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).

[RoboMadi]

Sounds like an amazing opportunity.
I'll call for Manassas VA. Team 612 know a lot of people who actually worked on this project and some of our members are currently working with Smithsonian on the follow up projects (locally). We would glad to help in any way possible.

[Madison]

We'll take Seattle, WA.

[Nuttyman54]

Dibs on Moffet Field, though we'd be willing to share w/ 1868 (if that's allowed)!

[Jaine Perotti]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

Dibs on Moffet Field, though we'd be willing to share w/ 1868 (if that's allowed)!

Sharing is absolutely allowed!

I am thinking that where there exist multiple teams in one area, they can all collaborate with their respective schools - in otherwords, they can all meet with the same scientists/engineers to create the artwork. However, I will have to organize this case by case, depending on the response, the proximity of the teams, etc.

I should also add that if you think your team might be interested, please PM me with your mentor(s) name and contact info.

[Richard Wallace]

We'll take St. Louis, MO. Possibly some of the other 17 teams in our area will want to help also.

[tiffany34990]

this sounds really cool. i'm sure Pink will help out in FL.

good luck all on this project.

[Sila741]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

Dibs on Moffet Field, though we'd be willing to share w/ 1868 (if that's allowed)!

This sounds so awsome! We'd love to help. Just let me talk to the rest of the girls about it

[lukevanoort]

I guess there aren't many teams here in NC, so I'll ask mine if we can help. (Who in NC was involved?)

[OZ_341]

We are about 40 minutes from Allentown, PA. Just give us the details and a green light and we will help.

This sounds really fun.

Just PM me when you are ready!!


P.S.
Are you guys coming to Ramp Riot this Year?

[Jaine Perotti]

Some updates and some details:

If you are interested, PM me with the contact info for your mentor(s), as well as the school(s) your team is affiliated with. I, in turn, will put your team's contact info into our database, and you will recieve more information by email as to the details of the project in your area. I am not sure how soon we will be contacting you by email... some of this is a little "fly by the seat of our pants-ish" and we appreciate your patience.

Another thing I want to add is that I can't 100% guarantee that we will be able to get scientists/engineers/technicians to come and make a visit to your team and school. I have not contacted these people yet, and although I imagine that the majority of them will be enthusiastic and willing to help, not everyone may be available. I wanted to contact you (the teams) first because I wanted to make sure that I would be able to tell them who exactly they would be working with, who they would need to contact, and where they would be doing the project. I want to arrange the setup with the teams first so that it will be easy (and less confusing) for the MER people to come in and make the project a success.

Thanks to everyone who has shown interest,
-- Jaine

[Sila741]

One question. What of those teams(like mine) which don't come from any one school? We have representitives from over 6 high schools in the area,many with thier own teams. our official school is simply the only one that didn't already have a team associated with it.

[Jaine Perotti]

Originally Posted by Sila741

One question. What of those teams(like mine) which don't come from any one school? We have representitives from over 6 high schools in the area,many with thier own teams. our official school is simply the only one that didn't already have a team associated with it.

This is not a problem at all. If your team comes from several different high schools, you can "share" the MER contact - perhaps on the day of the project, you could gather kids from all of the schools in one spot, meet with the MER contact, and do your art project all together. I will organize these meetings on a case by case basis, so don't worry! Just give me the main contact info for your team, and things will be just fine.

Also, another question that has been asked of me frequently is what the timeline is for this project. We are hoping to get these projects rolling starting in the fall (after school gets back in session), but whenever each team and respective contact is ready - the meetings and artwork can begin! (again, the timing of this project is case by case) In terms of when the kids' art gets incorperated into the main sculpture, that will probably happen in middle to late winter.

Thanks for your support so far!

-- Jaine

[team_mom]

Our team would be happy to work with the Brookfield, Wisconsin member.

[Kim Masi]

Bobcat Robotics, team 177 is stationed out of South Windsor, CT.

I am really interested in this project, it sounds like such a neat idea!

contact me via pm or you can instant message me.

thanks, Kim