Other Worlds: Interplanetary Eco-Ethics

Visions of space, governed by scientific knowledge and artistic expression, change as space exploration and astronomical discoveries expand our understanding of the cosmos. The art of Chesley Bonestell (1888–1986) was enormously influential to generations of artists and astronomers. Inspired by viewing Saturn on a visit to San Jose’s Lick Observatory, Bonestell created his first painting in 1905. That painting was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but Bonestell went on to create many more, and to be dubbed the “founder of modern space art.”

The exhibition begins with a discussion about Bonestell’s life and art, and a display of evocative astronomy paintings by Lynette Cook and Don Davis, prominent artists inspired by Bonestell. The exhibition also features an intriguing machine-learning piece by artist and astronomer Jack Madden and stunning astrophotography by members of the Eastbay Astronomical Society, providing a different way of looking at and thinking about space.

In Other Worlds, we consider the trajectory that Bonestell set in motion. Since Bonestell’s time, science has pointed to an interplanetary ecology that highlights our physical and moral entanglement with the universe. The exhibition includes an interactive think tank to discuss the ecological and ethical dimensions of space exploration. How does art reflect, express, or imagine our relationship with and responsibility to other worlds and to our own?