SKY Stories: Cosmologists Occupy an Art Space

What's the connection between the personal and the universal? Between art and science? In SKY Stories: Cosmologists Occupy an Art Space, three cosmologists immerse themselves in SKY, a virtual and physical exhibition in ArtCenter's Williamson Gallery. In the following series of three videos, the exhibition's artworks become a portal through which the scientists explore how the sky and other elements in the natural world led to their chosen careers studying the cosmos for truths both scientific and poetic.

"SKY features works of contemporary art and science artifacts challenging provincial stereotypes of what lies above," says Stephen Nowlin, vice president, ArtCenter Exhibitions who conceived the collaboration between NASA/JPL scientists, Caltech Theater Arts Director, Brian Brophy and a team of ArtCenter filmmakers. "SKY Stories becomes a duet in three parts, each astrophysicist's influences, journeys and puzzlements reach harmonies with the surrounding exhibition."

NASA/JPL astrophysicist Alina Kiessling investigates how a childhood dream of looking down into Earth's archaeological history blossomed into an adult career spent looking up to the stars.

NASA/JPL astrophysicist Dida Markovic reveals how her desire to build rockets for space exploration has led her to design space-bound telescopes that will gaze into the deep reaches of the cosmos.

NASA/JPL astrophysicist Agnès Ferté investigates how her intergalactic teenage flights of fancy led her all across the world researching dark energy and the mysteries of the universe.