Honoring Scientists and Engineers with Art

[Jaine Perotti]

Greetings all,

I might have just about the coolest summer job ever. And your team could become involved. Please read this post to find out how you can .

(just keep on truckin' - I know my posts are sometimes exhausting but there are PICTURES in this one, if that helps at all. )

For the past few weeks, I have been working for a local artist named Ellen Griesedieck. She is the wife of renowned race car driver Sam Posey (who is also a sports commentator...he commented on last year's Tour de France). Ellen's latest project is a work of art called the "Wall of America", part of the American Mural Project, which is a VERY large (the finished mural will be 48 feet high and 120 feet long) multimedia collage which is intended to represent a cross section of the American workforce.

The American Mural Project

This is a study of the Mural - keep in mind that the real thing will be 120 feet long and 48 feet high!

CLICK FOR IMAGE

Ellen wants to include a tribute to science and technology professionals around the country. She intends to do this by dedicating a portion of the mural to the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, which was launched in 2003.

I have been hired by Ellen to coordinate this project. Ellen wanted to get kids from all across the country to create robotics related artwork to be included in the Mural as a tribute to all of the scientists, engineers, and technicians who made the Mars Exploration Rover mission successful.

I am going to be contacting these people and matching them with a nearby school district. The scientist/engineer will speak to a group of students at that school, describing to them what their role was in making the mission to Mars successful. Then, the kids will create a work of art which represents those aspects of the mission.

For example, if the person was responsible for designing an instrument which analyzed the composition of Martian rocks, the kids could paint a landscape of the martian surface. Or, if the person was resposible for designing the robot's CPU, they could draw a circuitboard or the lovely patterns found in IC chips (personally, I think many computer parts are very visually appealing and beautiful!).

After we recieve all of the works of art, they will be scanned and transferred on to an abstract sculpture made out of various "space-age-y" materials (such as copper and, hopefully, some actual "space junk" left over from the facilities that manufactured the rovers). The actual sculpture has not been constructed yet, but the study for it has. This is the study for the sculpture:

CLICK FOR IMAGE

CLICK FOR IMAGE

I thought that it would be wonderful if I could contact the FIRST Robotics teams located in the vicinity of the scientists and engineers who were responsible for the mission. These teams would be visited by the scientists/engineers, and would be responsible for leading groups of younger kids (middle school age) in an art project which would be included in the Mural.

So, without further adieu....

The Point - and how you can get your team involved

Below is a list of towns/cities where the companies and individuals who made the Mars Exploration Rovers reside.

Now here is what I ask of you:

If your team is located in or near (within an hour of) any of the following cities, would you be interested in being a part of this project?

City ----------------- State
Birmingham -------- AL
Phoenix ------------- AZ
Scottsdale ---------- AZ
Tucson -------------- AZ
Flagstaff ------------ AZ
Pasadena ----------- CA
Goldstone ---------- CA
Carlsbad ------------ CA
San Diego ---------- CA
Moffet Field -------- CA
Goleta -------------- CA
El Segundo --------- CA
Cottonwood -------- CA
Monrovia ----------- CA
Berkeley ----------- CA
Los Angeles -------- CA
Redlands ----------- CA
Menlo Park --------- CA
Boulder ------------- CO
Lafayette ----------- CO
Littleton ------------ CO
South Windsor ----- CT
Washington --------- DC
Frederica ----------- DE
Cape Canaveral ---- FL
Chicago ------------- IL
Champaign --------- IL
Wheaton ------------ IL
Boston -------------- MA
Cambridge --------- MA
Elkton -------------- MD
Greenbelt ---------- MD
St. Lous ------------ MO
Durham ------------ NC
New Laguna ------- NM
Albuquerque ------- NM
Silver Springs ----- NV
Reno --------------- NV
Plainview ---------- NY
Ithaca -------------- NY
New York ---------- NY
Buffalo ------------- NY
Stony Brook ------- NY
Mason -------------- OH
Cleveland ---------- OH
Columbus ---------- OH
Dayton ------------- OH
Pittsburgh ---------- PA
Hershey ------------ PA
Allentown ---------- PA
Knoxville ----------- TN
Pasadena ----------- TX
College Station ----- TX
Manassas ----------- VA
Hampton ----------- VA
Spokane ------------ WA
Seattle -------------- WA
Brookfield ---------- WI
Fairmont ------------ WV

I look forward to hearing back from some of you. Upon response, I will provide you with the needed information to become involved.

-- Jaine

(Of course, I will not rely solely on this thread to find teams. If nobody comes forward for a location, I will find them and contact the teams myself. However, I felt that before I do all that work, I should ask for volunteers first).