As part of micro courses that will be taking place throughout the semester, Carnegie Mellon faculty will be giving lectures open to the community. Associate Professor, School of Design at Carnegie Mellon, Dylan Vitone will be speaking on “Creating the Moon Ark: The first museum on the moon“.

Abstract:

As one of the four lead members of the Moon Arts group, I will discuss creating an artifact that bridges poetics and technology in the creation of the first cultural payload to go to the moon Set for travel in 2021 the Moon Ark is a multi discipline efferent coming out of Carnegie Mellon.  The Moon Ark is a vessel, elegant and rich in content, that will hold up both physically and conceptually for future discovery on the unforgiving surface of the moon. With close to 9,000 discreet pieces of art I will talk about making a cohesive narrative that organizes many authors, celebrating and amplifying their work in this gift for the moon set to be installed in space in the not so distant future.

The Moon Ark is four distinct chambers that loosely function around four themed locations. There is the Earth Chamber, which is both abstractly and literally about home, the Earth. There is the Metaphor Chamber, which is about connection to others and the elaborate web of technology that allows our connectedness. There is the Moon Chamber, which is about creative endeavors and the beauty that arises from its muse, the moon. Lastly, the Ether Chamber is about what gives life meaning—things beyond what we can prove. The breadth of items included aims to be as inclusive as possible while maintaining a poetic view of human creation and human endeavors at our current moment.  I will discuss some of the components and the elaborate narratives embedded in this first of its kind creation. I will talk high level about what was included and why.