. Instead of feeling like a lecture, the science becomes part of the puzzle the protagonist must solve. We learn alongside him, absorbing concepts like degenerate matter and extreme gravitational gradients because they are necessary to understand the danger he is in.
But the story teaches a scientific frame of mind even more clearly than it teaches astrophysics. The key moment is when Shaeffer reasons through the physical forces acting on him—testing how a cigarette pack moves, noticing how the ship resists turning, and finally concluding that the deadly “X-force” is simply tidal gravity trying to tear the ship apart. He treats every sensation as data, forms hypotheses, and alters them as new observations arrive. In doing so, the story models scientific thinking as a survival skill: careful observation, logical deduction, and the willingness to revise an explanation when the evidence demands it.
Comparing Niven to Lovecraft
Niven’s Neutron Star paints space as something knowable. Niven seems to understand his writing as an educational source, using the narrative to subtly weave in scientific understandings that readers can learn from. Niven elicits curiosity from readers. Lovecraft seems to do the opposite. Lovecraft is nihilistic in his writing. He doesn’t see space as something understandable by humans. To Lovecraft, space is unknowable and bound to lead to our elimination. In Niven’s story, the aliens and human interact on a personal level. Their power levels, at least by the end of the story, appear relatively similar. Whereas for Lovecraft, aliens represent species who are farer advanced than us, something we have to deeply fear.
Lovecraft writes stories where the universe feels mysterious, threatening, and beyong human understanding, while Niven builds his story around the idea that the unknown can be figured out with logic and observation. In Neutron Star, the danger is frightening but never mystical. Beowulf Shaeffer studies the environment, pays attention to small clues like how the cigarette pack and lighter fall differently, and pieces together the truth through reasoning rather than fear. While Lovecraft’s characters usually collapse when they face the unknown, Niven’s use logic to survive.
Although both authors wrote for the Sci-fi pulp magazines of their eras, they hold starkly contrasting views regarding the universe and human compentence. Through Neutron Star, Niven creates a world that reflects humanity’s optimistic pursuit of space exploration. He believed that humans are competent explorers and had faith in human reasoning. Lovecraft, on the other hand, views a universe of incomprehensible vastness and hostility to humanity. To Lovecraft, humans are insignificant specks, and humanity’s curiosity could reveal truths so overwhelming to us that we “shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light.”
Additionally, the writing style of the two authors differ significantly. Niven writes a science fiction grounded in physics with a clean and witty tone to demonstrate the cosmic optimism. Lovecraft, on the contrary, writes a dense and ornate cosmic horror, underscoring his pessimistic view towards humanity and the cosmos.
Overal, these two texts are very interesting to compare side by side because they essentially reflect the optimistic and pessimistic views in society’s pursuit of unknown knowledge.
Niven’s Neutron Star is completely different from Lovecraft even though they both wrote for the same sci-fi pulp magazine. I think Lovecraft always makes the universe seem terrifying and even said that understanding more of the universe is bad for humans. He believes humans are better off knowing less about he cosmos. Whereas Niven believes something way. Difference, in the reading, everything is defined by science and has some sort of an explanation. Even when complicated things happen, Niven’s text helps us understand it through logic, where’s Lovecraft would’ve believed we’d be better off without an explanation.
Niven and Lovecraft are both very different writers when handling unknown concepts. Niven tries to use actual science to describe the situation that he puts his story in. Refrencing things like gravity, relativity, and the Chandrasekhar limit. Niven creativley limits himself and works with scientific knowledge to write his stories.
Lovecraft on the other hand, does not take scientifics into account in his writing. He thrives on writing incomprehensable monsters which dictate and control the flow of our universe. He explains the unknown as something that humanity is greatful to not know at all.
Artist Statement: Bio
I have always had a personal interest in space and everything related to it, most importantly the curiosity and passion people have for the exploration of it. Even though I don’t consider myself an artist or an artistic person in general, I think a simple, creative project can add another dimension to learning. Through a simple drawing, I hope to capture the simpleness of humans and they’re space in the universe but also the huge amount of curiosity we also contain.
My artwork will be a hand drawn depiction of an astronaut drawing some sort of a mix of celestial objects on a canvas. I’m planning on adding some type of color maybe with colored pencils or watercolor. Although I want the astronaut to be the main focus of the image, I want the extra background space to be intentional and show the vastness of space and how small humans are in comparison.
I don’t really consider myself an artist, but was really drawn to the fact that the Golden Record has the sounds of the world. I am a person that really connects with music, and I feel the feelings of the music. While they may seem like notes that sound together, I can feel the feeling of a song. If somehow this “feeling” cna be transmitted to life outside of our earth, then it might be really worth it to invest into that.
As a kid I always moved a lot. Originally born in Barcelona, I moved to Madrid, then to Toledo, then to Sevilla, then to Madrid and then to Boston. So I have grown used to new places, new experiences, new people and just discovering and exploring. I believe that is the main reason I have always been attracted to that idea, since it has been a fundamental part of my life growing up. Therefore, I want to showcase this in my art piece, trying to evoke the mixed feeling of excitement and nervousness that new experiences produce.
I am an aspiring Elementary educator, which really inspired my choice of art for this project. I wanted to create something I know would encourage curiosity in my future studies. In my time teaching, I have noticed how excited get about space. There is so much to explore, and it generates so much engagement in the classroom. I remember feeling the same way when I was young, but never having the place in school to learn more. Through this board game, I hope to encourage kids to follow their interests, learning in a fun and interactive way.
I’ve always been drawn to simple, visual storytelling like comics, drawings, anything that transforms a small concept into something visible. I’m not a professional artist, but I enjoy creating things that are approachable and nostalgic. Many of my ideas stem from strange late-night thoughts or childhood obsessions, such as mythology, outer space, and old storybooks. This idea felt like a great way to combine those interests.
For my artwork, I’m creating a short, simple comic strip that tells a constellation myth. It won’t be very detailed, just basic drawings and a simple tale. I basically want it to be easy to follow and visually represent the core idea of the narrative. The idea is not to be fancy, but to tell the story in a plain, imaginative manner.
I’ve always liked noticing small things, especially in the sky. Ever since I was young, I’ve enjoyed looking for constellations and asterisms, even if I didn’t always know their names. That habit never really went away. I still find myself staring up at night and trying to trace shapes between the stars.
Art has become a quiet space for me, something I do because it makes me feel calm. My painting of constellations and asterisms comes from that same feeling of looking up and getting lost in the sky for a moment. I’m still learning as I go, but I like taking my time and seeing what comes out on the canvas. It feels good to turn something I’ve always loved into something I can actually make.
I’ve always been curious and interested in astronomy since I was a kid. My parents actually bought me a telescope, so after a few observations, I started to ponder the question in my head: “How big is the universe?” Growing up, after I learned chemistry, I found out that the microscopic world is very much like the universe. You can always keep asking, “What is smaller than that structure?” until we reach a point where contemporary science cannot answer. The project that I did is kindof a combination of the artistic expression of these two questions.
My art project will be a digital drawing that starts with a single flower in a 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, for example, the planets in the solar system, the Milky Way, and the observable universe; other non-focused structures will be briefly drawn using generative AI tools to reduce the workload.
I never grew up playing an instrument or seeing myself as especially musically talented. I also didn’t grow up around a lot of music in general and if so, it would be religious or cultural. Music outside my home culture came later for me, mostly through my older siblings and whatever they were into at the time. By the time I started finding things my own, I was still a kid discovering random Minecraft remixes and early electronic stuff online. This distance made music feel like a world I had to uncover on my own. Every new sound felt like a discovery. I was always digging for something new that I’ve never heard before. That mindset still shapes my creativity today.
For my art piece, I’m turning that instinct into a DJ set built to feel like its own little world. Each shift in sound will invite the listener deeper into that world.
As a kid, I grew up having both my mom and grandmother always in the kitchen making something. As soon as I was old enough, I was my mom’s little helper when it came to baking sweets for parties and other occasions. I wanted to take a topic that has always interested me and combine it with baking as a way to connect a beloved topic with something that brings a warm feeling to many.
As a second-generation Korean American, I grew up immersed in both Korean and American traditions, such as with both lunar and solar calendars. But from being around my family members who do not speak English fluently, I realized that language barriers often prevented them from understanding or relaying information. However, through recent research projects, I have found that graphics can act as supporting tools and can foster closer, more direct conversations with others. Therefore, the short comic strip invites anyone to read and interpret the information on the moon’s phases depicted by Earth’s round shape based on Aristotle’s conclusions.
Planned artwork: My artwork is a short 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. The images can portray the information to the audience without any written words needed.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time figuring out how computers worked, teaching myself how to code around middle school. During high school, I decided I wanted to work with machine learning, since it was taking off around that time. This interest stayed with me into college, and I’m currently majoring in Data Science. I’ve taken a few machine learning classes, but have only done projects involving predicting future data. While my art project is for this class, I also want to see what I can do with machine learning.
Ever since I was a child, I have enjoyed reading works of poetry. In Asian culture, poetry is considered high art; from short poems to long epics, many forms of poetry are remembered and engrained in the minds of children: the 300 Tang poems, for example, are classics that many Asian children learn about and memorize at an early age. Rhymes are powerful. Although it may be “simple” and perhaps not “modern”, rhymes are a fun and catchy way to convey ideas in a memorable way; I love rhymes and want to convey this classic poetic sense.
For my project, I want to show the parallels between the lifespan of a human and of the universe. In the same way the universe went through phases of creation/destruction, I want to discuss how humans have periods of their lives of growth and discomfort. Mainly, I want to write poetry comparing the growth of the universe to the experiences of adolescence into adulthood. I also want to make an interactive website to display the stars and code and make a chart of the universal backdrop with my poetry. I want a timeline of moving moments through the cosmos and to educate on the different universal theories (heliocentricity vs geocentricity) and how it parallels adolescent mindset changes (selfish vs growth) for example. I will take similar ideas as this to reflect how human growth parallels universal growth through code and poetry and visual mediums.
I draw inspiration from the life cycle of stars: their birth in glowing nebulae, their vibrant energy, and their eventual collapse. I imagine these celestial processes as a cosmic city, where each star becomes a building or life within an interconnected community of light. Just as cities grow, transform, and decay, stars follow their own rhythms of creation and destruction, reminding us that growth and loss are universal patterns. My current work explores this idea through a drawingdepicting a star-filled galaxy gradually emerging into a city skyline.
Throughout my childhood, I had always been fascinated by space, as the area where I lived was heavily wooded, and whenever I looked up, I saw countless stars. As I don’t think I am artistically inclined, I decided to make this art project something I am more interested in, storytelling. I’m especially drawn to stories where an ordinary person confronts something vast and has to rethink their existence. This project lets me bring together these interests and imagine a moment where human perspective shifts in a cosmic setting, and have some creative fun while I’m at it.
I do consider myself an artist. I am definitely better with 3D art but I really want to get better at 2D art. Personally I’m able to vividly visualize what I want to make in 3D so it ends up making it hard for me to focus on a single perspective to transpose to 2D. I have done ceramics, woodworking, stained glass, welding, painting, and sketching but I was personally never as good at the 2D art forms. For my sketches, I’m choosing not to use color because I really want to get better at my shading. I also need to remind myself as I draw that I might think something looks wrong but that could be because I’m visualising it from an alternate perspective.
Growing up, I have been interested in Greek stories. I remember spending every last penny to buy new comics of Greek mythology and finish reading all of them in just a few days. In them, I found myself engaging in journeys, magics, and places that felt bigger and brighter than anything in real life. When taking this class and learning about new materials, like celestial sphere and equator, I got reminded of the role of cosmology and astrology in Greek stories and how they both show Gods and Goddesses’ presences and influence the mortal fate. I’m specifically drawn to the connection between myth and science, the way one uses storytelling to make sense of the unknown while the other uses observation and experiments. One of the stories I remember reading was about Atlas – a Titan who has to hold up heaven/sky as a punishment for fighting on the losing side of the Titanomachy. It strikes me the most as it not only teaches a valuable lesson on responsibility and consequences but also reflects some of scientific aspects (such as where Atlas stood or the idea of heaven/sky usually depicted as celestial sphere in arts).
My artwork would probably be a clay sculpture (with colors after it finishes drying if possible). The sculpture will have Atlas in center kneeling on Earth and holding the celestial sphere (with stars and astrology signs on it). I am still figuring out how to add some planets around it. I have been practicing oil and acrylic paintings for 10 years and hopefully this artwork will reflect my skills and understanding of both artistic techniques and Greek cosmology.
I have a long-standing curiosity about maps, stars, and the ways people once understood the world through movement rather than technology. I’m especially drawn to the idea of antipodes, those paired points on Earth that mirror each other across the globe. Much of my work grows out of a fascination with how people once navigated vast oceans by reading the night sky, long before satellites or instruments existed. I’m especially inspired by ancient oceanic navigators like the Polynesians, who read constellations as if they were living companions on the water. In my creative projects, I try to bring these threads together, combining real global geography, antipodal relationships, and the shifting celestial sphere to explore how we orient ourselves in the world.
I have always enjoyed building things using structure and logic. While I spend a lot of time building things in code, I also find immense satisfaction in crafting narratives, which is why I love reading literature and writing. For me, the most exciting part of any subject is making sense of how everything connects. This blend of interests fuels my belief that knowledge, especially complex but general knowledge like astronomy, can be made more accessible and engaging through creative means.
Thus, my artwork project is exactly that. I plan to write a poem that will be presented on an interactive website that I will code. It combines my technical skills with my passion for writing to convey the historical development of our understanding of the universe.
My work often explores the intersections of sports, health, and digital media, but I am equally inspired by the cosmos and its scale. Having lived in Japan, New York, Egypt, and Slovenia, I am drawn to art that reflects movement, connection, and perspective. My artwork will be a technical piece of art, built entirely by coding it. I want it to feel intuitive and playful at the same time. Something that is both fun and engaging to users.
Artist Statement: Inspiration
Despite my lack of artistic ability, I’ve always enjoyed hearing the legends of constellations, which inspired the idea for this comic strip. There’s something fascinating about how ancient people gazed at the same sky we see now and created entire mythologies to explain it. I wanted to try putting one of those stories into a little graphic format that feels straightforward and approachable, especially for someone like me who prefers simplicity. It felt like a great way to integrate a very old legend with a current, casual narrative style that I’m comfortable with.
– Frankly, I’m not quite sure what the exact inspiration behind me starting this social media page was. I think I was really enjoying photography at the time, and wanted to be able to express my creativity on a platform. I didn’t necessarily want people to know about this since I felt this to be extremely personal, the more personal it was the more creative I was able to be. I remember the first picture I shared on this page was of two men on horses drinking coffee, all while on a beach. This was just an extremely new and cool sight to me, and it was the start of my page.
My biggest inspiration for this was my love for writing, and my interest in noticeable patterns in the universe. I enjoy writing fictional stories and I have never written a science fiction so I thought it would be interesting. I also was truly fascinated by the hexagonal shape positioned at Saturns north pole. I was very interested in the idea that it looked artificially made and that modern scientists had no way of explaining why the shape looked the way that it did. I figured why not take my curiosity about this phenomena and give it an answer, what better way to do that than science fiction. My story will most likely follow a team of scientists, or a single scientist on a mission to Saturn to see if its hospitable under the storms, in this story they will find out what the “real” reason behind the hexagonal shape is.
I have always liked the planets in our solar system. The planet that I love the most is saturn because it is so large and its rings are so magestic. I see saturn as a little version of our solar system with a gas giant and rings of rocks around it.
My interest in Greek mythology started in a very unexpected way: by picking up the Percy Jackson series when I was younger. What began as a fun fantasy story quickly turned into a genuine fascination with the world behind the books. I wanted to know who these gods actually were, what the original myths said, and how these ancient stories shaped the world we live in now.
The inspiration behind anything musical will always be my passion for it. I’ve also always been interested in space and how unknown it is. It’s a great opportunity to mix two interests of mine into one and share that.