Author Archives: carver462

Astronaut, Scientist, Awe-Inspiring Photographer, Explorer At Heart: What’s Up With Don Pettit?

There are a select few who truly dare to test our limits and explore the fringes of what we know at the risk of their own lives and astronaut Don Pettit is no exception. Not only is he one of … more

There are a select few who truly dare to test our limits and explore the fringes of what we know at the risk of their own lives and astronaut Don Pettit is no exception. Not only is he one of the very few qualified for space travel, but while willingly spending months aways from family and friends aboard the ISS (International Space Station), he did a remarkable job capturing some of his experience to share with the world. I had the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Pettit about his photography, his experience and thoughts on exploration.

You have some amazing photography and you also write poetry. What sparked your interest in these mediums? I’ve been doing photography ever since I was in sixth grade: I had a browning camera that shot 120 film and did all the chemistry for developing and printing it myself so I have been taking pictures ever since I was a little kid. I just love photography and I take pictures wherever I go: it could be a mundane or exciting place and I am always taking pictures most of the time just for me but when you go to an extraordinary place, I feel compelled to share the experience with those that don’t have the opportunity to go. So that is part of the motivation on the pictures. With the poetry, again, I’ve been writing poetry ever since I was a little kid and most of it is pretty awful but it’s ok for me cause I’m the one that gets to read it. This is the first time that I’ve really shared my poetry with folks, and again, I was compelled to because it is another medium to help share the experience and I also think, “how could somebody fly in space and not write poetry?”

Regarding your photography, I read a bit on how you mentioned it’s rather difficult to shoot in space. Were these skills that you developed practicing in your youth, or do you feel that you had to learn like a whole new approach while in space? There are a set of skills that a photographer develops throughout your career where you are kind of one with the camera and the subject that you are going after. Taking pictures in space from a detailed timing point of view is no different from wildlife photography where you might have to set up in a blind for a week and a half to get a picture or a rare bird displaying its feathers for a mating dance or something. It’s no different from a skill level point of view and what is technically required, than figuring out how to set up in the cupola space station and keep all the reflections off of these seven windows from interfering with the shot that you want and figuring out, technically, what the best camera and lens and settings in order to get the pictures you want.

Do you have a particular ritual before you get into the zone regarding shooting? Yeah, what I do is I get in one zone, the creative zone, where it’s like, “I want to get a picture of this subject,” maybe its star trails. And then, “I want to show it like this, and this, and this.” So you have this vision in your mind about what you want to show. Then you get into the cupola, and then you got to switch your mind into technical zone. Where you have to say, “ok, do I see reflections? What are the shutter speeds I want to use? What are the f-stops, which lens is going to be the best? Which camera is going to be the best?” Cause we’ve got quite a few different kinds of cameras, some of them have been on orbit longer than others and the longer they are on orbit the more damaged the CCD sensors get from the cosmic rays. There may be one camera that works really well for high speed photography during daytime with a long focal length lens, and another camera body that’s better for longer exposures for nighttime and they may be both the same [type of] camera and you just have to know your camera equipment well enough to know that, “ok, for nighttime photography, for star trails, I may use this camera body, but for daytime pictures, for this, and this, and this, I’m going to use that camera body.”

If you’re kind of floating in a creative bubble, I find that I make a lot of technical mistakes, which ruin the picture, so I swap back and forth between a technical, logical, gotta make sure everything is following a check list kind of ritual, so that I have everything set technically to photo. Then you have to swap back to the creative zone where you say, “how’s the composition? Is this the subject I want?” And then maybe right in the middle of shooting one subject you get another creative idea, you say, “wow, I want to shift from doing star trails to photographing sprites,” which is this upward directed lightning. So all of a sudden you may start in on star trails and then right in the middle you’d say, “wow, there is an amazing thunderstorm down there, I’m going to set up for sprites,” so you quickly change to another subject.

Is there any particular subject matter that you’ve enjoyed photographing the most? Well particularly the nighttime Earth is one of my specialties and particularly because video cameras are not sensitive enough to record it. Only recently have we had cameras that have sufficient sensitivity and resolution to record somewhat close to what we see out the windows at night. It’s amazing and astronauts have been seeing these views for fifty years and have not been able to adequately convey them to the people of Earth that don’t get a chance to fly into space. So one of the things I wanted to do was capture the dynamics of what happens during orbital nighttime. One motivation is, “let me see if I can’t figure out how to share what goes on in orbital night with those that don’t get to go into space.” The pictures now are pretty spectacular and you put them into these movies where you make these time-lapsed sequences, and it does a pretty decent job of capturing what is going on, but still, just like watching a video of somebody laying on the beach and calling that your vacation, it’s not the same.

You’ve mentioned that you’re a scientist by profession and an explorer at heart. Do you feel that you have a particular, all-encompassing, philosophy regarding exploration? I think when you talk about exploration it is something that has to be tailored to the individual and fortunately human beings are all good about tailoring their own beliefs to exactly what fits themselves. When you just talk about exploration you can read historical accounts of people from Europe who thought it was absolutely ridiculous to get into a sailing boat and try to explore for a new world. In historical hindsight we almost find these kinds of criticisms of exploration whimsical or extremely short sighted but those oppositions, at that point in time for exploration, were written by people who firmly believed you know, “why go over the hill when we have things to do where we are?” And that’s a basic philosophy, I think, of “not to explore.” Then you have someone else that says, “why not go over the hill because it is there. Maybe we’ll find something better than what we have.” What I found is those two philosophies are at odds but they’re complementary and no amount of discussion will change a person from one philosophy to the other. In order to make our society work we need both kinds. In fact, we probably need more people who are situated in, “the here and now, lets make it work where we are located,” cause that’s why we have food to eat, and clothes to wear and things like that. Then you need a small part of your population that says, “what’s over that hill, let me go there to see what I might find.” If everyone where that way I think we’d run out of food. [laughs]

See more of Dr. Pettit’s photography in the gallery below:


During his time in space, Dr. Pettit blogged about his experience here.

10 Art Projects That Will Make You Think Twice About Your “Trash”

If you’ve been to art school, you know that art supplies can get really expensive. Some artists, however have been using a mixture of found materials and garbage instead of traditional ones not only as an inexpensive alternative but as … more

If you’ve been to art school, you know that art supplies can get really expensive. Some artists, however have been using a mixture of found materials and garbage instead of traditional ones not only as an inexpensive alternative but as a medium with a social statement. The following gallery is a collection of pieces from around the world that will make you think twice about what you consider to be trash.

#10. Untitled
What’s cool about this particular piece by self-proclaimed Baltimore hoarder, Donald Edwards is how the pieces of garbage that make up the greater whole may seem like a bit of a reach (for instance, how a cellphone could be a dog ear), but upon looking at the completed piece, the final result is rather remarkable.

#9. Soup
This colorfully curated mandala-esque image of fragmented plastics by Mandy Barker has a particularly interesting use of materials in that being able to observe each individual fragment suggests an entire story of its own.
Photo used from Design Boom.

#8. Timely Emerald Hackberry Moth
The level of detail in the careful selection of broken piano keys, license plates and other found objects so seamlessly integrated into Michelle Stitzlein‘s work is so remarkable you could play “I spy” with the different pieces used.

#7. Filter Rabbit
While at a glance this rabbit sculpture by Tom Deininger appears cuddly and soft to the touch, the fact that it is made out of cigarette butts might change your mind about doing so.
Photo used from American Craft Council.

#6. The Great Indoors
This magnificent installation made out of approximately 15,000 PET bottles by Aurora Robson meticulously crafted is in her words an attempt to “take something negative and try to change the direction that it’s going in and turn it into something positive.”

#5. Thrown to the Wind
This massive 36 foot cyclone sculpture is the master work of Chinese artist Wang Zhiyuan. While the bright culmination of colors pop creating a beautiful sculpture, it simultaneously puts in perspective how much garbage we produce which was part of his inspiration behind the piece.
Photo used from My Modern Met

#4. Oleum
The painstaking detail in the shaping and coloring of these recycled plastics with careful lighting breathe such profound life in to this work by Aurora Robson that one might mistake it as a living microscopic creature.

#3. Night
At a first glance the materials Japanese artist Sayaka Ganz uses look like high grade engineered materials but are rather carefully repurposed plastics artistically inspired by a Shinto influenced philosophy behind her work that “if we value our resources we will waste less.”

#2. Jerry
Zac Freeman‘s junk art collage is particularly impressive in that most of the pieces of garbage used are placed carefully together just as they are to create piece of work that portrays an amazing amount of detail.
Photo used from UMW.

#1. Wild Mood Swings
In essence, junk art illustrates how garbage is often overlooked but can be used for something purposeful. This piece by UK-based artists, Tim Noble and Sue Webster does precisely that figuratively and literally: whats seems to be a mere pile of trash casts mind-blowingly detailed shadows of incredibly life-like people.

The Minimal Art Of Ryan De La Hoz Are Like Mad Libs For The Mind

The mildly-creepy, cartoon-like minimalist artwork of Bay Area-based artist, Ryan De La Hoz is sort of like mad libs for the mind: basic shapes and patterns are put together mostly through cut paper and ink on paper in ways that … more

The mildly-creepy, cartoon-like minimalist artwork of Bay Area-based artist, Ryan De La Hoz is sort of like mad libs for the mind: basic shapes and patterns are put together mostly through cut paper and ink on paper in ways that resemble aspects of the real world but leave much for your mind to fill in the blanks.

Recurring motifs like skeleton hands and witch hats are fun to try to make mental sense of as you discover them popping up in multiple works in strange contexts. Patterned portals to seemingly other dimensions and broken ladders must surely have a deeper meaning right? Or perhaps that’s precisely what Ryan intended… in any case, as a skilled emerging artist with a fun and fresh approach, he is definitely an up-and-comer to keep an eye on.

Ryan has also been creating his own made to order affordable graphic tees, sweatshirts and more as a one man brand called “Cool Try” which features his artwork and designs that capture his sense of humor in a fashionable, artistic way. Several of my favorites are below but be sure to check out the rest of his street wear designs here.



He also has a great Tumblr where he curates amusing finds and gives some insight into his creative process and into the playful mind behind his awesome artwork. In many ways, Ryan is the quintessential emerging artist: by embracing social media, creating cool, affordable street wear and artwork that clearly required skill to make yet doesn’t take itself too seriously, his work and perspective is a breath of fresh air and a lot of fun.

Check out more of Ryan’s artwork on his website and his graphic tees here.

“Visual Dictatorship”: A Manifesto On Destroying The System?

Controversial graffiti artist, Kidult‘s Adbusters-esque, fuck the system antics have been catching the eyes of fashonistas and big brands around the world. With his in your face illegal style, his work definitely has a social critique, but rides the thin … more

Controversial graffiti artist, Kidult‘s Adbusters-esque, fuck the system antics have been catching the eyes of fashonistas and big brands around the world. With his in your face illegal style, his work definitely has a social critique, but rides the thin line between what people perceive to be art and malicious destruction.

In the following video,”Visual Dictatorship,” the juxtaposition of high brand logos with dismal cityscapes is a strong critique of how “civilized” society preoccupies itself.

He continues his visual manifesto with a tour of him destroying the exteriors of high fashion stores, ads, etc. in major cities with his namesake and phrases such as “consume” and “$ is your God.”

Though less witty and artistic than Banksy, “Visual Dictatorship” does have a message that may resonate with youth of today and is perhaps the type of in your face message people need to hear to wake up. Unfortunately, while Kidult boasts of using similar marketing tactics the big brands use, he vehemently defends that he would never be a part of their agenda though he seems to consequently be promoting the brands he attempts to destroy (hence Marc Jacobs turning his vandalism into an opportunity to make a $689 limited edition shirt). What are your thoughts?

See more of Kidult’s work here.

CGI Artist QNQ Crafts A Shinto-Influenced Universe That Blurs The Lines Between Nature & Technology

For Sweedish-born, Kyoto, Japan-based artist, QNQ, there are virtually no boundaries between technology, nature and art: the vast array of mediums utilized from primarily CGI-video to photos, installations, clothing, music and paintings all coalesce into a mind-bending perspective of the … more

For Sweedish-born, Kyoto, Japan-based artist, QNQ, there are virtually no boundaries between technology, nature and art: the vast array of mediums utilized from primarily CGI-video to photos, installations, clothing, music and paintings all coalesce into a mind-bending perspective of the universe where the lines between what we perceive to be artificial intelligence and the consciousness of living beings begin to blur. Drawing philosophical inspiration from animism and nature worship, AUJIK (the collective QNQ is a member of) is purportedly described as a “new age cult” that shares the Shinto belief that everything in nature is animated, even that which we perceive to be artificial or synthetic.

There is a curious belief system behind how AUJIK sees the world: nature is essentially a form of ancient technology with few major distinctions from its more mechanically engineered counterparts. This includes various hierarchies of “primitive” and “refined” technologies with a broad way of perceiving how things can evolve and change like how “a pea could become a ball and then a planet” as explored in “A Forest Within A Forest.” Forget everything you think you know and glimpse unto a wonderfully designed universe that through the seamless blend of ancient philosophies and future technologies very much reflects our possible own.

Learn more about QNQ and the AUJIK collective on his website here.