C Bangs

"The Stellar Jay Sun", Science-Fiction Diptych Oil Painting

2018

STATEMENT My work merges science and art in traditional and untraditional mediums. I collaborate with scientists, engineers and curators. Most recently I collaborated with holographer, Dr. Martina Mrongovius, Artistic Director of the HoloCenter in making holograms that will be mounted on a CubeSat and launched next year to test the behavior of holograms in space. Many holographic materials degrade with exposure to UV light, the photopolymer holographic film was chosen for its particular durability. All the sculpture backgrounds feature retro-reflective elements. The CubeSat, named Alpha, combines retro-reflectivity, ChipSats, and a shape-memory alloy deployment mechanism. CubeSat Alpha’s holograms serve as a predecessor to the message plaques onboard extrasolar-exploration probes and solar sails. By reflecting photons back exclusively in the direction they came from, retro-reflectivity ensures that the thrust vector remains exactly parallel to the direction of the incident light. With the ability to regulate thrust built into the physics of the sail material, complex attitude-control systems are no longer required. The theme of the sculptures and panels that became the holograms is the common code for life of DNA. The background panels include paintings of images that echo the sculptures. CubeSat Alpha was designed, integrated, and tested by students of the Space Systems Design Studio at Cornell University. Alpha CubeSat is among the first exhibitions of holography in space, a medium that shows longer-term promise in several roles for interstellar travel. BIOGRAPHY C Bangs art investigates frontier science combined with symbolist figuration from an ecological feminist point of view. Her work is included in public and private collections as well as in books and journals. Public Collections include MoMA & Brooklyn Museum, artist book collections, Library of Congress, NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center, The British Interplanetary Society, New York City College of Technology, Pratt Institute, Cornell University and Pace University. I Am The Cosmos exhibition at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton included her work, Raw Materials from Space and the Orbital Steam Locomotive. Her work has been included in thirteen books and two peer-reviewed journal articles, several magazine articles and art catalogs. Merging art and science, she worked for three summers as a NASA Faculty Fellow; under a NASA grant she investigated holographic interstellar probe message plaques. Her artist/scientist books in collaboration with Greg Matloff are Star Bright? & Biosphere Extension: Solar System Resources for the Earth 1st and 2nd edition, are in the Brooklyn Museum’s Artist Book Collections. Star Bright? Their most recent artist/scientist book collaboration and video was presented on July, 2015 at the 9th International Symposium on the future of Space Exploration organized by the International Academy of Astronautics and il Politecnico di Torino in Italy. Starlight, Starbright: Are Stars Conscious? Curtis Press, 2015 the scientist/artist book investigates consciousness from the point of view of panpsychism both philosophically, historically and scientifically. Both books and accompanying video explore universal consciousness. www.cbangs.com