HAA 177M - Art and Science of the Moon

Jennifer Roberts

Centering on the response of photographers and conceptual artists in the 1970s to the Apollo program, but ranging throughout the world history of artistic engagement with the moon, this experimental course will explore what it might mean to adopt a cosmological (or at least off-world) purview for art history. We are at an urgent crossroads in our relationship to the spaces beyond Earth: the moon is about to be mined and colonized, Mars is not far behind, and it is quite possible that microbial life will soon be found on another body in the Solar System. Why should students of the humanities care about this? How does thinking seriously about the moon as both a subject of and a platform for thought change the way we understand our own planetary identity and our critical commitments on Earth? Topics will include Afrofuturism, exobiology, environmentalism, feminism, and themes such as "dust," "the dark side," "gravity," "gray," "the frontier," and "the overview effect." The reading will include significant scientific content.